If you but oil for the 80 from Toyota they are recommending a much thinner grade than the original. Does that mean we can all start putting thinner oil in?
NO and that is a definite NO with very good reason!
There appears to be a rationalisation of stock holding at Toyota dealerships in Spain and I do not see the UK being any different.
The oil they (Toyota) recommend for the 80 is quite thin anyway at 10/30 or 10/40 which is freely available, it is also common knowledge that as an engine wears then tolerances increase and you can move up a grade.
Toyota used to keep a full range of oils, 0/30, 5/30, 10/30. 10/40 15/40.
This was recently reduced to 5/30 and 10/40 and this was all that was left in the Toyota dealership near me in Spain, it also seems that to rationalise even further the 0/30 for everything is on the way! So back track a few years and a customer came in complaining of a ticking noise from his Toyota truck D-4D, it sounded like a tappet or a valve seat was loose? I asked when it was last serviced,and he proudly announced only the previous week by a Toyota dealership, he produced the paperwork as evidence. Looking through the receipt I noticed the engine had been filled with 10/40 oil, there is a not exactly small sticker in red and black right on top of the rocker cover clearly stating ONLY 15/40 oil to be used.
There was no noise when he took it in but heard it the moment he turned the key when collecting the vehicle, he switched off and queried with the service manager, he declared it was nothing and it was normal. The noise continued and Toyota kept fobbing him off, until he finally brought it to me.
Now I did not just go there and complain, before I did I checked valve clearances, leaking injector seals, and everything I could to locate the noise, a chat with another mechanic pointed out that one of the noises can be attributed to a small amount of oil being held in the crosshatch on the cylinders, if thin oil was used it could pass the scraper ring, the thicker oil stopped this from happening. The thinner oil caused the diesel equivalent to a petrol engine 'pinking', a pre detonation of hot oil on the cylinder walls. I did query this theory as the noise was there cold or hot.
Myself and the owner with the truck returned to the dealership, my Spanish being a little more than the customers, the customer spoke none so that don't mean much!
Having the LC for a few years and in general purchased most of my own parts from their parts department, it was not unusual that the service manager would be doing double duty and would serve me so a friendship had been struck up. When I queried this error the answer was a shrug of the shoulders and an apology, Toyota were happy that it was 'unlikely' to cause damage! Not happy with this we purchased a new OE filter and went to the local BP and put the 15/40 oil, changed the lot and started up, no tick and a new customer.
Manufacturers (including Toyota) rarely specify just the ONE oil for their engines but the D-D4 seems (well in Spain) to be the exception.
The customer returned to the UK a few months ago but his remaining time here he never had another problem. This IMO is a simple cost cutting exercise by Toyota, and if an engine went bang how would the average guy in the street be able to attribute it to the wrong oil. Going back to the service manager I got the impression he was under some form of duress to come up with a viable excuse for the mechanic ignoring the sticker, even the mechanic who I knew just pointed me in the direction of the managers office, everyone very non committal.
I use a typical Repsol 10/40 Tdi oil, and for the last few (5 or 6?) oil changes a Bosch P 2062 filter, oil is clean, engine does not smoke, everything is fine at just under 240,000 miles.
Use the oil that is in the service book, or marked on the air filter canister, it has been fine for the last 20 years, if it isn't broke don't fix it.
Just my 0.2 cents.
regards
Dave
