I changed to the 0W-20 oil today with a new toyota dealer oem filter. I may be a while to see if the engine comes on smoother and stops at different at the red lights. The engine does seem quieter after a 30 mile ride this evening.

I hope you can find 0w-20 maybe from some toyota dealer not too far away. You should get a little more gas mileage. I read somewhere about one to two mpg after the change. Thats not much but still nice to add to the total.

Any synthetic oil is nice for cold winter starting. That is if you live in a cold climate.

 

Longo Toyota in El Monte has Mobil 1 0w-20. Most other Toyota dealerships have some brand of 0w-20, either Toyota's own brand or NEOS, the Japanese brand. It ranges from $6.70-6.90 a quart.

Costco does not carry it. And I never see it at Walmart.

 

Las Vegas, NV
4545 N. Lamb Blvd.
Suite C
Las Vegas, NV 89115-1822


hope that helps that is the distribution center for amsoil oil. Order it and you can pick up or have them send to you

 

702-644-2060 phone

 

Mobil 1, 5w-20 is at all the Whale-Marts in Southern California for ~$25 per 5 quart jug. The empty container makes a dandy collection vessel to bring your old oil to the Recycling Center.

5w-20 is just fine in this climate.

 

It's an Aktinson Cycle engine design that gets electrically wound-up at the crankshaft with the (VVTi) valve train artificially held open. At around 1,100 RPM the ECM applies fuel/air mixture to the plenum and slams shut the valve train a few milliseconds before the fire is lit.

This sequencing allows for very smooth engagement of the engine while underway. But it produces hella shear forces on whatever oil file happens to be there. It had better be thin and it had better be strong. 10w-30 is too pudgy at cold temps.

 

I ended up finding 0w-20 at a walmart in huntington beach (last 5 quarts actually). Mobil 1 seems to have a search by grade and sure enough the 0w-20 results in a much smaller list of stores but the first one I called on the list had it so I was happy. The search page can be found on their site but it's http://web.sa.mapquest.com/mobil1/?tempset=search.

 

I think we may see more 0W-20 oil in the auto stores and walmart in the future. Reason being I read that 2009 should be a pretty big year for more hybrids to be on the market. Other auto manufactures will be offering hybrid vehicles. That should be interesting to keep up with. The 0W-20 oil seems to work well in the hybrids.

A toyota tech told me the 0W oil has the ability to get up into the valve train faster. My guess he was talking about the engine kicking off and on so much in normal hybrid driving.

 

You can order Toyota brand 0W-20 synthetic oil from any Toyota dealer. I did so at Bob Rohrman Toyota in West Lafayette, Indiana, while visiting my brother earlier this year. It costs <$5 per quart by the case.

McGyver — The valves of the TCH are never all held open. The VVTi valve mechanism can't do this. To start, the ICE is simply turned over by MG1 with all the valves operating normally. When spinning at 1000 rpm (i.e., at idle speed), the fuel and spark are then turned on. If you think about it, you'll see that very little effort is actually needed to spin the ICE under these conditions, since while one piston is compressing the air in its cylinder, the air in another cylinder is simultaneously expanding and pushing against its piston. These two forces act in opposition, and largely cancel out.

Stan

 

Try a Honda dealer.