# 2018 0w-20?



## neile300c (Jul 8, 2014)

On the Cruzetalk Facebook page, there is a current conversation, someone has stated that 0w20 is the recommended oil for the 18's. Is that correct? What is different from the 16 and 17's, to cause this to change?


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

My 17 originally had a 0-20 oil cap. For some reason it got swapped for a 5-20 or 30. When it went in for it's first oil change. I'd have to go look.


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## neile300c (Jul 8, 2014)

My 16 has 5w30, and the 17's I have seen have 5w30.


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## ajb62787 (Feb 13, 2018)

neile300c said:


> On the Cruzetalk Facebook page, there is a current conversation, someone has stated that 0w20 is the recommended oil for the 18's. Is that correct? What is different from the 16 and 17's, to cause this to change?


According to the 2018 Cruze Owners Manual, DEXOS recommends 0W-20 and DEXOS 2 (Diesel) recommends 5W-30 (0W-40 in colder climates during winter). Please see pg. 266-267 in the '18 Cruze Owners Manual
https://my.chevrolet.com/content/da.../Cruze/2018-chevrolet-cruze-owners-manual.pdf


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## ajb62787 (Feb 13, 2018)

snowwy66 said:


> My 17 originally had a 0-20 oil cap. For some reason it got swapped for a 5-20 or 30. When it went in for it's first oil change. I'd have to go look.


The '17 Cruze for both Gas and Diesel uses 5W-30. It could be possible the wrong oil car went on your car at time/prior to purchase


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## [email protected] (Nov 12, 2011)

That's weird. Our 16 says 5w-30 and thats what its been running for over a year (amsoil signature series)


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

ajb62787 said:


> The '17 Cruze for both Gas and Diesel uses 5W-30. It could be possible the wrong oil car went on your car at time/prior to purchase


I highly doubt the car was shipped with a bone dry motor. The oil would have been supplied by the manufacture.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

Interesting...

Seems too thin for a turbo motor.

@*XtremeRevolution* you seent this?


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

jblackburn said:


> Interesting...
> 
> Seems too thin for a turbo motor.
> 
> @*XtremeRevolution* you seent this?


Yeah we we were just talking about it over on the Facebook page. It's true. 2018 Cruze Gen2s call for 0W-20 engine oil. 

I don't know what changes were made (if any) to accommodate this lower viscosity. Definitely just another shot at reducing fuel consumption, but has me concerned a bit on tuned engines. 

Honda's 1.5L Turbo also uses a 0W-20 so it's not unprecedented.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

I"m seeing 5 - 30 at temps above 20F. 0 - 30 at temps below 20F. 

Maybe that's the reason my mileage took a hit for the past 3 weeks. Winter and the cold temps finally hit us. 4 weeks late. Now that it's warming back up. Mileage seems to be coming back. So far. But i just fueled up so time will tell. 

I was starting to think time for an oil change at 3500 miles.


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## neile300c (Jul 8, 2014)

The service writer I spoke with at the dealer today had no idea about the 18's requiring 0w20. I wonder if the EPA ratings will change with it.


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## carbon02 (Feb 25, 2011)

I read the pages in the owners manual that was linked here, and it appears to mention both 0W20 and 5W30 . It doesn't seem to differentiate between temperatures. 

that page seemed very confusing.


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## ajb62787 (Feb 13, 2018)

carbon02 said:


> I read the pages in the owners manual that was linked here, and it appears to mention both 0W20 and 5W30 . It doesn't seem to differentiate between temperatures.
> 
> that page seemed very confusing.


I can clear that up for you. The Gas model of the '18 Cruze require 0W-20 as mentioned on the right side of pg. 266 and continue onto left side of Pg. 267 as the Gas Model uses Dexos 1. The Diesel model of the '18 Cruze require 5W-30, which is mentioned under Dexos 2 in the center of Pg. 267. Dexos 2 is not yet approved for use for certain gas models. The difference in temperature for the 0W-20 would be very beneficial for latitudes above 40* North since its effective up to -47*C (-52*F). The benefit for running 0W-20 according to Mobil1 is an increase fuel economy of 0.2-2.3% when switching from a higher viscosity oil to 0W-20

Further clarification of this findings on Dexos 1 use on Gas, Dexos 2 use on Diesel can be found on Pg. 359 of the manual


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## 17Hatch6MT (Dec 28, 2015)

I'd like to know if my late 2016 hatchback (2017 m.y.) can use 0w-20 safely. I think it takes too long to warm up, or at least, for power output at low engine speeds (1200-1500) to become as good as when fully warm. I think maybe oil temperature (viscosity) is the factor.


