For a number of years now I have been purchasing my oil from Costco as they have had real good offers on for Castrol Titanium Edge 5W/30 typically well less than £20. Well that offer is currently on now at £18.99 plus vat. Seems they have two type in stock in what appears to be identical packaging and only one type is on offer, guess what the one I normally buy wasnt the one I picked up so I paid full wack. Seems the one I usually buy is designed for hybrids but hell does it really matter on a 20 year old engine like mine - I picked up a Toyota recommended oil the dearest not even realising the difference. I dont burn oil at all between the annual services.
Opie recommend Type LL , Edge I bought is M only the price difference, does it matter now? I guess it was evans what one I picked up
Norman
When one considers the cost per mile of oil, it seems a tad daft to worry too much about the price. Any fully synthetic 5w30 should be just fine, though. The main thing is to change it . Either annually or every (and here's where I might be a bit anal) 3,000 miles.
I think Toyota service intervals are too long.
Normanh I am inclined to say no problem.
The oem oil spec. is only a semi a synthetic oil.
As alluded to by C. Oil is cheap. Engines are not.
It depends. It should meet or exceed the specifications. Some oils are formulated differently for a specific applications and most time that formulation will not harm older cars that do not require it. Some oils are specified for DI injected cars that have low ash and so forth and by using the wrong oil it can create long term issues.
However I am in the camp of using the best oil for the money (not the most expensive) that is better suited for my application where the formulation matters.
I have a 2ZZ engine and the wearable part that can affect performance is the intake cam. I want an oil that produces less wear and that requires an abundance of some additives over others. I also want the engine oil to leave behind the least amount of varnish build up because these cars are sensitive to deposits in the VVT circuit which also lubricants the oil tensioner and chain. These components become problematic as the engine ages with increased noise and wear.
Not all oil is created equal as there is some oils that are better than others for the application and depending on your use case.
I too buy my oil from Costco. The Edge LL version is basically the VW group long life oil and the M is BMW grade. The 'M' grade is consistently more expensive. I'm sure either will comfortably exceed requirements for a regular MR2.
The point is the packaging does not make it clear - yeah ones marked LL and the other is M, the price tags are about 8 foot off the ground so immpossible to read. They checked and it appears I have previously purchased LL grade. Its said they will swop it for LL if I return it but whats the point of driving over 20 miles to change it, just beware that they are now stocking 2 grades which are mixed on the same pallet. They have taken the point and said they will seperate the stocks.
Norman
It is all about the ZDDP content or sulphated ash, M spec Edge is 0.8 as SN rated, also the zddp attacks platinum in cats. It is a balance, castrol do 0.8 to 1.31 zddp if you look through there range, just change it every 6k miles or annualy and you will be fine with any of there oils.
I use Castrol 0-40 synthetic and change every year regardless of Mileage.
Last year I did 1,200 miles!
I change at least annually regardless of miles. Used to do it 6 monthly