powerslide

I have 79,000 miles on my 2001. I did not want a trailer hitch on mine. These things to me were never made to tow even though the dealer may say it is ok. I have only changed the trans. fluid twice and have not had a problem. We live on flat ground in the South and don`t have to pull throught snow,hills or anything on the road. I have never been {off roading**. I wonder if some of these things could factor in an early trans. failure?

salimshah

0 weight will be thinner than 30 weight, but 0-30 maintains the flow rate within acceptable tolerance when environment is cold or hot. The consistent flow rate is controlled by additives. It is not a 50-50 mix of 0 weight and 30 weight oils. So an ideal 0-30 weight oil should have the flow rate of 30 weight at high-temp and of 0 weight at low temp.

Personally I have stuck with 10-30 weight range [small spread .. less additives] and it covers the temperature range of central Texas.


Salim

powerslide

It looks like Toyota and the big 3 are now recommending 5w-20w or 0w-20w?

Lexmex

Stick with 30, especially given that our RX300s are now much older.

bob2200

I suspect the main reason was to raise the fuel economy numbers (through use of thinner oil).

code58

Bob-I wonder if you could get .1 of a mile to the gallon more by changing from say 30wt to 0-30wt. I don't know, but I have read many times that the actual reason was because a lot of the vehicles now use variable valve timing (both of ours do) and that they want the oil pressure to get to the valve system quickly because it depends on the pressure to operate the VVTiming. My wife's Toyota (and I suspicion many of them do) cranks longer than needed to start (maybe a second and a half) because the ignition is not activated until there is some oil pressure. It bothered me when we got it new until I realized why it did that. Modern engines are fit so much more precisely than they used to be and therefore need thinner oil to get into all the wear surfaces.

lexus114

Doubtful,their just not a strong enough tranmission for the weight,torqe etc.At least where the AWD is concerned anyway.