I currently use 5W-30 dino oil in my 2003 2.4L, on about a 3K mile OCI, per the "severe service" schedule, because the car does see some stop-and-go and short trips. Since I live in coastal southern California, I think I might be slightly better off with 10W-30 during the warmer months. Since oil changes are so quick and painless on this car, I have opted for shorter OCIs with dino, rather than double-length OCIs with synthetic oil.

Any comments, recommendations, reactions?

 

id stick with the 5w but go to your local autozone and pick up a bottle of lucas aditive. ad that as replacement of 1 quart and youll be great. its very good stuff and will prolong the life of the engine as well as give added protection and performance. if you dont have an autozone around get a bottle of some stp aditive at walmart or somthing. its not as good as lucas but still better than going with 10w oil IMO.

 

the reason 5w30 is suggested is because of the closer tolerances in the motor. you would be ok running a 10/30 but i would recomend the 5/30 with your 3000 oci. 10/30 tends to hold heat longer and more dirt gets carried to the sufaces that it lubricates. as for additives if your gonna add lucas you might as well just buy a semi-sythetic or a quality synthetic. when i was working as a tech another tech and i did a test with lucas in one of thier display, we spun it at high speed with plain dino oil right next to it in the same case so the speed variable was the same and the lucas slung off of the gears and foamed up worse then with the plain oil.

 

for the first 40k, i changed my oil every thousand miles, and used 5w30 regular oil, and now that im over 40k, i use castrol syntech...