# Perhaps a stupid question re: Oil



## ezq1912 (May 5, 2018)

Story time:

I live in Minnesota, currently in Arizona due to a family emergency. I had my second warranty oil change/tire rotation done in Utah on the way here. 
Once we got here last night, I saw the service receipt and noticed that they put 5 quarts of 5w30 in, although the filler cap says 0w20. 
Is this something I should be concerned about?


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## KillerDad (Jan 25, 2018)

mine takes 5w-30. What year and model is yours


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

The 2016-17 LE2 used 5w-30; the 2018 uses 0w-20 (mostly to comply with CAFE standards).

As long as the 5w-30 is Dexos-1 compliant (which it should be at a dealer), you should be just fine.


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## ezq1912 (May 5, 2018)

It’s a 2018 LT. 
Well now I feel better. Thank you guys.


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## alanl11 (Apr 8, 2018)

ezq1912 said:


> It’s a 2018 LT.
> Well now I feel better. Thank you guys.


IMO I wouldn't run it down more than 30% on your OLM the 18's use 0-20 to help prevent LSPI events, and dealer lil sucks may be Dexos approved if you have a problem but why not try to avoid a problem? 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk


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## llbanks522 (Nov 23, 2017)

ezq1912 said:


> It’s a 2018 LT.
> Well now I feel better. Thank you guys.


Interesting, why did the dealer put in 5w-30? Doesn’t the 18’s manual call for 0w-20? Maybe that’s all they had in their stock at the time? Maybe the tech put in the wrong stuff? Maybe a paperwork error? Wonder if “you” did that doing your own oil changes and cracked piston? Warranty Void??? Just sayin. ?


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## crunch21 (Jul 16, 2018)

llbanks522 said:


> Interesting, why did the dealer put in 5w-30? Doesn’t the 18’s manual call for 0w-20? Maybe that’s all they had in their stock at the time? Maybe the tech put in the wrong stuff? Maybe a paperwork error? Wonder if “you” did that doing your own oil changes and cracked piston? Warranty Void??? Just sayin. 


Can confirm the 2018 hatch i have states 0w-20 on the oil cap, and in the manual, also its clearly the weight of oil in the engine. Amsoil guy states its for CAFE standards which i can see being a thing, though i did read the pistons are redesigned in the 2018 to help with LSPI pison cracking, have no idea if the piston rings need the low weight oil or not. Im in the arizona desert and use the low weight oil.....i would be much more comfortable with a full synthetic 5w-30 but will stick with recommended oil for the time being. My hope is that GM put in the effort to correct the LSPI issues and 0w-20 was part of the equation (though im not convinced)

So long as you dont get silly with mods voiding the warranty all the piston malarky seems to happen well within warranty with the older models (that ive seen) and i have yet to see a 2018 with the issue, though it might be too early.

I will say it was reading 117 degrees today on my way home, car didnt run odd, or rough, the oil seems fine as far as i can tell. Honestly unless you start burning oil, or noticing you need to top off between changes, i cant see putting the 0w-20 in the 17's and older being an issue, probably will clean out some sludge too. I also doubt putting 5w-30 in will do any harm in the new engines...in fact might be a good idea for the road trip. 

Just go back to 0w-20 when you get your next change. Also consider that they just put whatever on the service receipt. You'll be able to tell if its 0w-20 because its impossible to see on the dipstick. I wouldn't worry about it, but i would sick to what they recommend until its proven the new engines dont wreck pistons. I know im holding off on a BNR tune for the time being just in case.


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## alanl11 (Apr 8, 2018)

crunch21 said:


> Can confirm the 2018 hatch i have states 0w-20 on the oil cap, and in the manual, also its clearly the weight of oil in the engine. Amsoil guy states its for CAFE standards which i can see being a thing, though i did read the pistons are redesigned in the 2018 to help with LSPI pison cracking, have no idea if the piston rings need the low weight oil or not. Im in the arizona desert and use the low weight oil.....i would be much more comfortable with a full synthetic 5w-30 but will stick with recommended oil for the time being. My hope is that GM put in the effort to correct the LSPI issues and 0w-20 was part of the equation (though im not convinced)
> 
> So long as you dont get silly with mods voiding the warranty all the piston malarky seems to happen well within warranty with the older models (that ive seen) and i have yet to see a 2018 with the issue, though it might be too early.
> 
> ...


One thing to add. When I got my 18 Sedan and heard about LSPI I started looking into ir hard. The 1 5 Malibu actually has had more issues with LSPI (maybe extra stress from the weight difference). GM put out a service bulletin that the ECM should be reflashed to a new tune when a 1.5 was serviced , and actually sent out an amendment to the owners manual to all customers changing the oil spec cmfrom 5-20 to the now 0-20 recommendation. So I would think the change was heard more to address LSPI rather than CAFE. There were a lot of complaints in the forum that they did this for the Malibu owners and not for Cruze owners 
"Whar we didnt spend enough or don't rate"?

I'm going to stay with the recomended 0-20 oil,
I did tune with BNR (BNR tunes minimize LSP) 
Stay with 91-93 octain, 
Finally I'm going with Aimsoil.