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## ajb62787 (Feb 13, 2018)

17Hatch6MT said:


> I'd like to know if my late 2016 hatchback (2017 m.y.) can use 0w-20 safely. I think it takes too long to warm up, or at least, for power output at low engine speeds (1200-1500) to become as good as when fully warm. I think maybe oil temperature (viscosity) is the factor.


It could cause the calibrations to mess up if switching from 5W-30 to 0W-20. If you're in a cold climate during winter (below -20*F), you can use 0W-30.


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## farcrybehind13 (Mar 11, 2018)

Just bought a new 2018. My oil cap shows 0w-20


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

17Hatch6MT said:


> I'd like to know if my late 2016 hatchback (2017 m.y.) can use 0w-20 safely. I think it takes too long to warm up, or at least, for power output at low engine speeds (1200-1500) to become as good as when fully warm. I think maybe oil temperature (viscosity) is the factor.


Do you have any downhills???? Mine heats up really fast when going to work as it's a uphill climb on the first leg of the journey. 9 blocks total. But if i go the other way to the freeway.b Downhill. It won't even hit the halfway mark to the freeway. 27 blocks.

Wished i woulda taken a pic of my cap before it's first oil change.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

snowwy66 said:


> Do you have any downhills???? Mine heats up really fast when going to work as it's a uphill climb on the first leg of the journey. 9 blocks total. But if i go the other way to the freeway.b Downhill. It won't even hit the halfway mark to the freeway. 27 blocks.
> 
> Wished i woulda taken a pic of my cap before it's first oil change.


Same. I have heat in a couple blocks at most - 3-5 minutes. Flat/a few uphills around my area. Compared to the Gen 1 Cruzes which took 10-15 mins to make heat, that's awesome for the size of the engine.


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## 17Hatch6MT (Dec 28, 2015)

I don't get heat out of the cabin heater so fast. Don't think it's abnormal what I am getting. Every car I've owned has taken more than 10 miles or so of driving before the throttle response stabilizes into its 'best running' state. I think the oil viscosity has something to do with how long it takes. Not sure.

Could also be partly due to the transmission being slow to warm up.


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## cruze01 (Mar 25, 2011)

Apparently this is a new trend. My second vehicle is a 2017 NISSAN Rogue, it says Full Syn 0-20 ONLY! However, my daughter has a 2015 with the exact same power train and hers says 5-30. I called the dealer about it because I would rather use the 5-30 but they insisted that I had to use the 0-20. After the free oil changes I will most likely use 5-30.....


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## BDCCruze (Jul 12, 2017)

It's interesting that the oil viscosity has changed between the 16/17 and 18 considering the engine, 1.4L (LE2), is the same. I notice the capacity has not changed.

Sometimes a manufacturer changes the required viscosity of oil for a vehicle after the manual is printed. But this information would be provided in a TSB or something similar at the dealer level. I don't find any information like that for this car.

An SAE 20 @ 100c viscosity rating is not usual for smaller displacement turbo's either. GM may have simply done enough testing to feel the lower viscosity oil is still enough to not wear out the engine. Therefore the change is worth the fuel economy gain. GM has always supported a 0W viscosity on these for -20F cold starts.


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## DarylB (Feb 3, 2011)

The ex-wife used to blend & test motor oil. You do not want any 20wt oil! Ford started the push for the 0w20 crap several years ago due to EPA/CAFE mileage points. She used to test after 2-3k miles it's like water and virtually w/o wear protection, especially here in the south.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

DarylB said:


> The ex-wife used to blend & test motor oil. You do not want any 20wt oil! Ford started the push for the 0w20 crap several years ago due to EPA/CAFE mileage points. She used to test after 2-3k miles it's like water and virtually w/o wear protection, especially here in the south.


