Hi,

 

Super-newbie question. If you could help me out, I'm in Rochester, NY, and winters here are cold. The car is a 1988 GL Wagon. What is a good oil recommendation for this winter?

 

Thanks,

 

-Steve

personally, i dont go any lower than 10w30 in the really cold weather - run 10w40 most of the time with no problems. on really cold days it may tick for a moment or two till the oil gets moving good.

Use 10W-30, no thinner. Owner's Manual doesn't recommend 5W-30 for any highway speeds. Just too thin.

A good 10W-30 like they said. i'd say away from the bigger spread oils as they break down faster and have more additives and less base oil.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, a lot of guys run 20W-50 in the summer cause it leaks less, but it causes more harm than good because of increased wear at startup.

 

 

Stay away from "high mileage" motor oils, if you stop using them, like rogaine, the leaks come back twice as bad, which will make your hair fall out.

I run 10w40 year round personally. Chevron is my choice as I get a good price at Costco. It's a very good quality oil for the price.

 

But then it rarely gets much below 25 degrees here.

 

GD

10w30 - owners manual should collaberate what we're all saying as well.

On another oil note, every oil with the dougnut and the star on the back meet minimum requirements, if you don't see both, don't buy that oil. That said, those are the minimums, your name brand oils are going to have more of a space between those minimums and what they are actually at, so after 3000 miles, the good oils, Castrol, Mobile 1 and the like will still be above the minimums where your walmart brand will be just scraping by.

 

 

don't forget to change your filter.

And yet another note (and even for the NEW soobs) the factory interval is 7500 miles for the oil, and 15,000 for the filter (except for the break-in).

 

GD

5w30 here. Thicker oils make my motor tick on startup below freezing. 5w30 oils on awhole will outperform their 10w30 counterparts. Flows better cold and will be the proper viscosity when warm. Why starve your motor on cold winter starts?

 

-Doug

Synthetic 10w-30, best of both worlds.

10w30 non-conventional .

my84hp sedan hated it(the only ea82 soob I ever had that did not like it), but the 88GL you have should take to it at all weather- it has a normal ea82 like most of them. I finally found the tech bulletin recommending no synthetic gear oil in tranny .I learned that very same thing as a quik lube guy years ago for the 87-? range of some vehicles. I knew old soobs were one of them. To get close to synthetic for tranny there are brands that are like half and half to maximize viscosity.

 

its been warm lately here in northeast... kinda freakin me out a little.