What weight of oil do I need for an oil change?

david328ci · Jul 29th, 2004, 02:23 AM

Hi everyone,

This is my very first post. I recently purchased a 1999 Sentra GXE. It's time for an oil change and I was planning on using Valvoline Maxlife because the car has 85,000 miles on it.

I've used the search function, but I can't seem to find what weight oil the car uses. What weight oil is the best for the car?

TIA

black_ser95 · Jul 29th, 2004, 03:05 AM

i used to use 10w 30, but now i use 10w 40, eirhter one is fine

NotAnotherHonda · Jul 29th, 2004, 03:57 AM

i use 10w 40 on my turbo motor, and it works fine. so i figure, if that can be thick enough in my hot ass motor, its def. perfect for yours.

landlord · Jul 29th, 2004, 05:59 AM

depending on where you live, but i think the recomended is 5w30 i use 10w30 as when the engine gets hots my vale guides start to leak.

Hendrix · Jul 29th, 2004, 08:10 AM

I'm using 5w30 with about 130,000 on my engine and no problems. Landlord is correct the manual calls for 5w30.

stealthb14 · Jul 29th, 2004, 10:23 AM

Mobil 1 Full Synthetic 10w30, car has almost 90K miles

stevja1 · Jul 29th, 2004, 05:32 PM

Do you know if the car ran synthetic or regular oil before you bought it? I've heard that if you switch to synthetic after running regular oil for a long time, the seals may start to leak because the detergents in the synthetic oil remove all the grime that has become one with the seals. It probably isn't a big deal with your car though. Mines got almost 112k and I'm running Valvoline 5W-30 Synthetic Blend. Sometimes I switch to the same stuff, but the Quaker State kind.

Pretty much you'll want to run 5W-30 in the winter (if your winters are like northern Utah winters), and 10W-30 in the summer. You would probably be fine with 10W-30 all year round though.

psuLemon · Jul 29th, 2004, 06:10 PM

its true, if you switch to synthetic after a long use of regular motor oil, seals will leak because sythetic will get rid of all the grime.. but then again, which rather you have a motor that last longer and runs better with sythetic and replace a seal here and there or run a regular and loose your motor faster.. i use 10w 30 mobil one

aminidab · Jul 29th, 2004, 07:22 PM

There is an interesting article in the Sept 04 issue of turbo magazine about oil. First off it states the 'W' in oil grades stands for winter, not weight. A 5w30 oil flows like SAE 5 oil at cold temps(winter) and SAE 30 oil at operating temp.

From the FSM the recommended oil for the GA16 is:
5w30 for temps from -20 F or below to 100 F or above
10w30 for temps from 0 F to 100 F plus

The turbo article also recommends increasing the visocity one grade for turbo applications, so 5w40 or 10w40 for the GA16. There's also lots more useful info in the article.
Unfortunatly I can't find Mobil 1 in 10w40, so I'm going to try a blend of 10w30 and 15w50 for my next oil change.

psuLemon · Jul 29th, 2004, 07:26 PM

http://www.sentra.net/tech/garage/en...d%20Lubricants

this is interesting

LIUSPEED · Jul 30th, 2004, 12:32 AM

mobil one full sythetic 10 W 30

Irons · Jul 30th, 2004, 09:19 AM

I run Valvoline 5W-30 Synthetic Blend. The car has 135K on it. No problem with the oil. It's only had real or synth blend it. It gets cold in buffalo and it's never acutally hit 100 where the measure.

david328ci · Jul 30th, 2004, 02:29 PM

Thanks everybody. I think I'll go with the recommended 5w30.

johnand · Aug 1st, 2004, 08:56 AM

I've got almost 200K on mine, and I drive it hard so I use AMSOIL 15W-40 synthetic. I is a Euro spec oil.

PeaNutB13 · Aug 1st, 2004, 08:27 PM

Well down here in florida I use 10w30 maxlife and a half QT of Lucas Oil Stabilizer and I hardly have to add oil ever since I fixed the front seal. In my Civic I use 10w30 SYNTEC and a half QT of LUCAS Synthetic stabilizer. Damn I swear by the Lucas products. We'll see tho' I just ordered my Oil test kit. It's time to get tested.

PeaNutB13