What weight oil in 94 Camry 4 Cyl

[cbelt3]

Ah, don't be a wimp. Toss 90W in it. Leak problem SOLVED ! :biggrin:

[Jimmypoo]

cbelt3 wrote:
Ah, don't be a wimp. Toss 90W in it. Leak problem SOLVED ! :biggrin:

Screw that -- use four 50W quarts and make it 200W !!

[DRR]

A 15-year old 4 banger? In SoCal?

Whatever clean oil you can find.

[dad@home]

The thinner the oil the less drag on the engine and you get better gas mileage. BUT the thinner oil, especially in older engines, leaks out faster and may not give you enough oil pressure.

If your 16 year old toyota uses oil (either burning or leaking out) putting in thicker oil will help.

Synthetic is a waste in this car. Most preparations have very low viscosity and will improve gas mileage at the cost of increased oil consumption. For a new car synthetics are great.

Since you live in Southern California 15w or 20w should be fine. I wouldn't put in 5w or 10w because you don't need oil that thin. The summer weights 30, 40, 50 would depend on how hard you push your engine. If you tow or spend all day at highway speeds put in the 50 weight oil.

You can safely mix different weight oils but unless you are consuming a lot of oil between changes why bother?

Dad

[Speedy]

And minimize sudden unexpected acceleration.

cbelt3 wrote:
Ah, don't be a wimp. Toss 90W in it. Leak problem SOLVED ! :biggrin:

[davester]

dad@home wrote: If you tow or spend all day at highway speeds put in the 50 weight oil.

There are very few modern cars where 50 weight would make any sense. As said before, go with what the owners manual says.

Also note dad that his car only has 70k miles on it. Despite the age in years, that is not an old engine by any means so changing the oil for that reason would be inappropriate.

[davester]

dad@home wrote: If you tow or spend all day at highway speeds put in the 50 weight oil.

There are very few modern cars where 50 weight would make any sense. As said before, go with what the owners manual says.

Also note dad that his car only has 70k miles on it. Despite the age in years, that is not an old engine by any means so changing the oil for that reason would be inappropriate. Also, to whomever suggested that synthetic was a waste on such a car, that's simply not true. Synthetic is far more resistant to sludge formation than regular oil. One of the things that can destroy an old car engine quicker than anything is sludge formation. Also, don't even think about synthetic blends. Full synthetic is the only way to go.

[DRR]

davester wrote:

Also note dad that his car only has 70k miles on it. Despite the age in years, that is not an old engine by any means so changing the oil for that reason would be inappropriate.

Just because it has 70k miles on it doesn't mean it's not old, especially in a place like Southern California where the time spent idling in traffic is significantly more than in other parts of the country.

My parents in NJ have a 2001 MDX with about 45,000 miles on it. They spend about as much time in their car per day as I do per day on average, and my 2003 already has 107k. I put 40mi on mine almost 5 days a week. They take weeks to put 40 miles on thiers. They maintain it well, but the driving situations are vastly different. Also consider idling probably the worst operating state you can subject a car to.

Miles has always been an horrible indicator of just about anything related to a car. I don't know why people put so much stock into it.

[OWC Jamie]

Manuals aren't necessarily the last word.

My dealer put a oil viscosity sticker on the driver's door because the recommendation in the manual was no longer valid.
'86 and long gone. I don't remember if it was 5-30 no longer recommend the "5" or 10-40 no longer recommend the "40".