Just chagned my oil, filter, and pressure sender and I put 5w 20 synthetic in by mistake. Just figured that out. Is this going to be an issue? Should I go buy 5w 30 or 40 and drain and refill

 

It's on the thin side...

I'd drain and re-fill...

 

Thats what I thought. I drove it to work today, my only car, and I will pick up some Mobil 5w 30 on the way home and drain and refill when I get home. I hate that I wasted the $$. Teach me to pay more attention. I guess the 60 mile round trip will not hurt my car with the 5w 20 in it.

 

Not with it being fresh oil it shouldn't, but yes, way to thin for summer.

 

Your 60-mile trip shouldn't hurt at all.

The 5w-20 will be a bit thin relative to a 5w-30 after your engine reaches normal operating temperature. If you were overheating the engine, the 5w-20 might be even less healthy, but even more healthy while your engine is warming up in the winter.

I was reading an oil weight discussion on a Honda thread yesterday. It seems someone had filled with 5w-30 instead of the recommended 5w-20 and wondered if it would hurt his engine. Apparently one of the reasons Honda recommends 5w-20 is for the improved fuel mileage.

 

A lot of manufacturers are indeed moving towards lighter "weight" oil for the improved mileage figures. For example, my mother's 2011 CR-V pushes for 0w-20 or something, and in person its pretty much near water in terms of viscosity. It blew my mind. I don't know if its just a trend of Honda's but its been common with the tightening of the CAFE standards and push for better EPA figures. I think Toyota has been on this kick as well.

As previously stated, a 60 mile trip will be just fine. That's absolutely nothing for oil.

The Honda and Toyota forums have been lit up about this because it just wasn't common until recent years. Auto-stop systems in particular really favor the "lighter" oil because of the constant engage/disengage of the engine as far as I can tell.

 

I realize they're two entirely different engines but our F150 5.4L uses the specified 5W20 all year long. I change at 5,000 mi. intervals. We tow a 6,500 lb. rig with it...after 30,000 mi., no overheating, no oil consumption. IMHO, I think you could leave it in this time w/o fear of any damage.

 

Thanks for all your comments. I picked up Mobil 5w 30 synthetic on the way home and drained out the 5w 20 and put in the right stuff. I feel better now. I had been having issue with the low oil pressure light. It would come on at start up and at about 1k rpms and go out when I get the accelarator. no other issues with the car just the light. No knocking or weird noises. So I got a new oil pressure sender and installed it when I changed the oil. SO far so good. Hope it stays that way.