im about to do my second oil change since i got my TL and i am wondering what type of oil all you guys out in this California heat use. im thinking of going 10w-30 mobil 1. Acura recommends 5w-20 tho. iv got 96K miles now

 

What part of CA?

In the typical climate out here, you're fine with nearly anything, even a 40wt.

I've run a straight 30wt synthetic for many miles. I now run Redline 5w-30 which is also a straight 30wt but flows good enough when cold to qualify for a 5w-30.

You can't go wrong with a 5w-10w-30 in Cali.

If you do mostly short trips, the 5w-30 may be better and if you do lots of long trims, 10w-30 might be better.

However, a high quality 5w-30 (not Mobil One) will cover every operating condition in Cali.

It's only in the low quality stuff that you have to worry about the extra VIIs in the 5w-30 shearing.

 

I use 5w-30 all year round- mostly Mobile1 or Castrol Syntech. It's harder finding the 5w-20 on sale and that's a factor for me using the 30wt mostly plus I think the 30wt may be better protection. www.bobistheoilguy.com is the place to go on oil questions like this.

 

Bobistheoilguy was the place to go 2+ years ago. You will be hard pressed to find anyone with any real world experience, only opinions today. Most of the tribologists and engineers left due to the new internet experts that tend to have very loud voices but short on substance.

 

^despite some of the newcomers, I still think bobistheoilguy.com has a lot of good information in it much like the 'Road Rage' articles have good information on this site. The information might be dated, but it is still extremely useful. There has not been quantum leaps in oil technology lately to negate the information there and I haven't found another site as a replacement source.

 

I live in apple valley its near victorville and barstow but im sure you already know that. i mostly do short trips by the way. i never put that into consideration! pure genius

you said (not mobil 1) what is high quality? i want to do what ever i can to keep my baby running. i have no idea what the previous owner did for the first 93K of its life

 

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I've always put dino 5w20 in mine, and I've always waited until <5% on the MID until I changed my oil. This includes multiple trips to the track. I haven't lost any oil, and I've never had problems.

 

Fatfrii has a harsher environment than some of us near the coast. I would definitely go with 30wt in the Summer-either Dino or synthetic. You could probably go with the 20wt for Winter since you have freezing temperatures at night. I follow the MID as well but always change the oil filter on every change despite what the manual says.

 

^
I agree. There's no reason not to change the oil filter for every oil change.

 

I don't do it because I don't like the dry starts. Even though I fill the filter with oil it still takes much longer to get pressure.

When you're using a filter that has tested good to 60,000 miles without being plugged, going 10,000 is no big deal. I occasionally do 3 changes and 15,000 miles.

I guess in my case there's just no reason to change it every time.

 

^
The dry start is only for the initial cranking up of the engine after replacing the oil filter. As you mentioned, pre-filling the oil filter helps, but I don't think you get too much wear-and-tear, either way.

 

I'm sure it's minimal. In fact, the crank has been shown to float in the bearings from residual oil and the rotation, not pressure. It's just my OCD kicking in. In an engine set up looser like my GN, you can hear the rods knocking for a few seconds until pressure comes up. Hearing that sound all these years has made me try and avoid dry starts even though the TL makes no noise after an oil filter change.