Motor oil for 2009

[FocusITA]

I have a 2009 Ford focus SES coupe and I'm coming up on an oil change. Ford says that I should use 5W-20, and I know that Ford has their oil tolerances sorted out pretty accurately. However, I am wanting to use the Ford Specific Motul brand 5W-30 oil. Is this going to short the life of the motor?? Any opinions and/or inputs would be great!!

[Cedilla]

Its not that big of a deal, I would not go any thicker than that though, although I see people all the time running 10w-30 and 10w-40 in brand new cars that call for 5w-20, because they are convinced that all cars use 5qts of 10w-40. lol

[GapBoyPCS]

Originally Posted by FocusITA

I have a 2009 Ford focus SES coupe and I'm coming up on an oil change. Ford says that I should use 5W-20, and I know that Ford has their oil tolerances sorted out pretty accurately. However, I am wanting to use the Ford Specific Motul brand 5W-30 oil. Is this going to short the life of the motor?? Any opinions and/or inputs would be great!!

Is there a reason why you want to use Motul oil?

I know oil is one of those personal preference items. From a wide variety of accounts, going with a 5W30 for a vehicle needing 5W20 usually doesn't have much impact. That being said, I have heard of instances where a car manufacturer has denied a warranty claim on the engine because the owner put in something other than what was specified for their car.

[calvin1234]

I'm using Motorcraft 5-20 semi-synthetic at least until the warranty is over at 100K. (I have an extended warranty)

[GapBoyPCS]

Just a note: I'm still run 5W20 from the dealer (which I believe is the non-synthetic version).

[FocusITA]

The reason I wanted to use Motul is because I have experienced it to be a exceptional oil. I was just wondering if I could swap out a 5W-20 for a 5W-30. I'm not really concerned with the warranty. And I have no problem using a Valvoline 5W-20, as I have only had good experiences with that.

[mikeeshaq]

All my oil changes have been done by a Ford dealer at every 3,000 miles
2004 Focus wagon Zetec 140,000 miles and still going strong

[calvin1234]

I can get mine done at the dealer for 19.99 and after 4 I get one free. Our Chev tracker changes counts toward the freebie. Go to www.fordowner.com and sign up for 'owner advantage'

[Zoomer69]

Ford used 5W-30 in all of its vehicles up until 2002, when it changed to 5W-20 for fuel economy reasons. Running 5W-30 won't harm anything; it'll give it an extra measure of protection in hot climates and such.

[Lancer211]

Originally Posted by Zoomer69

Ford used 5W-30 in all of its vehicles up until 2002, when it changed to 5W-20 for fuel economy reasons. Running 5W-30 won't harm anything; it'll give it an extra measure of protection in hot climates and such.

Precisely. I only recently started using 5W-30 in the summertime, but that's because I live in Arizona....

[blackbird]

While Motul may be a great oil for some applications, it isn't cheap and isn't always easy to find. What I'd suggest is before switching to a different oil, send a sample in for analysis at one of the testing labs to see how well your oil is actually protecting your engine. If you're going to do changes at every 3k miles you'll probably find that even modern conventional, non-synthetic oils will offer the protection you need.

Another thing mentioned is warranty. Since you have a new car and it is more than likely still under factory warranty you'd want to use something that meets Ford's specifications. The chance of an oil related failure is small, but should something fail in the engine due to a manufacturing defect the dealer may still want to see service history documentation and if you were running non-approved oil might have problems getting repairs covered.

According to your owner's manual (which can be downloaded here), Ford calls for an oil meeting their WSS-M2C930-A standard. For economy reasons and with modern machining tolerances there's nothing wrong with using a 5w20 oil, but if the Motul meets that standard and you live in a hot climate a 5w30 should be fine. For added piece of mind you could ask your local dealer and if due to regional climate considerations if they suggest running the slightly thicker oil.


If it were me and I was following the factory recommended 7500 mile change interval I'd probably try the Motorcraft semi-synthetic 5w20 oil. Its personally what I run in my Chrysler Hemi V8-powered truck that calls for 5w20 and from the independent testing I've seen performs very well. It's also cheap at around $11 for a five gallon jug at Wal-Mart.

If you did an oil analysis and for your driving style and conditions a full synthetic would be more beneficial I'd look into something like the Mobil 1 5w20, Pennzoil Platinum 5w20, or one of the other synthetics that meets Ford's standards, should cost less, and provide just as good (or possibly even better) protection. And as always, test the oil or you never truly know how well it is protecting.