Can i use conventinal oil in my chevy sonic 2015

Asked by GuruW8C8S May 17, 2018 at 11:20 AM about the 2015 Chevrolet Sonic LS Sedan FWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Can I use conventional oil in my Chevy Sonic LS
2015

4 Answers

26,810

You talking about engine oil? I'd follow the manufacturer recommendation. I looked at your owners manual, it recommended synthetic blend. I can't go against that recommendation. sorry.

5 people found this helpful.
200

At a bare minimum you should always always always follow the manufacturers recommendations, and these sonics call for synthetic blend, as already stated above. _____________________________________________________ However, full synthetic is always a better oil. It’s not because synthetic last longer before the next oil change; the feature of “not needing to change your oil longer” is merely a byproduct of the reason it was created. _____________________________________________________ Engine oil has what’s called a viscosity rating. The viscosity rating of an oil are the numbers listed on the bottle. The two numbers represent the cold operating viscosity rating, and the hot operating viscosity rating: 10w-30, 10w-40, 5w-30, etc. _____________________________________________________ Viscosity can best be understood as the flow rate of a liquid. Since the purpose of oil is to reduce friction - which reduces heat - if it does not move smoothly enough than it wears down the engine significantly faster. _____________________________________________________ The reason oil needs to be replaced in an engine is not because it simply gets old. It needs to be replaced because as the oil ages, it wears down from heat and the viscosity changes. Eventually, it becomes less and less viscous and moves poorly through the engine. (That is the laments explanation). _____________________________________________________ Conventional oil breaks down much faster, and that is why you need to change it sooner. It’s not because it simply gets “old”. It is because as it ages, the heat breaks down the structural integrity of the oil, therefore reducing the flow rate (viscosity). As the flow rate reduces it generates more heat, and eventually as the oil thickens and the viscosity lowers, it’s no longer effective as it should be. _____________________________________________________ Synthetic oil was created to retain its viscosity rating near the end of the oil-life as in the beginning, not simply to last longer in-between oil changes. Synthetic oil retains almost the entirety of its viscosity throughout the duration of the oil. Therefore if you start with a 5w-30, at 5000 miles it will have a nearly identical viscosity. _____________________________________________________ This is because synthetic materials inside of the oil retain their integrity a lot longer than conventional oil, i.e. producing the name “synthetic oil”. The YouTube channel ‘Engineering Explained’ has one of the best videos I have seen yet that explains this throughly and clearly. _____________________________________________________ Cheers

20 people found this helpful.
30

If I use conventional oil in a 2017 Chevy Cruze, will that cause the engine to blow after 11k miles?

3 people found this helpful.

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