If your car says to use 5w-30 oil and you use something else will u ruin it? Whats 10w30 10w40,an 5w30mean!???

Answer 1

The 5W means it is a light-weight (thin) oil. The bigger the number is before the W, the heavier (thicker) the oil is. It does not hurt anything to run a thicker oil. In fact, I run 20W-50 in everything I own. As oil gets hotter, it gets thinner. Now, it is a good idea to run a thicker oil during the hotter months of the summer to keep thinning to a minimum. During the winter months, the oil will not get so hot, so you can run a thinner oil and be safe. Hope I was of some help!

Answer 2

On every bottle of motor oil there is a seal that gives you three pieces of information:

The API service rating
The viscosity grade
"Energy Conserving" indicator (it either is or it isn't)
The API service rating is a two-letter rating that tells you the type of engine the oil is meant for (gasoline or diesel) and the quality level.
The viscosity grade (for example, 5W-30) tells you the oil's thickness, or viscosity. A thin oil has a lower number and flows more easily, while thick oils have a higher number and are more resistant to flow. Water has a very low viscosity -- it is thin and flows easily. Honey has a very high viscosity -- it is thick and gooey.

The standard unit used to measure viscosity is the centistoke (cSt). According to the Automotive and Industrial Lubricants Glossary of Terms:

Viscosity is ordinarily expressed in terms of the time required for a standard quantity of the fluid at a certain temperature to flow through a standard orifice. The higher the value, the more viscous the fluid. Since viscosity varies inversely with temperature, its value is meaningless unless accompanied by the temperature at which it is determined. With petroleum oils, viscosity is now commonly reported in centistokes (cSt), measured at either 40°C or 100 °C (ASTM Method D445 - Kinematic Viscosity).
The centistoke rating is converted into the SAE weight designation using a chart like the one shown on the Superior Lubricants Web site.
Multi-weight oils (such as 10W-30) are a new invention made possible by adding polymers to oil. The polymers allow the oil to have different weights at different temperatures. The first number indicates the viscosity of the oil at a cold temperature, while the second number indicates the viscosity at operating temperature. This page from the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ offers the following very interesting description of how the polymers work:

At cold temperatures, the polymers are coiled up and allow the oil to flow as their low numbers indicate. As the oil warms up, the polymers begin to unwind into long chains that prevent the oil from thinning as much as it normally would. The result is that at 100 degrees C, the oil has thinned only as much as the higher viscosity number indicates. Another way of looking at multi-vis oils is to think of a 20W-50 as a 20 weight oil that will not thin more than a 50 weight would when hot.

Answer 3

You will not hurt your engine from going to the recommended 5w30 to 10w30.The "W" in 5W AND 10W stands for
"winter grade".It is a measure of an oils viscosity(thickness)
when measured at 0 degrees.The lower the number the thinner the oil.5W is thinner than 10W.The second two digit number 30 or 40,is the oils viscosity(thickness)at 212degrees,which is also the boiling point of water.You might have seen a motor oil such as SAE30.This is not a winter grade multi viscosity oil.

Answer 4

I once stuck 5w50 in my car by mistake. It didn't ruin it, but it ran rough.

Here's what it means.

Oil used to come in only 1 grade at a time. So you could buy 5 weight oil. Or 10 weight oil. or 30 weight oil.

But then it became obvious that at different temperatures of operation you need more protection on your engine from friction.

So the oil makers started making oils that acted as a 5 weight oil when cool but a 30 weight oil when hot. Thusly 5w30.

Same story for the rest of those 10w30, etc.
Some really exotic oils are out there. I have seen 0w30(yes I mean zero) and 5w50 also.

Answer 5

only time 10w oil would be a difficulty is in minus 30 diploma climate. And in case you have some milage on the motor vehicle like 50/ 60 thousand i could be making use of 10w/40w oil any way for the greater clearences worn engines have. there's a thermometer and oil Viscosity chart interior the proprietors instruction manual which will lower back up what I reported above.

Answer 6

5-w-30 is what it comes with new ,and no you wont ruin it,10-w-30,is just a little thicker oil,and it wont hurt it any at all,if its still got low miles on it id stay with 5-w-30 for it,you really don't need to go to a thicker oil until it gets a lot of miles on it,all the numbers means is the thickness and viscosity of the oil that's about it,older cars use 10-w-30 and 10-w-40,and so on,its just the different viscosity that the oil has,good luck hope this helps.

Answer 7

depends on the car you drive. for example, if you drive a car that the year is less than 99, it its recomended that you use 5w-30 because its thicker. but if you drive a new car it is recomended to use 10w-40

Answer 8

no, it wont ruin it,but if i were you i would change the oil and filter,then put the kind of oil you want in it,instead of throwing in another weight of oil into what you already have in the engine.

Answer 9

it's better to use what is recommended by the manufacturer, however, it won't "ruin" it to use something else.

The numbers refer to the "weight" of the oil, each is thicker or thinner and some vehicles use certain "weights" better than others

Answer 10

it won't ruin it but you'll want to switch it out and get the right stuff in as soon as possible. go to the store and look on the front of the oil bottles. it says what kind it is right on it