Couple of Corolla T-Sport questions!

Status
Not open for further replies.
GSF and ECP both say 5W30.

But Opie suggests 5W40 for a Corolla with the 2ZZ-GE, as well as the Celica and Elise with the same engine.

Some forums I have looked at suggested that either would be fine, but Toyota say 5W30 and Lotus say 5W40.

I'm just looking through technical PDF's...

e; Service manual says 5W30. But forums are recommending 5W40 which is what Lotus recommend... Might go with 5W40 as it is a little thicker.
 
Last edited:
Not sure why you wouldn't just go with what Toyota recommend?

Ring up your Toyota dealer and get a quote for an oil topup - will tell you what spec and also what manufacturer they currently recommend (E.g Audi/vw is castrol).

Same engine or not, your car is not a lotus, and Toyota no doubt have done enough study to decide that 5w30 is the ideal spec.
 
The oils those websites show up like ECP, OPIE etc are not accurate, they always come up with oils that are far too thin and way off original OEM grade for my car. I would chuck in 5/40, its fully synthetic and is the middle ground, I also use the Shell Helix Ultra which is a nice oil and good value when bought from the like of ECP.

Put in too thin an oil and engine will sound noisy and tappety. If your feeling a bit of shopping fever, try an ester based oil.
 
lemonade said:
The oils those websites show up like ECP, OPIE etc are not accurate, they always come up with oils that are far too thin and way off original OEM grade for my car.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, both ECP and Opie suggest the correct grade for my car. For Acme's Corolla, the fact that 2 different sites suggest different oils, and internet opinion (and indeed lotus using the same engine) suggest that maybe the recommended oil changed at some point.

The easiest way would just be to ring a Toyota dealer for an oil top up quote and see what the current spec is. It may be that the original manufacturer spec was 5w30, but that Opie's suggestion of 5w40 is now the correct spec.

Manufacturers can and do revise oil recommendations as a result of feedback from real world experience (i.e. once the cars are actually in use, rather than just the design stage), based on number of engine failures over a certain number of cars / expected mileage.
 
Last edited:
Armageus said:
For what it's worth, both ECP and Opie suggest the correct grade for my car. For Acme's Corolla, the fact that 2 different sites suggest different oils, and internet opinion (and indeed lotus using the same engine) suggest that maybe the recommended oil changed at some point.

The easiest way would just be to ring a Toyota dealer for an oil top up quote and see what the current spec is. It may be that the original manufacturer spec was 5w30, but that Opie's suggestion of 5w40 is now the correct spec.

Manufacturers can and do revise oil recommendations as a result of feedback from real world experience (i.e. once the cars are actually in use, rather than just the design stage), based on number of engine failures over a certain number of cars / expected mileage.
Click to expand...

They do revise them, but the problem with that is they don't really consider older cars properly or every single engine which can have different characteristics, for example with Honda, they have revised their oil grades several times over last decade it went from 5/30 to 0/30 and now they have a new 0/20 (which hasn't become mainstream yet), and they apply this to every model for whatever reason regardless of whether it is actually suitable for the car. My car original grade is 10/40, i rang up a Honda dealer once to find out the price of oil and they were going to sell me 5/30, which is too thin and I know these engines become tappety at thin oil. Plus on older cars or higher mileage cars its better to use thick oil for wear protection.

My guess on why Toyota and Lotus have different grade recommendation is probably because Toyota are after fuel economy which works better with thinner oil and Lotus are thinking more of wear protection and they only have that one engine.
 
The engine in the lotus is slightly different to in the tsport - it has different map, air intake and exhaust, so may run under slightly difference conditions (eg hotter?) so requires a different grade of oil
 
Fair enough, 5/30 still should be fine on that, the EP3 Civic's I know of have that grade put in, the FN2 with the same K20 engine also had revised grade of 0/30, so that old an engine will be fine. But if the car is high mileage I personally would put slightly thicker oil.
 
Incorrect spec oil and placebo performance oil filter arrived! :D

r4Izgu9.jpg

Clutch has started slipping badly today, have had a word with my mechanic about getting a replacement in.
 
I'm guessing the extra 1litre was given free, that's how i got mine, comes in handy pouch to stick in boot as spare/emergency oil. Can't imagine 1.8 needing more than 5 litres of oil in sump! Should be 4.4l max.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom