Should I change it again?

Changed the oil for my just purchased 2010 Base A/T, 68K. I'll drive 50-60 miles on work days, mostly flat rural highways and some city. The filter was a Honda, oil unknown, probably dino. Seemed kind of dirty to me. In the future, I'll change the oil when the MM tells me to (or maybe a little sooner).

I changed it to Mobil 1 0W-20 Advanced Fuel Economy, but now am worried about engine noise. I didn't really set the noise of the existing oil in my head prior to the switch. When I started it up I thought it too loud, and I got into the car to get 5-20 Extended Performance from Walmart ASAP.

Stopping by the Kangaroo for a cold one on the way (2%, non-chocolate), I had second thoughts and drove home. It's not LOUD, I've had plenty of loser oil burners in the past so I know what an engine with an oil problem sounds like. This wasn't bad, but I could hear what sounded like valve train noise.

I do want the best gas mileage, but not at the expense of... really anything. It promises 2% improvement, I'd prefer to have a really well protected engine.

Should I change it to regular M1 5W-20, or to M1 5w-20 Extended Performance? I intend to be less neurotic about it once I settle on one or the other.

There was a lot of back and forth about various brands in forums, including Penzoil Platinum and others. I chose M1 because Walmart has it at $22.47 for 5 quarts ($26.47 for the EP), whereas the others were $26 and more...

Any comments? I could treat this as a $30 engine flush and change it again....

 

I don't think you should change it. I can assume you've checked the oil level so I would recommend checking your valve lash.

 

You'd only notice a difference while the engine is cold if there was one at all.

 

Well if it was really bad he'd notice it more than just cold, but ya I doubt it's that bad or else he'd probably have noticed it before haha. Any other suggestions then Lyon?

 

0w20 and 5w20 have roughly the same viscosity when hot. The only real difference should be in the cold viscosity and the additive package, only one of those has a mechanism for increasing valve train noise.

 

OK, I'll leave it. This is my first nice car in a really long time. Just a little nervous. I'll be paying for this for 72 months.

 

Don't volunteer that info.

 

I only used 0w20 during winter as the car was parked outside, thus can't really compare idle noise with 5w20. However, my wife, who is the primary driver, did indicate that 5w20 sounded better compared to when using 0w20 (probably because it was changed out in warmer weather).

 

I highly doubt there is any sound difference at all. Probably more a case of you expecting there to be one so your brain does detect one. Seen many similar cases to this.

I bet I could change your oil back to 5W-20 and the sound will go away. Only thing though I wouldn't change your oil, just tell you I did only.

_

 

Try "STP".