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## crunch21 (Jul 16, 2018)

alanl11 said:


> One thing to add. When I got my 18 Sedan and heard about LSPI I started looking into ir hard. The 1 5 Malibu actually has had more issues with LSPI (maybe extra stress from the weight difference). GM put out a service bulletin that the ECM should be reflashed to a new tune when a 1.5 was serviced , and actually sent out an amendment to the owners manual to all customers changing the oil spec cmfrom 5-20 to the now 0-20 recommendation. So I would think the change was heard more to address LSPI rather than CAFE. There were a lot of complaints in the forum that they did this for the Malibu owners and not for Cruze owners
> "Whar we didnt spend enough or don't rate"?
> 
> I'm going to stay with the recomended 0-20 oil,
> ...


Wish i had a place to change my own oil so i could amsoil. Everytime i gather the willpower to convince myself to not get tuned you come along and cause me to relapse. Still at least want to wait until the engine is properly broken in just in case i got a bad part....

Also i wish 95 octane was closer to me, i only have 91 at standard stations where i live and its usually above 100 degrees. I swear the bouncing sensation accelerating casually is the engine pulling timing for knock...even with 91...though it was 117 yesterday.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

crunch21 said:


> Wish i had a place to change my own oil so i could amsoil. Everytime i gather the willpower to convince myself to not get tuned you come along and cause me to relapse. Still at least want to wait until the engine is properly broken in just in case i got a bad part....


Where are you located?


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

> I swear the bouncing sensation accelerating casually is the engine pulling timing for knock...even with 91...though it was 117 yesterday.


That's exactly what it is, but that sensation isn't LSPI-related.



> M put out a service bulletin that the ECM should be reflashed to a new tune when a 1.5 was serviced , and actually sent out an amendment to the owners manual to all customers changing the oil spec cmfrom 5-20 to the now 0-20 recommendation. So I would think the change was heard more to address LSPI rather than CAFE.


0W-20 doesn't combat LSPI any more than a similarly specced 5W-30. Rather than weight, the resistance to LSPI is just about the formulation of the oil used. I suspect one of the recommendations for the change overall was that there are still some semi-synthetic 5w-20 and 5w-30s out there; 0w-20 is GUARANTEED to be a synthetic oil. 
https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2016-01-2270/

Actually, some tests have been done that show GDI engines that significantly dilute their oil with gasoline (usually done to AVOID LSPI) can actually experience LSPI more frequently when the oil becomes fuel-diluted over mileage. Honda's 1.5T is currently having issues with this. Ford had issues with some of their early EcoBoost motors too.


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## crunch21 (Jul 16, 2018)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Where are you located?


Phoenix. really not interested in even trying until the temps get down to a reasonable 105 and below. Did try to look for DIY oil change places but no luck. Its so easy to do and love being able to fully control what is used....


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

crunch21 said:


> Phoenix. really not interested in even trying until the temps get down to a reasonable 105 and below. Did try to look for DIY oil change places but no luck. Its so easy to do and love being able to fully control what is used....


I know a guy in Mesa that is an AMSOIL dealer that can change your oil for you if you're interested. He can even have it ordered for you. Good friend of mine. Interested? I can give you his contact info. 

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## alanl11 (Apr 8, 2018)

crunch21 said:


> Wish i had a place to change my own oil so i could amsoil. Everytime i gather the willpower to convince myself to not get tuned you come along and cause me to relapse. Still at least want to wait until the engine is properly broken in just in case i got a bad part....
> 
> Also i wish 95 octane was closer to me, i only have 91 at standard stations where i live and its usually above 100 degrees. I swear the bouncing sensation accelerating casually is the engine pulling timing for knock...even with 91...though it was 117 yesterday.


I tuned mine a 7K, If you get a bad part flash back to stock and get it fixed.
BTW Sorry if I'm a bad influence on you LOL


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## nobog (Oct 25, 2011)

Just in case someone didn't check the link from jblackburn above:

Followings were found:

*1) *LSPI events were observed when the engine was operated with a stoichiometric mixture for all the oils tested.

*2)* No clear indication on which SAE oil tested had a stronger influence on LSPI than other oils, either promoting or inhibiting LSPI, because the influences on LSPI of the related oil properties might not be as strong as that of the high gasoline content in the oils, which reached about 6% in the tests. 

*3) *Behavior of LSPI was random in all the tests and a particular LSPI pattern observed in a test was difficult to be reproduced under the same condition.​This suggests that LSPI may be triggered at a complicated condition with contributions from many variable parameters.​ It may be meaningful to characterize the behavior of LSPI with a statistical approach.

In other words - they don't know ….

JK​


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

nobog said:


> Just in case someone didn't check the link from jblackburn above:
> 
> Followings were found:
> 
> ...


Of course they don't know, because they keep testing it with cheap group 3 based oils with poor oxidation stability. Toyota PROVED they could formulate oils to reduce LSPI frequency, and in GM's own test, AMSOIL showed them how to beat it, consistently, for 5 tests in a row.


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