pHEnomIC

Its about time for the winter and its about time for an oil change. It gets below freezing in my area and i heard you should use thicker oil in the winter to help this. I been using standard natural oil. I believe 10w30(could be wrong). Well i have a rebate for some valvoline maxlife, 1 free oil change using their stuff. Should i use a differnt type, maybe 10w40?

Also, do you recommend i switch to synthetic at the time? I have more than 100k miles and feel a little leery about it.

Paul94Z

thicker in the winter? I always thought it was thinner.. like 5 or 0w-30.. its still in the 70s here.. nothing to worry about

PipesTA

Yes, since it's going to be colder, go with a thinner weight. I have been told that if your car didn't come with synthetic then don't put it in. Don't quote me on that. Maybe someone else will chime in but IMO if you haven't been using synthetic then don't use it.

Paul94Z

are you sure you don't have it backwards? you would want a lower "W"inter viscosity for more oil circulation while its cold

Quick96Z

thinner in the winter. The colder it is the thicker your oil gets.

pHEnomIC

ok should i go with 0w-30 or 5w-30. I really don't know which i should try.

PipesTA

Yea, I ment thinner.

Quick96Z

you will be just fine with a 5w30. By the way, in the winter synthetics are great to have. So much engine damage happens on initial cold weather startups (on a 10 below morning after your car has been sitting all night), and synthetics do a much better job of staying a good lubricant while it is really cold out.

WiseguyZ28

Doin a search helped i guess, i just bought some Mobil 1 5w30 full synthetic but i wasn't sure if it was 10w30 or 5w30, they were out of 10w so i just bought the 5w. I guess for winter goin with 5w30 is a smart choice.....or a good mistake. I think i'm gonna go buy some extra oil cuz the store had a coupon in a calendar which is for the mobil 1 oils, buy 3qt's get 3 free.

pHEnomIC

I got a rebate form for valvoline durablend or valvoline maxlife for my next oil. I decided that i am going to switch to synthetic this time (The durablend for now since it's free), should i use 5w30 synthetic or should i just use the 10w30 synthetic? I am just wondering if i need to change the type since its synthetic for the winter.

Do i need to do anything to clean my system out completely to switch to synthetic? I was thinking about putting seafoam in the crankcase a little bit before the change. Do i need to do any kind of cleaning procedure to get all the dino out?

TobyZ28

Using synthetic is fine. No you don't need to clean it out, the first oil change after switching to synthetic will get all the old stuff out. The remnants of the old oil mixing with synthetic are no problem at all. I'm sure a bit of seafoam won't hurt maybe 100mi before you change.

5W30 will be perfect for you. I use Mobil1 5W30 in winter and 10-30 in Summer.

The only "downside" (which really isn't a downside in my opinion) to switching to synthetic is that the synthetic may make existing leaks which could be gummed up in the past with regular oil, more apparent since it'll dissolve and/or leak through. If your engine is in tip top shape switching to synthetic is nothing to worry about. If it's not its a leak you should deal with anyways