auto zone brand oil

mjbrox · Post by **mjbrox** » 20 Jul 2010, 13:18

Oil is getting silly expensive. I think my next oil change I am going to use generic oil unless someone can give me a good reason why not.

Post by **vjaneczko** » 20 Jul 2010, 13:52

I always thought that if there isn’t an additive, oil is oil. Otherwise, we’d be discussing the finer points of Alaskan oil vs. Iraqi oil.

FCPEURO · Post by **FCPEURO** » 20 Jul 2010, 14:08

If you are doing your oil changes every 3000 miles, that autozone stuff is fine. Just make sure it meets the cars specifications.

mjbrox · Post by **mjbrox** » 20 Jul 2010, 14:31

i go more like 4-5k miles.

that reminds me, i need to change the oil on my car

Post by **cn90** » 20 Jul 2010, 14:36

I was told it is made by Valvoline (or some "famous" maker) and repackaged under Autozone name.
I use Autozone generic oil for 5 years, no issues.
Oil is Oil.

Post by **FlyingVolvo** » 20 Jul 2010, 15:41

If your car does not have a turbo, then AZ brand is fine. Any conventional will easily do 5-6000 miles in a non-turbo with no aggressive driving.

Post by **writer100** » 20 Jul 2010, 17:22

Look on the container. Does it contain certification from the API (American Petroleum Institute)? That's the most basic standard for oil.

Post by **thecheat** » 20 Jul 2010, 18:13

Don't know what the previous owner used for oil, should i go semi synthetic or regular dino juice on my turbo when i change the oil?

geokilla · Post by **geokilla** » 20 Jul 2010, 18:18

Doesn't help the OP, but we use Quaker State and Castrol, depending on what's on sale. If synthetic's on sale, we'll buy some jugs of synthetic when required. If conventional is on sale, we'll buy some jugs of conventional when required.

We keep to a fairly strict oil change interval. Usually change it around 5000 KM. With synthetic, the oil gets changed every 10k km. The car is now driven 85% city 15% highway.

Post by **FlyingVolvo** » 20 Jul 2010, 18:21

thecheat wrote:Don't know what the previous owner used for oil, should i go semi synthetic or regular dino juice on my turbo when i change the oil?

I would at least go with semi-synth on a turbo. If you do any hard driving at all, that turbo gets a lot of heat which can really fry oil that isn't meant for the application. If you want to use dino oil in your turbo, at least use a xW-40.

If you don't want to shell out the money for a synthetic, I'd recommend Castrol Syntec Blend for a "blend" oil.

But if you want a "clean" engine, Pennzoil is known to be very effective at cleaning deposits in many engines, especially their Platinum synthetic which can usually be found on sale at Walmart for $20/5 quarts.