recommended engine oil

Are you burning oil , If yes use 10- 40, I use 5-30.

I would use the "high mileage" type oils in 10-40 weight. They will help keep the oil seals in the motor soft which will keep leaking to a minimum...

So what do this mechanic know that he -believes- you should run such a heavy oil? Is he trying to sell a product he has a lot of that nobody wants? Do you have some heavy oil consumption problem?

Doesn't make any sense. Use the vicosity indicated in the Owner's manual for your anticipated temperature range.

for all toyota owners: Where do u live, and at what temperature, you might use 10W50 oil if u live close to a desert with the temp around 90 deg F all year round.

If you live in an area with temp between 60-85 deg F go with 10W30 or

with temp 20 - 60 deg F or use 5W30 oil

with temp below 30 deg F or freezing use 0W30 synthetic only.

Did you just make this stuff up or what?

I used Mobil1 10w-30 in a high revving Prizm (Corolla) out in the deserts of southern CA, AZ, and NV over a period of 12 yrs and 285k miles. The car is still running great on it's second owner. Oil consumption was about 3,000 miles to a quart when I sold the car. In case you are not familiar, ambient temperatures during the summer months exceed 110 degrees F quite often. The car held only 3 qts of oil and 70 mph equates to about 3,800 RPM.

That's an amazing maintenance success story! A couple of questions: What yeear was that Prizm built? What was your oil change interval? What brand of oil filter? Any major (non-scheduled) maintenance?

Bob J.

In

of

questions:

interval?

This was a 1990 Prizm that I purchased new. 4A-FE 1600cc.

Because of the amount of driving I expected to be doing, the small oil capacity, the high RPM the engine runs at, and the desert heat the car would be exposed to annually ... I chose to use the best and most available oil I could get. I did (myself) all oil services in the 4-5k mile range.

Filters really don't matter (save Fram). The drainback valve seems to be more an issue (because the filter mounted horizontally) than the filtering. With the drainback thing in mind, I ended up with Purolators followed by A/C most of the time. Purolators are always on sale. LOL

Non scheduled "maintenance?" Does that mean unscheduled repairs? The original water pump started leaking at 160,000 and the automatic failed around 185,000. The first replacement water pump puked at

There is a Toyota forum on Yahoo where (after you're accepted) you'll find my photo album which includes a couple of pictures of the Prizm, including an engine picture with the valve cover removed just before I sold the car for a new 2003 Corolla.