Oil Advice from the autozone employee

lewis15498

Don't blame ebay cheapass
Sep 28, 2008
1,397
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Raynham, Massachusetts, United States
jdub;1374599 said:
I know that sometimes get a bit long winded on this stuff, but the devil is in the details. Hopefully it will help a few people to make the right decision vs listening to the "feel good" crap and opinion floating around about oil. If you guys want me to knock it off, it will save me the time and effort. One thing's for sure, don't listen to the parts guy...LOL!

Long winded is good, your going into better detail. Great reading! I had no idea. I am now less ignorant. Thank you sir.
 

SideWinderGX

Member
Aug 8, 2007
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I really need to bring my power cable to the library so I can read all of Jdub's posts on this stuff...I had to google the difference between PAO/ester based synthetics, and now I know a wee bit about them (and that they exist lol).

I do have one question, I'm sure there's a handful of people here who will know the answer: our MKIII Supra's can hold over the recommended limit of oil because of the larger pan. Is the reason you can't do this with other cars, that their oil pans are too small, and will allow the oil to wash against the crankshaft/seals if overfilled?
 

SideWinderGX

Member
Aug 8, 2007
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I had to search for this thread to steal the links to those SAE articles...once again, thanks for the links jdub, and thanks for replying to my post :)

Crank touching oil == foaming/whipping as far as I know...which is extremely bad for oil. Thankee!
 
Feb 1, 2006
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Columbus, Ohio
Wow, what a great thread.

Now, I'm glad that more attention has been brought up about Autozone. I actually work at Advance Auto, and was ready to jump on anyone bashing us. Not just because I work there or because of any competition issues, but because we actually try and help our customers. I have worked at quite a few different Advance stores over the past few years and all of them place parts knowledge and customer service very high on the priority list.

Of course, I am sure there are some Advance Auto stores out there that have some real characters behind the counter, but most really do know what they are talking about.

A friend of mine applied at Autozone a long time ago and wasnt hired because he was "over quailified". WTF?

Just had to put in my 2 cents. I hope you all have had better experiences at Advance than Autozone.


-Adam
 

Keros

Canadian Bacon
Mar 16, 2007
825
0
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Calgary
I constantly have to argue with people why your oil being dirty is a good thing, not a bad thing, and does not indicate the life of the oil.

Thank you jdub for writing all those novels and spreading the wealth.
 

laconic

New Member
Apr 16, 2008
21
0
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alabama
i work at an advance auto myself. from personal experience auto zone does seem to hire its share of dumb asses and is probably the worst. the other big two diy, advance and oreillys have their share of dumb asses too though. i've worked with a few myself. but i guess when you work in an industry that likes to pay min wage what more do you expect? good parts guys are hard to find these days. it is fun to mess with them though. i wonder why no one keeps a flux capacitor for my delorean in stock :( its about as hard as getting a 710 cap, a piston return spring, and amber blinker fluid.

sad thing is, for most things i'll either get them from toyota, a junk yard/supramania, or from carquest.
 

tsuper92

supra addict
Apr 7, 2005
1,376
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mass
jdub,what's your take on car's that sit and are stored for the winter.i'm usually lucky to get 1,500 mile's a year put on my car.so far i put about 250 this season,but plan on driving till the salt hit's the road.
would you change the oil before the car goes for a 6+ month nap?
 

jdub

Official SM Expert: Motor Oil, Lubricants & Fil
SM Expert
Feb 10, 2006
10,730
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Valley of the Sun
Well, as usual, that depends ;)
What oil do you run and what length trips do you usually take? Specifically, does the oil get up to ops temp for 20-30 min at a constant RPM?
 

tsuper92

supra addict
Apr 7, 2005
1,376
0
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mass
i just use conventional,because it never get's alot of use.the car only get's short spurt's of driving around town and very rarely long highway drive's(maybe half hour the most)
would you store it with conventional oil that has a thousand mile's on it?maybe change it before using the car again?

the oil deffinatly get's up to temp's i would imagine.the car has an earl's oil stat and external b&m oil cooler.factory oil to water cooler removed(2jz)
 

jdub

Official SM Expert: Motor Oil, Lubricants & Fil
SM Expert
Feb 10, 2006
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It should be fine to store with that fill...I would take it out for a 30 min highway run to get the oil nice and hot, then store. Assuming your PCV is good, it should burn off any condensation, etc. Do a change before you take it out next year.
 

lewis15498

Don't blame ebay cheapass
Sep 28, 2008
1,397
1
0
Raynham, Massachusetts, United States
Boostedmkiii;1409906 said:
Wow, what a great thread.

