Accidentally put the wrong oil in my car
Drivers sometimes use a thicker oil like 10W-30 instead of 5W-20, either by mistake or because they worry the recommended oil is too thin. This leaves them anxious about whether they just ruined their engine or if the car will still be okay.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Switching back to the recommended oil viscosity at the next oil changeDid this help you?
- 2Running slightly thicker oil to help reduce high oil consumption in older vehiclesDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Im curious if ill ruin my engine if I put 5w-30 in my 2016 honda pilot I don't like how thin the recommended oil is and I wanna keep my car alive for a while”source ↗
“i accidentally put 10W-30 oil instead of 5W-20 in my toyota camry 2007 LE (about 157-158,000 miles) and i just want to make sure it’s okay.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5I accidentally put the wrong fluid in my car
- 6Is wrong brake grease bad or should I clean it off?
- 25Why is my car burning a quart of oil every 500 miles?
- 19Is it safe to drive with too much engine oil?
- 2Dirt or plastic fell into my engine oil fill hole
- 19How to choose between multiple equivalent automotive fluid specs