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please esplane to me the ways of motor oil

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OBLAMA2009

OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
so i needed oil late at night and i had to buy oil at the grocery store. i got 10w-40 cuz id hear of that one but they had a bunch of other kinds as well with no explanation on packaging about which to choose. if you have a 3 year old car and you live in california what kind are you supposed to get? and what is SAE?
 
What car is it?

If you look at the Owners Manual it will cover what oil you need and what Certifications the oil is required to meet for both warranty and mechanical reasons.

Such as looking for the

API starburst logo

oilgraphic500.jpg


There is also

GF-"x" ratings, right now the latest is GF-5 http://www.gf-5.com/
 
Obvious troll is obvious. (Especially considering that every car made in the last 3 years is going to have the weight written on the cap that you can't remove without seeing)
 
A three year old car that is low on oil? Why'd you need a quart? Burning or leaking? How long since your last oil change?

Bottom line:
If your low enough to matter, (just about) any oil is better than low oil. I know a guy who put Olive oil in his truck (it's all he had available) and drove it straight to the shop and had an oil change done.

If you think about how much a single quart of oil costs, you'll feel better about getting your oil changed before it gets low enough that you have to buy one (I'm guessing that the car has 4-5k miles on since the last oil change).

SAE is the Society of Automotive Engineers. They came up with a list of standards that must be met if you wanna call your oil SAE 10w30, SAE 10w40, etc...

If you look in your owners manual (RTFM), you'll see a section that suggests what oil to use based on what kind of climate you live in and what kind of driving you do. Most newer cars use 5W30 since it runs thinner and takes less energy to produce the required pressure (which increases economy). I think the Hybrid I use at work recommends 0W20.
 
deadken said:
A three year old car that is low on oil? Why'd you need a quart? Burning or leaking? How long since your last oil change?

Bottom line:
If your low enough to matter, (just about) any oil is better than low oil. I know a guy who put Olive oil in his truck (it's all he had available) and drove it straight to the shop and had an oil change done.

If you think about how much a single quart of oil costs, you'll feel better about getting your oil changed before it gets low enough that you have to buy one (I'm guessing that the car has 4-5k miles on since the last oil change).

SAE is the Society of Automotive Engineers. They came up with a list of standards that must be met if you wanna call your oil SAE 10w30, SAE 10w40, etc...

If you look in your owners manual (RTFM), you'll see a section that suggests what oil to use based on what kind of climate you live in and what kind of driving you do. Most newer cars use 5W30 since it runs thinner and takes less energy to produce the required pressure (which increases economy). I think the Hybrid I use at work recommends 0W20.
Click to expand...

thanks for the info you guys, i should have looked in the manual, i didnt even think of that. i dont usually have to deal with my own car problems and i was in a hurry to do other things at the time (yeah i know now i should have been more careful about the car)


basically when i was parking the car at costco i ran over one of those concrete things and it put a hole in an oil pan on the undernearth of the car and most of the oil leaked out. i didnt realize this had happened at the time, i didnt even know the oil was leaking until i got a really brief light and beep. lets say i drove it for say 10 miles under these conditions, do you think it will be ok? its in the shop right now and it was driving ok (no funny noises that i know of and no smoking etc...)
 
The light and beep indicated a low oil pressure condition (which was caused by a low oil level condition). If you didn't drive it long / hard (high revs, towing something, etc) with that light on, you'll likely be fine being that you haven't had any other symptoms (loud engine noise, etc..). Being that you corrected the low oil condition (albeit temporarily, by adding oil) there should have been no harm while the level was full again. The fact that you used the word 'brief' in your description of the light / buzzer goes a long way in my assumptions here.

BTW: It might help to think as oil weights like the specifications of a wireless network device. You have to make it to meet certain specs if you wanna call it 802.11A, different specs to call it 802.11B, different spec to call it 802.11G, etc...

As soon as I read the thread title, inside my head, I heard Ricky Ricardo saying: Ohhh Lucy, you've got some esplaining to do!
 
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