Which Oil To Use?

[gt88]

I drive a 1997 Corolla with 161,000 on the clock. The car didnt come with the owners book so I am not sure which type of oil grade to use. My mechanic uses Penrite and the car is currently running on Penrite and it drives overrated so I want to stick with Penrite. Penrite HPR10 is 10w-50 - is this too thin for a 11 year old car? Or should I go for HPR15 which is 15w-60?

 

Also what is the oil capacity for a 1997 Corolla Conquest 1.8L?

 

 

Cheers

[Trev]

You can use either in your car but if you can get HPR10 use that before you use the 15, To fill its approx 3.7L

[yakkmeister]

You can use either in your car but if you can get HPR10 use that before you use the 15, To fill its approx 3.7L

 

I agree!

 

In my opinion, Penrite oil is the best on the market.

Remember this is just my opinion! lol

 

As far as oil goes, I think (for a streeter) the startup viscosity is not as important as it's thermal stability. Having said this, I also think you should use the least viscous oil you can reliably run.

If the engine does not burn off the thinner oil or make nasty knocks (meaning it's too thin!) you are safe to use it. Being that the oil is /60 (ie, 10/60 or 15/60) it has a good thermal stability.

Now the number after the / does not actually mean "thermal stability" it is a good indicator.

 

A rule of thumb I use when I decide what to run is that I look for the smallest 'W' with the biggest '/'.

In this instance, I'd take the 10W/60 over the 15W/60 as both share the /60 but the 10W/60 is less viscous when cold meaning it gets flowing quicker - protecting the engine sooner.

If the choices were a 15W/50 and a 10W/30, you'd do better with the added protection of the 15W/50.

 

Catch my drift?

[Budowski]

some extra stuff discussed you might find interesting or helpful. http://www.rollaclub.com/board/?showtopic=22360

 

and another http://www.rollaclub.com/board/?showtopic=22256

 

I recently went against my own advice and put in some 10w/60 valvoline fully synthetic oil and yeh the old 4AC burns the stuff like a hard night on the grog :y:

 

In my case old engine worn internals short of doing an engine rebuild ill be going 20w/50 again.

[yakkmeister]

Yeah - great advice in those threads!

Could be about time someone wrote a guide about it all ...

 

I imagine that would be a pretty hefty article!

[KE30_KE35_KE55]

the oils today are far better quality than anything they had when these cars were new. for usability you can't beat a synthetic or part synthetic.

for a weekend cruiser I would use Std fleet oil.

 

But that is also just my opinion.

[Hiro Protagonist]

I drive a 1997 Corolla with 161,000 on the clock. The car didnt come with the owners book so I am not sure which type of oil grade to use. My mechanic uses Penrite and the car is currently running on Penrite and it drives overrated so I want to stick with Penrite. Penrite HPR10 is 10w-50 - is this too thin for a 11 year old car? Or should I go for HPR15 which is 15w-60?

 

Also what is the oil capacity for a 1997 Corolla Conquest 1.8L?

 

 

Cheers

 

In my '97 Conquest I run normally run 20W50, although I've since moved on to HPR30. The user manual recommends 15W40 as a minimum, 20W40 as normal (from new), after 10-11 years you probably would be looking at a 20W40 as a minimum. It's not a high-revving engine, and they tend to burn oil if you use stuff which is too thin especially at this age (although you've done a lot less ks than mine, almost 300,000k on the clock).

 

And oil capacity is about 3.7L if you put in a new oil filter (which you should always do), a bit less if you're just topping up with the old filter (they never drain fully)