Times have changed, and so has available oil quality. 0W-20 oils are perfectly safe to use and there are countless oil analysis reports out there to prove it. 

Sent from my BlackBerry PRIV using Tapatalk


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

Dexos didn't exist several years ago. Synthetic options also. 

Everything I"m sure is new and improved. But I"m still sticking with 1 brand gas and 2 brands diesel. I pay attention to the little things that different oils do. There's only 1 brand i haven't tried.


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## coopersmokeypiper (Oct 17, 2017)

Honda’s turbo CRV uses 0w-20.


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## scott r (Dec 4, 2021)

neile300c said:


> On the Cruzetalk Facebook page, there is a current conversation, someone has stated that 0w20 is the recommended oil for the 18's. Is that correct? What is different from the 16 and 17's, to cause this to change?


till 2017 1.6 L 5-30 oil /2018 new motor 1.4 L 0-20 NOTE MY 2012 ACCORD 2.4 0-20 OIL


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

BDCCruze said:


> Sometimes a manufacturer changes the required viscosity of oil for a vehicle after the manual is printed.


Yeah, when they royally screw something up.

The most recent one that doesn't get much attention is Nissan and that Cummins 5.0 V-8 engine sold for a few years in the Titan XD pickups. It had a light-weight oil spec of something like 5W-20 (not exactly certain on that) at launch and then there was a significantly noticeable rash of cam bearing failures with warranty claims. Nissan retroactively changed the oil spec to 10W-30, and owners lost some fuel economy benefit from that. That engine is an undesirable engine from the start, and should be avoided. I can't figure out why Cummins made it.

Another great one that is similar is the 5W-20 oil in Chrysler vehicles, going back to the 3.5 V-6 engines. That's the one where Chrysler retroactively changed what they consider to be "acceptable" oil consumption. An acquaintance of mine owned a Chrysler 300 with that engine that was consuming something like a quart of oil every 1,000 miles, and the dealership told him "That's normal - it's fine."


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Barry Allen said:


> Yeah, when they royally screw something up.
> 
> The most recent one that doesn't get much attention is Nissan and that Cummins 5.0 V-8 engine sold for a few years in the Titan XD pickups. It had a light-weight oil spec of something like 5W-20 (not exactly certain on that) at launch and then there was a significantly noticeable rash of cam bearing failures with warranty claims. Nissan retroactively changed the oil spec to 10W-30, and owners lost some fuel economy benefit from that. That engine is an undesirable engine from the start, and should be avoided. I can't figure out why Cummins made it.


As if its piss-poor (especially for a diesel) fuel economy needed to get any worse. It's pretty obvious to see why FCA went with their own VM 3.0L (which, ironically, was originally being developed as a slightly smaller diesel for the Cadillac CTS) for the 1500 Rams, as opposed to that five liters of absolute trash. Cummins, reportedly, was pretty pissed, and probably shopped it around in retaliation, and Nissan was stupid enough to use it (in a weirdly-sized truck - it's like a 5/8 ton - no less).

My Volt (2017) is spec'd to use 5W-20 per the oil cap/user manual, but the last time I took it in for an oil change (with the rebate, it's basically free) they put in 0W-20. Based on what I could find on the Volt forums, the oil spec changed in 2018 or 2019 and seems to have been retroactive. More than likely it's to help with valvetrain lubrication on cold starts (especially in cold weather) since the engine doesn't see all that much runtime.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

MP81 said:


> 1500 Rams


I never knew it was being considered for a 1500 pickup engine.

I cannot figure out WHY Cummins developed a V-8 engine. They gained nothing from that. An in-line 6 like all their other engines would be ideal.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Barry Allen said:


> I never knew it was being considered for a 1500 pickup engine.
> 
> I cannot figure out WHY Cummins developed a V-8 engine. They gained nothing from that. An in-line 6 like all their other engines would be ideal.


Well, it certainly wasn't by FCA. Cummins made it and just _assumed_ they'd use it, since they use the I6 for the heavy-duty trucks.

The V8s work great in a much higher-output setting, as proven by GM and Ford...but that said, I'm not sure why it didn't translate well into the 5.0L, other than maybe they just don't have the experience with a non-inline setup.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

MP81 said:


> The V8s work great in a much higher-output setting, as proven by GM and Ford...


