Engine Oil.

[bradmax]

I have a 2004 Aveo. What type of engine oil is best to use?

[AveoSS]

How many miles? I use 10/40. It depends on how often u want to change the oil, best oil is synthetic, than semi-synthetic, than convensional. If u change the oil often conventional would be best cose its cheap, if u want to extend ur oil changes longer semi-s, and even longer would be full synthetic. Synthetic offers the best protection but once u use it ur suposed to keep using synthetics, semi is a good compromise, not too expensive and better than conventional. if u live where its cold u can go 10/30.

[Angelus359]

book says 5w 30 for standard use, and 0w 30 if you drive in -20... but I don't know whats really the best


I'm considering on my next oil change getting 0w 30, because it'll be in winter, and in illinois, it DOES drop below -20

Chicago weather is brutal, 95 degrees one day, a week later 5 degrees

2 days ago it was 32 degrees in the morning and 75 in the afternoon

[AveoSS]

Yeah, 5/30 is the factory recomended. I always use 10/40 on my cars, seem to be the best compromise to me.

[Daox]

The factory knows what they're talking about, they designed it after all. Stick to what they say unless you have a real good reason to deviate.

[petrified.rabbit]

i was going to stay out of this thread completely, but daox has a good point.

if 5w-30 is recommended, 10w-40 is pretty thick comparatively. You probably wont see it in arkansas though unless you get cold winters.. (not sure what the aver temp is through the winter). the 40 would be ok in florida or summer, if you get the temperatures really hot, but through 3 seasons of the year, 5w-30 is best.

[Pauls07]

use 5w 30 mobile one syntec. the fully synthetic and with the mobile 1 filter it works wonders. If you have a stick car, you'll notice the difference inbetween shifts. its sooo smooth, like butter

[coonhound]

My 1st change is this week, I'm going with mobil 1

[AveoSS]

The factory knows what they're talking about, they designed it after all. Stick to what they say unless you have a real good reason to deviate.

I disgree, the manufacturer does not always do/choose the best for its products, for example, the original tires are very low quality, brake pads? same thing. Some parts could have been designed with better materials and placement, but for the manufacture 'cost' is the main driving force beheind a product, I can came up with plenty of things that could have been done differently in this car but were not, why? cost of course. I've seen things that made me shake my head and think 'Whos the idiot that design this?' I upgraded from the original wheels and tires to biger aftermarket, the car handles and acelerates better, uses more gas but its way safer to drive... However I will agree with u that weather definetely has a impact, I lived in CA most my life and it was never cold there, therefor I never used anything under 10/ grade, but in other areas, 10/ grade may be too thick. Just wanted to get my point across, 'modified/custom' sometimes is better than 'stock' and 'engineers' somethimes came up with the worst designs.(but not always)

[Daox]

Thats why I said "unless you have a real good reason to deviate."