Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Oil Type

Went to get my oil changed and the guy asked: 10W30 or 5W30

I put in 10W30. The Manual says 5W30.

What now?
Derek

Don't worry about it, especially with summer coming. Just get 5W30 next change.
10W30 is only a tad thicker and won't be a problem.

You really do want 5/30 in it but one time probably won't do any real damage. The weather up there is above freezing by now isn't it? If not, I would consider draining the 10/30 and putting 5/30 in it right away.

The engines in our cars were designed for thinner oil and you could have problems with the thicker stuff. Ford even recommends that 5/20 is appropriate.

What's cheaper? Oil or engine?

Change it out...

If we were getting temperatures below 20 degrees F I would change out. However our temp has ranged from 25 to 80 degrees F and back again over the past 14 days, so I think your safe.

For peace of mind you could always have them drain and refill, w/o new filter, for probably $10. if not less since they should have known the viscosity to use.

10W30 is perfectly fine.

Ran it year round for a few years. The 5W weight is primarily for them to claim higher gas mileage and for quicker starts (oil flow) in cold weather but if you look at the pour points there is not much different between a 5W and 10W in pour points.

I also do not believe the 5W20 protects as well as a ?W30. Again, they need to up the MPG and a lighter weight will do that, they don't care about long term wear after the warranty

I respectfully disagree. I have seen firsthand what the wrong oil can do to our engines. If you have been fortunate enough to not have had trouble, that is great, but I would recommend not taking the risk.

I find it hard to believe that using 10W30 will cause any damage when you live in a mild climate. Could you please give us some first hand proof. The difference we are talking about is the 5W verus the 10W.

Mainly blowing off oil filters in the first few minutes after a cold start. All of the modular engine family have had some problems with this. With the Duratec it seems that the 99 model year seemed to have the greatest problem. It didn't take real cold weather to do it either since it just doesn't get very cold here in Southern California. We usually don't even have frost on the windshield more than about a week out of the year. Almost always if the oil filter blows out, the engine suffers rod bearing damage. I've only seen two Duratecs with this problem, but I've also seen more 4.6 SOHC engines do this than I can remember.

The main thing is that everything on these engines were designed with the thinner oil in mind. It just doesn't have the clearences necessary for heavier oil. This is really critical when the engine is still cold. The 5/30 oil will provide a much higher volume of oil to the lubricated parts much quicker. Warm ip is when the greatest amount of wear happens.

So do what you want with your car, but after seeing some of the damage done from using 10/30 in modern Ford engines, I'll try to keep it out of mine.

Thanks Big Jim for the reply. Now in the morning besides not being able to shift into second I have to worry about losing my oil filter.