Best synthetic oil

[bentjazz]

Hi YWers. If you use synthetic oil in your Yaris, which oil is the best synthetic oil for the price? Project Farm on YouTube performed a synthetic oil competition among the leading brands that was pretty fascinating. I'm leaning towards Pennzoil Ultra Platinum based on its performance and price.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

I've been using Amsoil for years and years. That includes my first Yaris, my Yaris now, and my Scion FR-S. Good for 15k miles or 1 year for our cars, and I've done both kinds of intervals. Never had any issues.

[komichal]

Just get the cheapest one around that complies to your engine requirements.

[bentjazz]

KL, just so happens Amsoil won the Project Farm competition, with Pennzoil Ultra Platinum a very close second. Good choice. Pennzoil UP is a lot cheaper than Amsoil, so I might go that route.

Thanks, komichal.

[ex-x-fire]

I use regular Shell oil, never used a drop. I don't buy into all the hyper synthetic super duper high mileage motor oil they sell.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

KL, just so happens Amsoil won the Project Farm competition, with Pennzoil Ultra Platinum a very close second. Good choice. Pennzoil UP is a lot cheaper than Amsoil, so I might go that route.

Thanks, komichal.

I just looked up the price of the Pennzoil UP. Amazon shows $10.50 a quart, and Napa Auto has it on sale for $6 bucks (was $12).

I get a quart of Amsoil for $10.

I take advantage of Amsoil's oil change interval (have to use their oil filter), so it was every 15k miles (I recently switched Tesla locations, so I will be back to changing it once a year).

Unless I missed it, Pennzoil doesn't say anything about extended oil change intervals. So I would default to 5k miles or 6 months. That would have put me at 3 oil changes before, and 2 oil changes now. So actually I save more money using Amsoil. :thumbup:

[bentjazz]

Useful info, KL. Thanks! :)

[NYC-SE]

I use whatever full synthetic is cheapest and I change oil once a year. For me that is around 6500 miles. I have never done a used oil analysis but based on ones I have seen at BITOG for this engine I would have no reservations going even further distance. The 1NZ-FE is fairly easy on oil, the only concern being the timing chain which can shear down viscosity. Stick to 5W-30 and you shouldn't have a problem. No need to be picky about brand, just stick to a full synthetic. I'm currently running Milesyn SXR that I got for $1.67 a quart on an Amazon sale. Have used Walmart Super Tech also, cheap and good.

[bentjazz]

$1.67/quart? Holy moly. That's quite a find. Thanks for the great info, NYC-SE. Appreciate it.

ex-x-fire, I hear ya. I've put conventional in my 2010 since the day I bought it new, but for the manual I recently acquired used I'm going to do what the previous owner did for it and run full synthetic, henceforth and as long as I have the car (which will be until the wheels fall off). I did notice that in my 2010, the engine had a labored feel the closer I got to the 5,000 mile mark. I've put a good amount of miles on the new used Yaris, and it still feels amazingly smooth. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the oil....

[tmontague]

For OTS oils Pennzoil is a number 1 for me based on extensive UOA's I've run after serious track time and daily driving with mileage upwards of 18k km.

That said, I'm running various Amsoil fluids in my Subaru Outback 3.6R and I am very pleased with it. My yaris track car will see Amsoil signature 0w20 next season and my next car will as well with yearly oil changes.

Don't kid yourself though, Pennzoil is up to the task of heavy track driving and is quite a bit cheaper if you always buy it on sale.

[bentjazz]

tmontague, that's awesome info for this synthetic newbie. Thank you! You guys are great.

[suprf1y]

It's really hard to beat the value of Supertech synthetic. 5L for under $20, and apparently Costco now has the same oil even cheaper.

[tmontague]

^very true. Honestly Toyota engines like the 1nz (I can't speak to the brand new tech ones) are very easy on oil based on many UOA's posted online and from my personal experience. If I wanted to do something good for my engine and i had a Yaris and money was tight inwould opt for Costco or Supertech when it's on sale with factory recommended OCI's It will do better in cold and hot temps than conventional and should lead to less varnish in the engine as well. This way you barely spend more than conventional but it gives you a bit of piece of mind for engine reliability long term.

[komichal]

I am probably too exotic here being from central Europe but just for the record I am using oils like Shell Helix HX8 or Elf Evolution 900NF - their cost is very close to noname brands here so it does not make sense to buy those nonames. 4 liters (4.2 quarts) for 16 USD.