VitaminH

Awhile back I noticed the oil in my car was low. I had Castrol in the pan and my father (seeing as to how I know nothing about cars...) said the Valvoline in the garage was all he had but it should be fine. They were both 5W30. So I poured in the Valvoline got it just about topped off and off I went back to school (roughyl 150 mile highway trip). Basiclly just used it for 2 weeks to school and back then home. When I got home that very day my oil came on, so I took it to the Lube place and got scolded by the mechanic that there was no oil in my car. It was right on the 3000 mark. So I thought maybe mixing the Valvoline and Castrol had made me burn the oil. I got it changed up and there have been no problems.

Today I am roughly 2400 mi since that last change and was home for the weekend and my Father said we should check the oil before I left. We did, it was roughly in the middle of "operating range" which I thought was fine considering it was 2400 mi since the last change. He said I'll just add some and poured more Valvoline in on top of the Castrol I got at the lube place again before I could object. So now I'm worried. I'll be checking it religiously over these next weeks, but I was wondering if anyone knew if mixing oils like that could cause me to burn oil or something that would eat up all my oil like that in 2 weeks? I don't want to destroy my engine...

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JStrider

as far as i know it shouldnt matter... ive mixed oil brands...

shouldnt this be in tilted motors?

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WarWagon

Mixing oils is not going to cause you to burn oil excessively. There is no harm done in mixing synthetic and regular, or in mixing viscosities for that matter.

However, there are different additives in different oils, some of which may "cancel out" any positive effects of the additives in a different oil. Is mixing oil the best thing, no. Will topping off or mixing oil on occasion do any damage to your motor like you're describing? Absolutely not.

Dibbler

I rebuilt an engine with my dad who's a mechanic. When finished I wanted to use the best oil I could find and always used Castrol oil in it. I think I made it 15,000 miles before the thing started burning oil. I think Castrol oil is crap! The stuff I was using was Castrol Racing Oil 20w-50 cuz that's what the manuals said to use. This was an old Triumph GT-6. We ended up rebuilding the engine again and used regular oil and never had a problem again. I've heard a lot a bad things about Castrol since then and wouldn't recommend it to anybody. Use the good old fashoined Valvoline on the next engine. It's always worked well for me.

Destrox

Far as I know the only oil type you dont want to mix with others is Pure-Synthetic, nothing major will happen but it just isnt suggested.

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shakran

My best guess is that the place that changed your oil before this last time didn't tighten the drain plug properly.

VitaminH

Whoops I forgot there was a tilted motors. I'd ask for this to be moved, but it's pretty much the end so I guess it doesn't matter. A thousand apologies. Anywho I guess I won't fret to much about the mixing, I was just worried since I made the association with my oil disappearing last time with mixing castrol and valvoline.

Thanks for the tip Dibbler, I always had Valvoline in before, but the lube place I go to suddenly changed and I didn't think much of it, next time I'll request Valvoline...or I should really just do it myself.

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"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte