Oil Change - Replace Oil after a Week?

Dylan

Dylan

Member
This is something I have wondered about and thought I would ask the community:

Would there be any benefit to replacing your motor oil with compatible, yet inexpensive oil for maybe a couple days and then replace that with the normal oil you would use?

For me I always use Mobil-1 5W-30 full synthetic high mileage. But I wondered if running some inexpensive oil through the engine for a day or week would have any benefit to "cleaning" the residual oil that is certainly left from a standard, one-time oil change? I know this may sound ridiculous, or a waste of some money...but i thought I would inquire. Please advise!
 
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Funny I see this. I just did my oil change. I put in 0W20 (I have been for about 3 years) and I haven't noticed anything, but then again, I changed to this for better cold protection. Having that said, the factory does call for 5W30, then Toyota changed or authorized dealers to use 5W-20. Newer GRFEs are allowed 0W-20 (correct me if I'm wrong). Anyway, it shouldn't, but it is starting to bug me to put int what the factory calls for. I've been jonesing to buy a jug of Mobile1 (what I use) but I know that will be a big waste of time/money.

To answer your question, (kinda relates to me) go ahead if it makes you feel better, but I sincerely doubt it will be of any benefit that you speak of (residual dirty oil).

Want a clean engine?
change oil every 5k
use TopTier Gas (I use Exxon)
put in an occasional fuel injector/engine cleaner
 
Depends on what "inexpensive" means to you and how much sleep you're losing.

Also, are you trying to drain sludge out of a neglected motor? Then yeah, run a few short OCI's with cheap oil to clean it out.

If you're really itching for a reading and/or internet oil expert opinions, go read/post this on bobistheoilguy.com
 
The only time I would do that is if I put cheap oil in with an additive (trans fluid, engine flush etc) then ran it and drained it. I can't see how using a cheap oil alone would do anything beneficial, but I would certainly use cheaper oil if I was doing a 500 mile/1000 mile flush with some form of additive in the oil.
 
Dylan said:
This is something I have wondered about and thought I would ask the community:

Would there be any benefit to replacing your motor oil with compatible, yet inexpensive oil for maybe a couple days and then replace that with the normal oil you would use?

For me I always use Mobil-1 5W-30 full synthetic high mileage. But I wondered if running some inexpensive oil through the engine for a day or week would have any benefit to "cleaning" the residual oil that is certainly left from a standard, one-time oil change? I know this may sound ridiculous, or a waste of some money...but i thought I would inquire. Please advise!
Click to expand...

I did this a year ago. I ran Napa oil for an hour or so with an engine flush in it and then drained it out. Overall things were pretty clean (no sludge) but the oil had turned black after that amount of time. Since then whenever I change synthetic oil every 4000 miles its only marginally brown.
 
My .02 are that unless there's a clear known issue you're trying to resolve, that's a waste of resources - time and environmental. Our engines run properly for hundreds of thousands of miles when maintained correctly. Even if the oil were free, I wouldn't want to bother opening my crank-case any more frequently than necessary. And although I am not an environmental expert, I know that although the oil is "recycled," it's still costing us something in terms of our environment along the way.
 
If the engine is a known quantity to you and has been getting scheduled oil changes then it would be a waste of time IMO. If it is a recent purchase and you want to set a baseline because you don't know the history then go for it.
 
CookieRoe said:
Funny I see this. I just did my oil change. I put in 0W20 (I have been for about 3 years) and I haven't noticed anything, but then again, I changed to this for better cold protection. Having that said, the factory does call for 5W30, then Toyota changed or authorized dealers to use 5W-20. Newer GRFEs are allowed 0W-20 (correct me if I'm wrong). Anyway, it shouldn't, but it is starting to bug me to put int what the factory calls for. I've been jonesing to buy a jug of Mobile1 (what I use) but I know that will be a big waste of time/money.

To answer your question, (kinda relates to me) go ahead if it makes you feel better, but I sincerely doubt it will be of any benefit that you speak of (residual dirty oil).

Want a clean engine?
change oil every 5k
use TopTier Gas (I use Exxon)
put in an occasional fuel injector/engine cleaner
Click to expand...

This. Having been in the car business for a while, this is what keeps a motor clean. I've seen first hand.

I always run mobil 1 5W30, change every 5k miles. Nothing but Shell, or Chevron if I can't find a shell in a new area. Only from newish, well maintained and clean fuel stations that shouldn't have a 50 year old tank rusting in the ground. And I run a can of berrymans B12 through the tank every 6 months or so. Keeps it very clean.

For cleaning out an old motor, I've always had success with the old school tricks, even on some of my Toyota projects. Drain a quart of whatever is in it, dirty or clean. Replace it with a quart of Dexron III and run the motor at IDLE for about 8-10 minutes and then change the oil and filter. Do that with clean oil, and watch after ten minutes of idling that clean new oil will be black lol.
 
Even the cheapest of oils available have specs above what the owners manual states to use (oil tech has gotten better over the years), so I would run whatever you put in for a full run. Curious, what did you use?
 
Dylan said:
This is something I have wondered about and thought I would ask the community:

Would there be any benefit to replacing your motor oil with compatible, yet inexpensive oil for maybe a couple days and then replace that with the normal oil you would use?

For me I always use Mobil-1 5W-30 full synthetic high mileage. But I wondered if running some inexpensive oil through the engine for a day or week would have any benefit to "cleaning" the residual oil that is certainly left from a standard, one-time oil change? I know this may sound ridiculous, or a waste of some money...but i thought I would inquire. Please advise!
Click to expand...

Seems to me you would accomplish nothing except have residual cheap oil in your engine. Mobil 1 will clean your engine very well during your normal change interval. If you feel you have sludge or something in your engine then I would shorten my normal drain interval 50% for one or two cycles.
 
I think it might do some harm, it could cause material that is in the cheaper oil like a different type detergent, this could cause damage to bearings and also start corrosion.
I drained the factory oil from my 08 runner, went with Mobil 5/30 and never looked back.
 
Thanks for all the replies!
I don't think my engine has sludge or anything along those lines, just was curious about doing this. My oil has always been a golden brown when draining, never black or sludgy, so I will keep going with my normal routine.
 
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