dodge ram semi with MDS... oil type??

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ram5.7hemi

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i have a 2008 dodge ram 1500 hemi laramie with mds. it has about 106k miles so the warranty is up on it. it recommends 5w20 oil...

I do a lot of highway driving with it... average of 30k a year.. a lot of times I'm driving at least 85 or higher on cruise control. i buddy told me i should consider using 10w30 oil instead because of driving habits and the mileage. my book though says only 5w20 or mds will be messed up?

has anyone used different oil in a semi with MDS? is there any benefits to using the thicker oil if it won't hurt MDS?
 

crazy_luck

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Guys with the Hemi in the LX cars (300, Magnum, Charger, Challenger) have been running 10w30 with no problem for years and MDS still functions fine.
 

Harley Harrold

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Depends on where you live, cold winters, you should use 5W20 or 5W30, now I live in the south so 5W30 or 5W40, also 10W30 would be fine. I personally run AMSOIL Synthetic 5W20 year round on my 07' with MDS.
 
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ram5.7hemi

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Depends on where you live, cold winters, you should use 5W20 or 5W30, now I live in the south so 5W30 or 5W40, also 10W30 would be fine. I personally run AMSOIL Synthetic 5W20 year round on my 07' with MDS.

i live in new mexico, usa.. it doest get extremely cold... maybe down to 18 or so over night but we don't get a tone of snow and stuff like new york. as far as summer goes it gets into the 90's but its not overly humid or very dry either kind in the middle.
 

justin13703

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The MDS system is very picky and being that you live in a pretty standard climate just stick with the 5w20 like the manual says. A lot of people like to play around with different oil weights but unless you plan on deactivating the MDS with a tuner or something, stay with 5w20.
 

hemihustlin

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Lol says who the mds is picky?
Ive been running 5w30 for over a year now and mds is 100%
I have yet to see any failures of the mds system from using high quality Xw30
 

justin13703

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Lol says who the mds is picky?
Ive been running 5w30 for over a year now and mds is 100%
I have yet to see any failures of the mds system from using high quality Xw30

Everyone knows that the MDS involves a lot of components and therefore has a lot of points for issues and oil weight can cause issues with it. I'm not saying that running 10w30 is going to cause your MDS to fail I'm just saying that at his location using the recommended 5w20 is fine and you'll know that if you ever have any issues with the MDS it's not because of oil weight.
 
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