Cartagena and surroundings
Oil 5W-20, and 3,6 liters. If you don't know what those numbers mean or which engine you got, this page explains it from scratch.
The Rio of that year came with two engines, and the good news is that they call for exactly the same thing: you don't have to work out which one you got.
1.4 MPI
1.368 cm³ · G4LC engine
3,6 liters
On a drain and refill, according to the manual
1.6 MPI
1.591 cm³ · G4FG engine
3,6 liters
On a drain and refill, according to the manual
If you've never sat down to look at this before, here's everything behind those figures.
It isn't a brand and it isn't a quality rating. They are two numbers telling you how thick the oil is, and each one is about a different moment.
The 5W is the engine cold, just started. The W stands for winter. The lower the number, the faster the oil flows the moment you start up, which is when an engine wears most.
The 20 is the engine hot, after a few minutes of driving. That's the number doing the work almost all the time in Cartagena, where a car never wakes up frozen.
Next to the grade there's the latest API/ILSAC. That is the standard, and it's the part almost nobody looks at.
The standard is the seal Kia puts on the oil it tested in this engine and approved. A bottle can say 5W-20 in big letters on the front and not carry the seal: the grade is the same, but it isn't the oil the manufacturer approved.
That's why the standard outranks the brand on the bottle. If it meets the standard, it works; if it doesn't, it makes no difference how nice the label looks.
Because Kia's manual allows it, and almost nobody reads that part. As well as the recommended grade, the manual carries a viscosity table by temperature: it tells you to choose according to the heat the car will be exposed to until the next change.
In that table, the row that applies to South America includes 0W-20, 0W-30, 5W-20, 5W-30, 10W-30, 15W-40 and 20W-50, each with its own temperature range. The thinner ones cover from cold upwards; the thicker ones only from a certain temperature up.
In Cartagena, where it never drops below 24 degrees, 10W-30 falls inside its range. So it isn't the wrong oil: it's another valid point on the same table. 5W-20 is the one Kia recommends first, and the one that burns slightly less fuel.
What the manual does require, and this is not negotiable, is that it be fully synthetic and meet the latest API or ILSAC. A mineral or semi-synthetic oil has to be changed far more often.
Nothing blows up the next day, which is why plenty of people never find out. What happens is slower: an oil that's too thick takes longer to reach the top of the engine when you start it, and one that's too thin can't hold up under pressure with the engine hot. Either way, wear runs faster than it should.
And that's why we ask which engine you have before we set out: it's the difference between bringing you the oil your car calls for and bringing you something similar.
The full change —synthetic oil and filter, done wherever the car is— starts at $240.000. The price moves with the number of liters the engine calls for. Message us with your car's engine and we'll give you the exact figure before we set out.
We come to your home, your workplace or wherever you have the car parked. Nothing to drop off, no queue.
Ask for the price on WhatsAppWe didn't take these from our own experience or from a blog: they are the documents Kia publishes for this car. You can open them and check for yourself.
Tell us the make, model and year —or send us a photo of your registration card— and we'll tell you which oil it takes and what the change costs.
Ask on WhatsApp