Understood. Respectfully I believe you are missing my point. I'll reiterate that I said you can't go wrong following the OM. My point is that from a vehicle owner's point of view, you can safely use a different grade of oil. To spell it out, I provided the overseas reference for illustration. That's it. [insert warranty discussion here.]
No need to look it up, we're in agreement here.
Point.
This would be a better discussiin over a mess of beers hut I'll try to be brief.
The thing about CAFE is the penalties and rewards manufacturers get based on corporate fuel economy ratings, spread out over the # of vehicles sold annually. I've educated myself on it pretty thoroughly.
Add that to the fact that most US vehicle owners don't keep their vehicles for a long time any more (though average vehicle age in the US is rising), and it's easy to see why engine longevity is no longer a priority. It's been shown that higher viscosity oils, to a point, reduce engine wear.
In all fairness, motor oil chemistry HAS advanced greatly over the last 15 years or so, which mitigates some of the issues.
Me either. But we all know what we know and I'm not one to simply spout iff info found online. Just attempting to discuss a concept but apparently it's falling on deaf ears.
Again Ed, not trying to tell anyone what to do, or not to follow the OM. Just saying it's safe to use thicker oil than specified, because the engineers aren't the only ones writing the OM any more.
