Is 10W30 oil hard to find where you are?

[MoPar~Man]

I've been noticing over the past maybe 2 years that 10W30 oil is disappearing from the shelves. I was surprised to see some at Canadian Tire today, I picked up the last 3 jugs of Quaker State on "sale", $28 each (now the regular price is $41). $28 CAN is about $20/$21 USD. This is NOT synthetic. 2 years ago I would have no problems getting it for $18.

 

[Pete Kaczmarski]

Try Farm Supply Stores, especially when conventional oil is on sale.

 

[CBODY67]

By observation, not all of the same chain of individual stores stock the same oils (brands and especially viscosity), even Walmart. So look around, probably in areas where many customers are still using 10W30 oil, which means older vehicles are still in daily use.

10W30 used to be the most commonly used viscosity, but 5W30 has been the most common OEM oil for many years now, so owners are probably using 5W30 instead.

 

[cuda hunter]

10/40 is being worked out of the system. I bought a bunch at oreily's on sale as they are not stocking that viscosity any longer, as I was told.
10/30 is becoming more difficult to find.

Can anyone answer if 5w30 works as well in our old cars?

 

[RWCearley]

I switched to 20 w 50 a long time ago and it also appears to being phased out. I still can find 15x40 (diesel and vintage auto application listed on the label.) Inportant to make sure it has enough zinc for vintage autos (ZDDP)

 

[57fury440]

Castrol GTX Classic is 20W50. It has a high level of ZDDP and I've been using it in the old cars (sorry, classic cars) for a while. I would try different stores like suggested above. I've seen it in stores around here, but I don't recall which ones. You should be able to get it online.

 

[RWCearley]

Menards has this as well.

 

[volksworld]

you gotta realize that the average person going into a chain store for oil is probably shopping for a 10-20 year old car...and thats what they use...between conventional, synthetic, blends and manufacturer specific viscosities in multiple brands it's ridiculous how much oil the average store has to stock and i can definately see them dropping stuff that isnt moving

 

[TxDon]

I use Valvoline VR-1, buy it by the case on Amazon. They don't have 10W40 so I mix 10W30 and 20W50 to approximate.

 

[War Wagon2]

So far no trouble getting 10W30 DMO from the local Federated Co-Op . The refinery is in Regina Saskatchewan.
15W40 is also still on the shelves. They are starting to introduce synthetic.

 

[73Coupe]

I use Valvoline VR-1, buy it by the case on Amazon. They don't have 10W40 so I mix 10W30 and 20W50 to approximate.

Despite having higher Zn and P content, racing oil does not have the additives and detergents optimal for street use, is not designed to operate in the high variation in temperatures of a street car, and is not made for use in an extended change interval (3000+ miles), so I caution against using that for a daily driver or a car that is only driven once in a while. Also, it is not advised to mix oils of different viscosities.

 

[1970FuryConv]

10/40 is being worked out of the system. I bought a bunch at oreily's on sale as they are not stocking that viscosity any longer, as I was told.
10/30 is becoming more difficult to find.

Can anyone answer if 5w30 works as well in our old cars?

I used 5W30 in place of 10W30 on LH cars like Intrepid/Concorde. The viscosity thickness is 5W at cold temps/start up vs 10W, but I never had any problems with that. I was more concerned that the engine hot viscosity 30 was the same.

 

[bnz84]

As said earlier places like Tractor Supply have it. Traveller being their house brand.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/search/10w-30?

 

[cbarge]

You have to look a little harder than just going to Canadian Tire or Wobble-Mart.
Large chains cater to late model vehicles and as already mentioned, if it not moving off the shelf, it is deleted.
General concenus is the average age of a used vehicle on the road is between 8 to 11 years old.
That being said, even those cars no longer require 10W30.
10w30 began fading out in the 90s with engines getting smaller, fuel injection, and variable valve timing becoming standard fare.
I go to auto specific parts stores Napa, CarQuest , Princess Auto or independent parts stores to get my High Mileage 10w30 Pennzoil and add a bottle of Lucas or STP oil treatment.
Plus I always carry a couple bottles in the trunk on long trips.
Hope this helps.

 

[MoPar~Man]

> 10w30 began fading out in the 90s

I don't know about that. My 300m's are spec'd at 10w30, and I've been buying it at Can Tire (or Parts Source - same thing) when it's on sale. I have one of them on synthetic (it came that way) but that's still 10w30. Any other store is going to cost more, like TSC (now Peavey) and I'm not sure I want to buy some sort of no-name brand for tractors just because it's 10W30. But maybe it will come to that, unless 5W30 is still around. I don't like the idea of using an expanded viscosity oil, I hear they use too much additive, breaks down faster, etc.

 

[73Coupe]

10W-30 in plentiful supply in NAPA brand (valvoline) and others at my local NAPA, Wal-Mart, O'Kragen, and others....in 5-qt containers.

Straight 30 grade oil began fading out in the 00s from my observation. I used to use straight 30 back in the 90s....

 

[RWCearley]

My 58 alfa giulietta was spec with straight 40 wt, ( 30 wt winter) prior to any wide usage of multi wt. Oil. Today I use 20w 50 oil with no problems. Again use the same 20 w50 in my cosworth vega. Again with no problems. Add ZDDP because vintage cars with flat tappets need the zinc. (Zinc was removed because of its affect on catalytic converters.)

Had a 90 geo metro and it was spec with 5 w 30 oil. At 160k miles started burning a qt in 100 miles. Took the engine apart. Cylinders had no wear. (Still had honing Mark's) Oil consumption was due to collapsed oil control rings. They were literally glued to the pistons. Stopped using light wt oils after this. Switched to 10 w 30 oil in the geo. Never a problem again.

Only merit to 0 w or 5 w oil easy start up in cold weather and possibly better gas mileage.

 

[RWCearley]

One more thought. I have a 2001 beetle with 1.8T with 340000 miles. engine never been apart. For 200000 miles used 10 w 40 synthetic oil. Switched to 20 w 50 (not synthetic) for the last 140000 miles. Still runs great. If it blows up tomorrow it owes me nothing.

 

[Justin Plant]

Ask where the oil change place in your area gets their oil, around here, it's Brabham Petroleum. Most of these places will sell the average consumers. Generally cheaper than anywhere else. Granted I have no idea how things work where you live.

 

[cbarge]

At my former shop, where we had bulk oil tanks, one of them used to be 10w30.
It hardly got used.
When GM cars started requiring "Dexos" blend oils, we had to order in bottles or jugs to serve customers.
It got expensive real quick and could not match the dealers oil change prices.
So we used up the bulk 10w30 tank and switched it to bulk Dexos in order to stay competitive and keep customers happy with a lower cost bill
We had only a few customers ask or require 10w30 so we went with bottles for them.
As a business it made sense.