Recommended Oil

[albi969]

Hello all,

I am thinking of changing the oil in my 98 corolla 1.6 4a fe engine for the first time,ive had the car for 2 months and intend to run it till it dies.The dealer changed the oil prior to my purchaseing of the vehicle, but more than likely used the cheapest he could find.

What would be the best oil to use and is synthetic suitable ?. I also have some zx1 oil treatment can i use this without detrimental effect ? .

Thanks in advance for any useful information .

ps the car is showing only 38000 miles

Regards

Albi

[Twincam.GTi]

Hi there,

What oil:

Use any decent oil such as Duckhams or Castrol (both these are recomened by Toyota). The grade to use is around 10/40, 15/40, 10/50 or even 5/50 SAE. Do not use 20/50 SAE this is a little too thick for any Overhead Cam engines with their fine oilways etc.

Also I do not recommend you go along with the Toyota milage recomendation of an oil change only every 9000 miles, this is far to long. I don't care how technologically advanced an engine has become if you intend to keep the car a long time i would change oil at least ever 5000 miles.

Oil addatives I don't recommend with a decent/newish engine (Although slaping in something like STP in an old 200,000+ miler British Classic from the 60's is fine ...helped reduce the 'blue smoke' from the oil it burnt as well!).

I have a Toyota Corolla GS 1.6 with 40,000 on the clock and i use a semi synthetic oil such as Duckhams and I change it twice a year or every 3000miles.

Oil and filter is around £20 all in so why do people skimp on an oil change?

Happy Motoring.

[dazenfotn]

I woulden't reccomend this in a 98, but the high milege quaker state (olive oil) :P Brought my corolla back to life. It was siting for 8 months in a field with a for sale sign on it. It was going for $600 but I talked the seller down to only $450. it has 167,000 miles on it, and i had to get two new tires, and I'm picking up an axle tomarow, but other then that it rides like brand new.