Placing wrong oil viscosity into the engine

[Alex]

The specs for oil is 5w-30w on the hood of the GrandVitara, Suzuki, SUV, 2010; 4 cyl; automatic tranny; ;4whl dr; I had put in 10w-30w 4 qts and 1 qt of marvel mystry oil to prevent varnish and oxidation in moving parts cam and crank ,values too; however i may have made a very serious mistake, when the mileage is only 47,303 miles, will this damage crank case seals, value lifters, oil pump, and head gaskets?

Topic

[Steven Cummings]

Putting 10W-30 in instead of 5W-30 will not really cause any damage. the 30 weight is the more important one as it has to do with your operating temperature. The 10W is slightly thicker, so your engine will just work a little harder at startup. I wouldn’t do this continuously as it could hurt some hydraulic lifters in the long run.

Short answer: you’re fine.

Edit: you probably don’t need the “mystery fluid.” Our family has never used it and we have some engines with over 200K miles and they look beautiful inside. The biggest thing is proper oil change intervals and a good filter (usually your OE).

[Lorrin Barth]

At operating temperature 5W-30 and 10W-30 are actually the same viscosity.

[Rereonehundred]

Don’t sweat the 5W30 versus 10W30 issue, especially in the Summer months.

However, I wouldn’t take a scientifically formulated engine oil with all sorts of expensive industry approvals and “unbalance” the formulation with some overly advertised stuff called Mystery Oil.

[Chris]

I wouldn’t worry about it, unless it’s a high performance thing with real tight specifications. I don’t know what mystry oil is, but with frequent oil changes with flushes, you probably wouldn’t need additives yet. I’ve got 190,000, 119,000 and 110,000 miles on my cars and they all look fine on the inside. I run 10w-50 where 10w-30 is specified and all three have never missed a beat, it really depends on your climate. For example, 5w-XX would be too thin for my climate.

If you’re really worried, go to your car’s club forum and ask the people there, they will probably be able to advise you better, but it should be fine, as some others here have already pointed out.

[EricTheCarGuy]

I always recommend you use the oil that’s recommended by the manufacturer. They spend a lot of time coming up with that number and it’s a good idea to follow it. Will it cause any harm? It’s hard to say, it depends on your climate. If it did do harm, I’m sure it would take some time to notice. Also, I don’t think you need any additives to prevent buildup. All you really need to do is regular oil changes as the recommended intervals and you should be fine. You might consider posting this question to this tread. I’ll be meeting with some experts at Valvoline to address questions like this in an upcoming video. I think your’s would be a good one to cover. Here’s a link.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/kunena/2-General-Discussion/50923-oil-questions-for-a-valvoline-expert

[Lorrin Barth]

Here’s a good discussion of the differences and similarities of 5W-30 and 10W-30 oil.

http://askville.amazon.com/difference-5W30-10W30-suggest-switch/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=9577992

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