The Cummins ISB is no slouch. The 6.7 liter version is 400 horsepower - it matches anything Ford or GM offer in a V-8.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Barry Allen said:


> The Cummins ISB is no slouch. The 6.7 liter version is 400 horsepower - it matches anything Ford or GM offer in a V-8.


That it isn't, but, I mean, technically, it doesn't...

Ford's is rated at 475 HP and GM's 445 HP. That's non-negligible, especially when you consider the transmission pairing, especially GM's 10-speed Allison. Those things are like a **** rocket ship.

But that wasn't really my point - GM and Ford do just fine with V8s (the Ford outdoes the Cummins in both HP and torque), but Cummins didn't quite seem to crack it with the 5.0L.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

The ISB also feels like it's pulled straight out of a garbage truck/city bus refinement-wise. 

There were rumors Toyota was going to use the 5.0L Cummins for a while in the Tundra, but I imagine they dumped that idea when it was tons less reliable than their own 5.7. Then again, they partnered with BMW, so idk.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

MP81 said:


> Cummins didn't quite seem to crack it with the 5.0L.


"There's no replacement for displacement."

5 liters compared to 6.7 or 6.6. The results aren't surprising there.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

jblackburn said:


> There were rumors Toyota was going to use the 5.0L Cummins for a while in the Tundra, but I imagine they dumped that idea when it was tons less reliable than their own 5.7.


This is probably a mix of half intuition and half factual statement supported by evidence: We have circled back to a point where the HD gasoline engine options are a better choice than Diesel engines for some users.

In the recent past, Dodge offered the 8.0 V-10 engine as an option in a time when some buyers didn't want a Diesel engine. It was reliable, made serious power and torque, and was a bit thirsty but some users didn't have easy access to Diesel fuel or didn't want the maintenance costs. Now, Ram offers the 6.4 Hemi for the same users. Ford offers the newest 7.3 gasoline V-8 engine.

For Toyota or Nissan customers, they can get the powerful gasoline engine in the trucks. Sure, fuel costs a bit more in the long run, but modern diesel engines are _EXPENSIVE_ with the emissions equipment required. An up-front cost of $10,000 (or close to that) is not unheard of. Well, $10,000 buys a lot of fuel - and you also don't have the headache of random maintenance problems from all the sensors and emissions equipment that can go bad.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

jblackburn said:


> The ISB also feels like it's pulled straight out of a garbage truck/city bus refinement-wise.


[Calvin's dad quote] "It builds character."


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

MP81 said:


> GM's 10-speed Allison


GM builds the transmission themself and pays a few bucks to put the Allison brand on the side.


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## Fireworks234 (Jan 4, 2018)

Barry Allen said:


> GM builds the transmission themself and pays a few bucks to put the Allison brand on the side.


This is a thing that I did not know. Interesting.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Fireworks234 said:


> This is a thing that I did not know. Interesting.


I entirely missed that the HD trucks were upgraded to a 10-speed. Apparently that was in 2019 or 2020 - maybe in 2019 for the 2020 model years. Anyways, I looked it up and it's "Allison" branded, but not made by Allison in Indiana. It makes me wonder if it's a variant of the 10-speed GM/Ford transmission they collaborated on, beefed up to handle Diesel engine levels of torque. Anyways, just because Allison doesn't make it doesn't automatically mean it's bad. Chrysler licenses that ZF 8-speed and makes it themself in Indiana, and it's a fine transmission for most applications.


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## Fireworks234 (Jan 4, 2018)

Barry Allen said:


> I entirely missed that the HD trucks were upgraded to a 10-speed. Apparently that was in 2019 or 2020 - maybe in 2019 for the 2020 model years. Anyways, I looked it up and it's "Allison" branded, but not made by Allison in Indiana. It makes me wonder if it's a variant of the 10-speed GM/Ford transmission they collaborated on, beefed up to handle Diesel engine levels of torque. Anyways, just because Allison doesn't make it doesn't automatically mean it's bad. Chrysler licenses that ZF 8-speed and makes it themself in Indiana, and it's a fine transmission for most applications.


Yeah, not discounting it just found it interesting. For all we know, Allison may have helped design beefier components for the GM/Ford trans to outfit it for the Diesels.


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