Will the wrong weight of oil in a car cause the oil pump to fail?

The only way to find the reason an oil pump failed is to take it apart and see the condition of the gears inside the oil pump and pressure spring. In other words what broke?





I on the other hand do make a big deal about oil viscosity. Single cylinder gasoline motors in lawn mowers snow blowers and lawn tractors call for 5W30 or 10W-30. Not too long ago there were several makes of large leavy lawn tractors in our shop with rods through the block during the Winter. Guys were trying to blow snow with 30 weight engine oil in these motors. Upon doing a little research with John Deere it was found that in sub-freezing weather the oil was not running back to the splash oilers fast enough. 5W-30 solved the problem immediately.


You can either go to Mobil's website and look up what your car should have or your glove compartment handbook. The correct viscosity oil pumps to critical engine parts faster on cold start-ups. It cools the internals better because it *adsorbs heat more efficiently. More total volume of oil travels through the oil galleries using lower multi-viscosity oil. Its a proven fact that an engine requires more horsepower to pump molasses (high viscosity) oil through any oil pump than light oil. My neighbor who builds Chevy race engines for asphalt and dirt modifieds as well as late model dirt cars has dyno sheets to prove the above.


Newer street cars and trucks cars are machined for clearance's which are tighter than 20 years ago. There's absolutely no need to dump heavy oil in motors any more. The car companies know best. As a sidelight you always get better fuel economy using the recommended viscosity oil.


If you care to look at Joe Gibbs Racing Oil you'll see the viscosity's the team of Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Bush actually use in their race engines. If you don't have the time to look for this information I'll give it to you.


They use 0 weight fully synthetic engine oil for qualifying. 0W-20 synthetic when restrictor plates are used during the actual race. 5W-20 synthedic when the restrictor plates are not used. Why do you suppose they do this other than engine horespower. Remenber that the unrestricted motors run all day at peak 9,500 rpm's.Will the wrong weight of oil in a car cause the oil pump to fail?
It can if it is very thick and it is cold out. The pump can't turn if it is very thick. The oil pump driveshaft will usually break.Will the wrong weight of oil in a car cause the oil pump to fail?
it depends on how heavy your talking about. ive used 20w50 before and it didnt hurt nothing.
Most likely not..it might stress the pump a little bit if you are reccomende to run 5w-30 and run 10w 40 (viscosity is higher with heavier weight oil)
Nope.
no it will not hurt it,,,,, any oils better than none....people make too big a deal about the weight...clean oil,,new filter and topping it off when low are the keys
If you use 40w in Greenland in the winter...maybe it would be hard to pump and cause undue stress..but that is extreme. Generally the answer is no.