My wfe had the oil and filter changed in our Camry by a non-Toyota dealer who used 5w30 Mobile 1, not 5w20 as I had asked my wife to request. We live in SW TN where the clmate is generally moderate - occasionally hits 0 degrees. The car is garaged and is very rarely driven when the operating temperture does not reach full temp. What, if any, problems will the higher viscsity oil cause?
frugal_bill

 

OMG, what can I say, what can I say...

NONE??

 

It will cut your gas mileage by about 0.5%. Next time if you are going to pay the premium for synthetic oil get the 0W-20 grade. You don't even need synthetic to meet the specs for 5W-20.

 

I would go ahead and use the 5W oil till the next oil change. You can buy your own oil and filter and take it somewhere to pay labor for changing your oil. We use Walmart here during the winter months if we need a oil change. I still prefer buying my own oil and filter then having them change it. I do buy my filters at the toyota dealer. That's unless you can find a purolator pure-one filter in your city.

When I switched to 0W-20 mobil one when I owned the '07 TCH, I got a jump of 2 mpg. It was during part of the summer with no AC. I was getting 50 mpg combined back then and the 2 mpg improvement would be about .04% gain for me.

No worry with the 0 degrees starting with synthetic oil. That's the main thing it was first designed for by Mobil oil. It was first used as a 5W oil for the military to start large generators in Alaska I think that was in the late 70's. Later Mobile put it out for automotive used. It worked well except some engines had some consumption problems as they were designed for a thicker oil.

Mobile came out later with a 10W which was better for the engines of the day. As time went on they found ways to increase the film strength of the synthetic and today's 0W has as much film strength as the 5W.

The advantage of the 0W-20 oil is that it can reach the valve train quicker at first morning startup.

Some worry about the 0W not holding up during the summer. Well it hits 105 some weeks out here in the new mexico desert. I have never had a problem and the toyota tech says he has never seen a problem with using 0W oil.

 

That is a hell of a welcome to a person's 1st post over some concerns they have.

To the original poster, in the rest of the world, Toyota uses 5W-30 or 10W-30 oil in their cars. The USA CAFE requirements have them using 0W-20 or 5W-20 here as a fuel saving measure. The engines are built with a close enough tolerence that the thinner oils are capable of keeping the engine lubricated well enough and they do provide for quicker engine oiling on startup.

Either way, your engine will be fine until the next oil change.