10w30 and cold weather

Going to be driving to Kentucky (from New Orleans, LA) next month.. Only
staying for 1 or 2 days.. BUT .. In those two days, the weather forecast is
lows in the 10's .. Chances are we'll leave early morning.. Should I get my
oil changed to something better suited for cold weather? Or should 10w30 do
fine?

FWIW, it's a '96 Civic, about 18,000 miles on it.

--
-Chris

http://www.ChrisGarcia.com <- My Homepage
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/cars/ <- *NEW* My cars
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i am in NO and have been for a long time.. i have seen the temp. go down
to 12 degrees and 15 degrees, and such... not often, but it has
happened.. all this time i was using 10-30 or 10-40 in my car.. i nor
anyone i know would have removed the oil from their car for the couple
of days that it gets this cold here.... so youi just being in Ken. for
two days should not be a problem....

 

Read your owner's manual for the oil recommendation for the car and
the temperature conditions.

 

I just looked at the little oil weight vs temp chart... 10w30 is what it
recommends for cold temperatures anyways.. at least i think that's what
it's trying to say ... the line looks like this:

<=======10w30====10w40=======>

where the other ones clearly cut off at a certain temp and go up.

Just going a little off topic a little here, are you really from New
Orleans? or just say that cause no one knows where Metairie/Kenner/etc
is? I'm technically from Metairie. I got tired of people asking me
where that was, so i just "rounded off" to New Orleans.

--
-Chris

http://www.ChrisGarcia.com <- My Homepage
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/cars/ <- *NEW* My cars
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/dogs/ <- *Sort-of NEW* My dogs
http://starwars.chrisgarcia.com/ <- Centerpoint Station, the
"ghost-town" of the Star Wars Universe!

 

In 1 or 2 days, you're not going to cause enough damange to your engine to
make it worth changing it to something thinner, unless you were planning on
changing to something thinner anyway. Good 10w-30 oil should not have
problems flowing in those temperatures though. Overall, go with what your
owner's manual recommends.

A 7-year-old car only has 18K miles on it? Damn!

Cheers,

Pete

 

In the 10's this time of year? It may drop to the 30's or 40'sF but no where
near the 10's....

 

one or two days? Don't worry about it.

 

I always use Mobil1 15W50 on my 95 civic since day 1 and go snowboarding
every weekend. Every Sunday morning the engine starts at temperatures
around 10-20F. Cranking speed is not slow and runs fine cold. There is
piston slap though, absent during summer.

Take the trip, no problem for a couple really cold starts, even with dino
(?) 10W30. But make sure your battery is in good shape, check fluids and
tires.

 

"BillW" <> decided to join the conversation on 27 Oct
2003 with message

Not this time of year, no... I'm going there for Thanksgiving though...
Last year I went, the morning we left it was somewhere near 16 w/ a wind
chill factor of 12.

--
-Chris

http://www.ChrisGarcia.com <- My Homepage
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/cars/ <- *NEW* My cars
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/dogs/ <- *Sort-of NEW* My dogs
http://starwars.chrisgarcia.com/ <- Centerpoint Station, the "ghost-town"
of the Star Wars Universe!

 

FYI... your engine does not know what a wind chill factor is. ;-)

 

I know! Good find, eh? It was my Grandpa's car.. He just turned 89, and
is unfortunately becoming mentally unable to drive. My wife and I needed
a second car to advance in our careers (I couldn't take a mgmt position
at my job because I had to have very flexible hours to pick her up from
work etc). SO, I got the car from him.

The car is in great shape. All the rubber parts (timing belt, drive
belts, tires) except the hoses needed to be replaced because of age and
lack of use.. I'm going to try to get a new set of tires before this trip
to KY. It was COVERED in pine sap, like their other car. I took some
rubbing alcohol and took all of it off. Unfortunately, it left permanent
stains in the clearcoat from the sap staying there for 1-7 years.

Aside from the spots, it's a great car though.

--
-Chris

http://www.ChrisGarcia.com <- My Homepage
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/cars/ <- *NEW* My cars
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/dogs/ <- *Sort-of NEW* My dogs
http://starwars.chrisgarcia.com/ <- Centerpoint Station, the "ghost-
town" of the Star Wars Universe!

 

When checking or replacing the tires, check the condition and inflation
pressure of the spare tire as well. I.e. make sure that it is usable
as a spare tire.

You may want to go through the service records (with the owner's manual
open to the maintenance schedule) and see what else may need to be done
if (a) there is no documentation that something needed was done, or (b)
it was done too long ago (either time or mileage).

 

That's really unusual. I live far north of Kentucky in Columbus,
Ohio, and we often play touch football on Thanksgiving day. 16
degrees would NOT cause a problem with 10W30, and it's very unlikely
that you'll see temperatures below 20 this year, anyway. Possible,
yes. Likely, NO.

Ron

 

10w-<anything> is cold weather oil. You don't need to do anything.

 

We are in Pennsylvania and use 10w30 all year around, my 94 Plymouth Voyager
has 94K miles and 9 1/2 years old.

Hai

 

I'm well aware of that.. 16 == "in the 10's" though


--
-Chris

http://www.ChrisGarcia.com <- My Homepage
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/cars/ <- *NEW* My cars
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/dogs/ <- *Sort-of NEW* My dogs
http://starwars.chrisgarcia.com/ <- Centerpoint Station, the
"ghost-town" of the Star Wars Universe!

 

(Timothy J. Lee) decided to join the conversation on
27 Oct 2003 with message

Oh, the records are very well kept.. I think everything was done based on
mileage (it's had the 15k inspection done) .. and not time.. the tires
have a good amt of tread on them, but they're slightly dry rotted..
they'll still be good for a long time though.

--
-Chris

http://www.ChrisGarcia.com <- My Homepage
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/cars/ <- *NEW* My cars
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/dogs/ <- *Sort-of NEW* My dogs
http://starwars.chrisgarcia.com/ <- Centerpoint Station, the "ghost-
town" of the Star Wars Universe!

 

Yep, Smilin' Pete is correct. For just a couple days, 10W30 is fine
.... even if you were heading farther north it would be OK. If you were
staying for a whole season and due for an oil change anyway, 5W30
would be better.

--- Bror Jace

 

You should worry about the battery instead of the oil.

 

(Patrick) decided to join the conversation on 27 Oct
2003 with message

Really? Do tell. The battery is fairly new. (maybe last 2 years? i'll have
to check the service records)

--
-Chris

http://www.ChrisGarcia.com <- My Homepage
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/cars/ <- *NEW* My cars
http://www.chrisgarcia.com/dogs/ <- *Sort-of NEW* My dogs
http://starwars.chrisgarcia.com/ <- Centerpoint Station, the "ghost-town"
of the Star Wars Universe!