Differnt Oil type

[Andrew Tollison 3]

Does anyone use a different type of oil during the summer than they do during the winter? If so, what kind?

 

[Richard L]

Andrew,

Changing oil to match a specific season has pretty much a dead issue except places that have very exteme temperature swings/



All multigrade oils have viscosity stabilizers to prevent the oil from thickening excessively in the winter and preventing to thin oil in the summer. Synthetic do this even better.



Ford recommends 5W20 which is about as universal as you can get. It works fine in most freezing areas where the vehicle would be required to operate. In extremely severe climates, most owners will use an engine heater.



In the hot Texas summers where I live, the same 5W20 works just fine. If I lived in a hotter area like the deserts of Arizona, Nevada, or eastern California, I would probably switch to 5W30, but I really don't think that would be necessary.



...Rich

 

[2]

Yup, what Rich said. If you start getting near the arctic circle you need to use different stuff but you are a long, long way from there.

 

[Andrew Tollison 3]

thanks for the help. I am changing the oil in my ST and my Explorer this weekend.

 

[Gavin Allan]

My '03 manual says to use 5w30, not 2w20.



I run 5w30 Mobil1 in mine. Change it twice a year, which works out to be about 6,000 miles each time.

 

[TomT]

I have always run 10w30. Never gets that cold down here on the gulf coast.

 

[Johnny O]

The 4.0 is one of the few engines that Ford specifically does not recommend 5w-20 for. 5w-30 is fine anywhere but if you live somplace that's always warm, then 10w-30 will be perfectly okay.

 

[Fred]

Ford probably doesn't recommend 5w20 in the 4.0L because they don't want all the timing chains slapping themselves out before the warranty runs out.