Now, I'm glad that more attention has been brought up about Autozone. I actually work at Advance Auto, and was ready to jump on anyone bashing us. Not just because I work there or because of any competition issues, but because we actually try and help our customers. I have worked at quite a few different Advance stores over the past few years and all of them place parts knowledge and customer service very high on the priority list.

Of course, I am sure there are some Advance Auto stores out there that have some real characters behind the counter, but most really do know what they are talking about.

A friend of mine applied at Autozone a long time ago and wasnt hired because he was "over quailified". WTF?

Just had to put in my 2 cents. I hope you all have had better experiences at Advance than Autozone.


-Adam

Obviously there are exceptions, but for the most part people who know what their talking about pursue a better job than selling auto parts for minimum wage.
As far as not hiring someone thats over qualified is common management practice. This is because training is considered an investment. Im not gonna spend ~$150 to supply a guy with a uniform and train him to pour coffee when he has a college degree, because as soon is he is offered a better job, he is gone which makes the return on my investment near zero.
 

giterboosted

cure for the common rice
Nov 3, 2007
597
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toccoa ga
It's kinda funny, my wife worked at AZ for years and actually gave a crap about customers and if she didn't know the answer (especially bout hondas and supras) shed call me and if I didn't know I'd call around lol, we got it done, but since she quit it's sucked balls and maybe two ppl know crap about anything, I'm in ne ga btw

back to topic anyway, I've been using the 20w-50 vr1 is this much too thick, and how many quarts on a stock oiling system
 
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Bri7man

"Yeah! Take the lemons.."
Jul 17, 2009
580
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35
Torrance, CA
I just got back from Kragen and I asked about castrol euro formula and the old black guy moves sluggishly around the desk to the oil section and explains to me how, "just because its European formula doesn't mean they know anything. " After some provoking he eventually goes "Well look here, if they're stuff is so great then why can't they sell it there? They have to sell it here in America hahaha" Then tried to sell me vr1 motorcycle oil then goes, "oh wait, thats for motorcycles"

I chuckled at him not with him but he didn't know the difference lol.

I <3 my local Kragen :biglaugh:
 

deabionni

The Lurker
Sep 16, 2007
431
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Kalkaska, MI
Bri7man;1411399 said:
I just got back from Kragen and I asked about castrol euro formula...

jdub;1411437 said:
Like I told you, AutoZone is where you get GC.

Bri7man;1411455 said:
I know, I figured they wouldn't have it...

So you wasted his time asking for something you knew he wouldn't have, then had a laugh at his expense when you proved to yourself that you knew more then he did?

Wow, you're cool!

two%20thumbs%20up.jpeg


:icon_roll
 

Bri7man

"Yeah! Take the lemons.."
Jul 17, 2009
580
0
0
35
Torrance, CA
deabionni;1411561 said:
So you wasted his time asking for something you knew he wouldn't have, then had a laugh at his expense when you proved to yourself that you knew more then he did?

Wow, you're cool!

two&


:icon_roll

I was in there restocking some cleaning supplies for my garage and I figured I might as well ask if he had euro form in the back.

The store was deserted and I like the dude so I thought I'd talk to him for a bit. What I did not know was that he was oil illiterate, and he started dissing foreign countries out of sheer stupidity and I thought it was funny. He wanted to talk, I was trying to leave I kept saying, "alright well I guess I'll just hold off then", so he would ring me up for all my other supplies.

I guess I should have said asking his opinion, rather than provoking. I wasn't purposely trying to feel better about myself.