Hi All,

I'm currently living in Dubai, and am looking for information on what Oil to use in the used car I just bought and came across posts here.

The car's a 1997 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer 4x4 (5.4L) with 90k kms on it. I know a bit about cars, done oil / spark plug changes myself and enough to work out that this was in good shape for an old car.

Dubai's weather is hot. We're talking 30c+ all the time, very often to 40c and a few times to 50c where the government declares a public holiday

Anyway, the owner's manual says SAE 5W-30 but I can't find anything in any auto shops or k-mart type stores here. The closest I can find is a local brand 5W-40, a shell 5W-40 and Castrol Magnatec 10W-40 A3/B3.

A mechanic someone recommended says he puts 20W-50 in everything here because of the weather, but I wasn't sure so I rang the Ford Dealers here and they said they get supplies of 10W-30 and they use that in all the Ford 4x4s. Its quite expensive compared to the magnatec 10W-40 so I was trying to work out if I 10W-40 would be ok.

I understand that its a semi-synthetic oil, but I'd like your take on this? Is it ok to use this oil in my car? Would it actually be better considering the weather?

I found this about someone who put 10W-40 in their expedition and the advice they got worries me ->

Ref: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...7050332AALlS7r

 

Yes, change it ASAP. Spec has changed for the modulars to 5w 20. Not 5w 30 anymore.

 

Thanks mate. But change it to what? There is no 5W-20 or 5W-30 here. The ford dealer uses 10W-30 and even that is only stocked by them.

 

A Ford dealer that stocks the wrong oil? That's a first. I don't believe it.

 

Thats nothing. I just talked to the supervisor at the dealers and he says you can even put 20W-50 and you'll be fine. What do you think of that?

 

Try it and keep us posted, - I give it a week lol. You have a tight tolerance engine, you'll starve the internals doing that.

This is crap, they didn't say that. I think we have a troll lol.

 

X 2 on the troll.

 

In your situation, use a 5w anything you can find. 5w40 is fine. The important thing is the modulars need the 5w to avoid excessive wear on "cold" startups.

 

just stay with the recommended 5w20. have you thought about buying a case or two from out of your area and just keep it on hand?

 

I'm no expert on oil and read lots of differing opinions but have read that oil is somewhat dependent on where you live. If you live somewhere very hot (like Dubai) using a slightly higher viscosity oil is sometimes recommended or permissible. 5W-30 or 40 should be fine in Dubai; I would try to stick with a 5-weight oil. I'm not actually shocked if the Ford dealer there uses 10W-30. I have heard other car manufacturer's recommend or advise that a higher viscosity oil can be used in warmer climates. I've never seen Ford really make an issue or advise a strict compliance with 5W-20. If engine's were failing because people were using the wrong viscosity oil, I think Ford would make a point of advising against using anything but 5W-20.

There are a LOT of people that own f150's (probably very few of which are members of this forum) that take their trucks to a quicky oil change place every 3 to 5k miles (ok, maybe more like 5k to 10k!) and get conventional 10W-30 at every oil change and their trucks still run. Not the best if you want your truck to get 200K+ miles out of the engine and maintain performance, but those trucks still run.

 

Probably not a troll guys. He is correct in that the 5w-20 oils have not made their way off shore of the US of A. Only we Americans have CAFE standards and most of the world is just now starting to see emissions standards on the new cars they buy. Only the US uses API while most of the world uses ACEA oil standards. That's why one of the specs he gave a A3/B3 which is an ACEA spec like our API SM. A lot of the more remote areas across the great muddy don't have bottled oil. When you need a change, you take it to the local garage and you get either synthetic or dino, but both are drawn from barrels of base oils, the additive packages weighed out, and added in the back of the garage- that's yer oil.
Considering you gave a low temp of 30C, which is 86F to us 'mericans, I would feel comfy with the 10w-30 oils. You basically don't have COLD startups there so even if you had a 5w-XX, it would still be close to the same startup viscosity as a 10w-XX. I'd suggest the 10w-30 over anything thicker as the thinner oils will absorb and release heat faster yielding a cooler running engine.
I will also add that those that like to beat their chest over thinking that the more exotic cars like Mercedes and Porsche are shipped with Mobil One in the engine are wrong. Mercedes has been putting Wolf in the crankcase for decades and it hasn't changed. Porsche is the same but they buy from whoever is cheapest on an A3 ACEA oil. It's a lot like a lot of the F150's have BP fuel caps but it doesn't mean that it is recommended by Ford that you use only BP because it is better. BP supplies Ford with the caps for free for the advertising. Mobil has been doing the same with foreign makers as well as US made cars like the Vette. There are lots of folks out there that will believe any advertising, that's why we're stuck with Obama.

 

we ran 15w50 synthetic in my dads 06 f350 with the 5.4 3v, it went it had 42000 miles when he sold it with no problems

 

15 weight! How did you guys get away with that ? Iduno , I don't like playing around with oil. I guess I think of it as, ~ 5w = Everything gets oiled from the moment you turn the key. Straying from that is risky.

I could and would be more objective when it comes to running spec, but I haven't had not one oil related problem. I can't get the 98 to use it between changes, -not yet anyway .

 

the 3v engines are more sensitive about oil I wouldn't put any thing in them but 5-20. We are taalking about Dubai here.. I think he is absolutely safe running 5-40 in a 2v in that heat..

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback folks! The only ford dealer in Dubai is Al Tayer Motors. www.altayer-motors.com/ You can contact them via email if you want to confirm what oil they use.

Doesn't the 97 EB 4x4 run a 3v engine?

I've got Castrol Magnatec 10W-40 semi synthetic in there at the moment and it seems to be fine. Am booked in to go to the Dealers on Saturday for some other stuff. I'm considering changing it to 5W-40 or the 10W-30 that they have. At least picking up a few bottles for my next change.

I'm also looking out for where is the closest I can get 5W-20 from outside this area.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes.