Car Court

From F1 to Nascar to grandma's Camry....it's Car Talk.

Return to Car Court

Message Sort: Post Order or Asylum Reverse Threaded

What's the word on sythetic oil?

208.148.209.67
Posted on August 14, 2004 at 22:41:24
albee33
 Thinking about switching to a pure synthetic or synthetic blend. Would both be good for the standard 5K mile oil change? I would like to treat my four-cylinder right and have the convenience of doing the standard 5K service interval instead of 3K to 4K standard oil change.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

Hide full thread outline!
    ...
Re: What's the word on sythetic oil?, posted on August 16, 2004 at 17:52:12
Rich Brkich
Dealer

Posts: 832
Location: Near Syracuse, New York
Joined: April 3, 2000
 I would say if you engine is fairly new (less than 15,000 miles), feel free to change over to full synthetic. I generally switch over at around 5,000 miles to full synthetic and for many years with many different cars I have gone with 5,000 mile change intervals (which generally worked out to three times a year for me since I averaged about 15K miles per years)without any engine problems in any of my cars during the past 18 years I have been using synthetics.

A blend oil would be good for a car that already has a few miles on it or a new engine... change intervals with these oils can easily go 5K too.

Of course, always change your oil filter with each oil change! :-)

P.S. What kind of car is this 4 banger in!
Happy Listening,
Rich Brkich
Retailer & Audio Asylum Industry Liaison

 

I just became the world's oldest teenager . . ., posted on August 17, 2004 at 03:35:28
albee33
 I just traded my 8 year old Cherokee for a new xB. It has the standard Toyota 1.5L. I started averaging 33 to 34 mpg with the second fill up! It's a terrific vehicle and I want to keep it fit. I may check into a blend or full synthetic at the second change.

 

Re: I just became the world's oldest teenager . . ., posted on August 17, 2004 at 15:01:52
Rich Brkich
Dealer

Posts: 832
Location: Near Syracuse, New York
Joined: April 3, 2000
 Those new Scion xBs are pretty cool. With a new car I tend to get the oil changed at 1,000 miles and run dino oil (tuner speak for conventional oil made from dead dinosours :-) ) up to the second change and then switch over to synthetic.

Next thing you know you'll be posting with pictures showing the "new shoes on my ride! Ya know you have to have some bling on the ride!" :-) :-) :-) (tranlations for the non tuner crowd... New shoes means new rims which are peferrable sportin some really low prfile tires - make them chrome for the some bling bling!)

Happy Listening,
Rich Brkich
Retailer & Audio Asylum Industry Liaison

 

Re: What's the word on sythetic oil?, posted on August 17, 2004 at 21:39:54
Steven R. Rochlin
Reviewer

Posts: 1187
Joined: April 5, 2000
 Synth are fine and, IMHO, better than Dino fluids. Agree with Rich that the US is brainwashed to 3k miles for change. For a normal, generally low rpm car (not race or high rev'ing sports driving) the 5k intervale is fine. In fact Europe goes with 7k miles intervales.

Enjoy the Drive,

Steven R. Rochlin

 

Middle-aged performance mod: K&N air filter . . ., posted on August 18, 2004 at 08:11:49
albee33
 Thought about a super-charger but decided on an air filter. Would post a pic but it's already installed. 8^) It does make a difference!

 

Re: What's the word on sythetic oil?, posted on August 18, 2004 at 09:24:07
Coastman


 
I have gone around and around on this issue. I have done the 3K changes, and have decided that this is just a marketing device. I now feel that following the manufacturer's recommended change interval is just fine. The definition that they give for "severe use" really would only apply in a taxicab application, or if you were towing an excessively heavy trailer.

As far as synthetic oil goes, I really do not think this is necessary, nor will it substantially lengthen the life of your engine. I would also point out that most of the time you will trade your vehicle in long before you would really see any gains from synthetic oil in terms of longetivity.

Having said all of this, if you are committed to using a synthetic, then I would do it, but would follow the change interval for "normal use". I think it is a waste of money, however. Conventional oils are much, much better than the oils of even a few years ago.

 

Re: What's the word on sythetic oil?, posted on August 18, 2004 at 10:33:05
EdAInWestOC
Audiophile

Posts: 6828
Location: Glen Burnie, MD USA
Joined: December 18, 2003
 I was talked into using a synthetic many years ago by my old mechanic. He's passed on now, but at the time of his recommendation he was well into his 60s and had been repairing/rebuilding cars all of his life.

His specific recommendation was Mobile One. It was his opinion after rebuilding many motors that this oil was the cleanest and best lubricating of the bunch. Of course that may have changed by now, but I've been running Mobil One for a lot of years and have yet to lose an engine. Transmissions...yup, engine no.

Just the mess that a petroleum based oil makes of an old motor is enough to make someone switch. It's just my stupid opinion...as usual.

Ed


The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time (JT)
Click here to view my system

 

Re: What's the word on sythetic oil?, posted on August 18, 2004 at 13:12:17
Rich Brkich
Dealer

Posts: 832
Location: Near Syracuse, New York
Joined: April 3, 2000
 I can see your point.... if you are not going to drive the car into the ground (i.e. keep it for sveral years or more), regular changes at 5K miles with dino oil is fine.

Having said that, many current engines are built with very tight tolerances (keeping thigs tight helps keep emissions low) and start-up lubrication is very cirtcial - synthetics are really good for these applications. For example, my 2003 VW Passat Wagon - VWs specs for motor oil for the ULEV 1.8L 4 cyl turbocharged engine in my car pretty much mandates synthetic or synthetic blended motor oil.
Happy Listening,
Rich Brkich
Retailer & Audio Asylum Industry Liaison

 

Great motor ,use best oil and rough service interval. . ., posted on August 26, 2004 at 16:43:36
clbeanz
Audiophile

Posts: 1693
Location: No.Ca.
Joined: March 2, 2004
 Those are quite peppy weight to hp ain't bad.Me old 86' MR-2 had that motor 1.5liter 16v four/about 108hp.(TRD supercharge another 50)
Had some oil getting past valve guides early,probably due first owner(22k miles)abuse. Yet that little hi-revver never gave me trouble or stranded. Great fast short throw 5 speed.Sold at 128k miles,new young owner thrashes it,still after 162k miles no rebuild.Just a wonderful powerplant.

clb~out
"The line between America's funniest videos and the emergency room is fine".

 

"consumer fraud" ?, posted on December 18, 2004 at 06:47:40
samstone


 
the most unnecessary and overpriced product for the automobile today. stick with a name brand 10w-30, a factory filter, and proper maintenence and your engine will easily last 250k miles.

brent

 

Re: What's the word on sythetic oil?, posted on January 9, 2005 at 17:55:32
Craiger56@aol.com
Audiophile

Posts: 5574
Location: San Jose CA
Joined: April 3, 2002
Contributor
  Since: December 29, 2003
 A few years ago the feds had the oil companies reduce the amount of phosphors in conventional motor oil to help extend the life of catalytic converters. I think phosphors has been eliminated altogether (anybody know?) Phosphors is used anti-wear additive especially usefull to protect cam lobes and lifter faces.

This is the first step back in motor oil performance so if you want the very best it's going to be a sythetic oil.

Is it really necessary? Not really, but for me changing oil was part of my daily work for 19 years as a mechanic so I'm not real big on changing our oil, that's why I use sythetic in our 88' Mazda 626 turbo and 86' Mazda pickup and change it religiously every 10,000 miles.

Last I heard, Corvettes, Vipers, Porsches and Audis come with sythetic oil in them, the recommended interval for the Porsche Boxter is 15,000 miles and the Audi is 10,000 miles.

In my experiance sythetic is a must for turbos to prevent coking of the turbo oil drain hose and the only cars that needed their oil changed every 3000 miles were the air-cooled VWs because they had no oil filter, only a screen.

Best wishes, Craig

 

crap crap crap....., posted on November 23, 2005 at 16:30:52
rrikola@hotmail.com
Audiophile

Posts: 646
Location: Southern California
Joined: June 30, 2003
 what a rip off. here's why,sythetic oiles are sold on the premis that you don't have to change your oil so often, maybe 10,000-15,000. I wouldn't do this to any car. regardless of the quality of the oil the problem is contamination. The oil gets watered down with gas and contaminated with carbon deposits from blowby. This happens to any oil. The only way to fix it is to change it. No matter how good the oil is if it has carbon in it it is going to be abrasive. I ues castoroil 10-40 for most of our cars and change the oil every 2,000 miles. I have never had a car who's motor did not last longer then the chasis. You cars engine will literally last longer then the car. I'm talking 300,000 miles or so.

 

Re: What's the word on sythetic oil?, posted on December 21, 2005 at 05:40:19
rpcoins


 
I have a Mercedes C230K that came with synthetic oil. I believe Mercedes uses it exclusively and the change interval is 12,000 miles.

The car has a supercharger, so there might be issues regarding high amounts of heat.

The manufacturer has not axe to grind as far as type of oil other than what will make the car last the longest. It is often the higher end cars using tighter tolerances that standardize on the synthetics.

 

Re: Middle-aged performance mod: K&N air filter . . ., posted on August 20, 2006 at 14:40:44
I call shenanigans


 
yeah a supercharger and an new air filter are pretty much interchangable, i dont know why anyone would spend thousands of dollars boosting their engine when they can just drop in a $20 air filter and get the same performance gains...

that was sarcasm, by the way.

 

Re: What's the word on sythetic oil?, posted on May 29, 2009 at 19:18:44
Camrahnbay
Audiophile

Posts: 407
Location: DESERT SW
Joined: January 15, 2009
 I agree that syn oil is a waste of money on your water pumpers.
I have owned and worked on many a auto and used a good 10w30 a new filter at 3K intervals with out a problem.
Carbon is the big problem for sure.
But,I find that syn oil works great on air cooled engines.
I switched to syn 20w50 on the motercycle and the temp.dropped 20 degrees.Now that's impressive!
I think Amsoil is the best IMO,TESTS SHOW IT IS and these people are the pioneers.
Just my thoughts,and hope it helps

 

RE: Middle-aged performance mod: K&N air filter . . ., posted on October 27, 2011 at 01:29:50
audioAl
Audiophile

Posts: 1462
Location: So. Texas
Joined: December 16, 2007
 I have used Castrol and Royal Purple, both are great syntec oils. My 98 Villager GS sports a 3 liter v6 and has 2 1/2 inch pipes from the resonator,
Spectre short Air Ram filter for 20 additional horsepower.
Vista Ultimate 64 bit/e5300 Intel 45nm cpu/ASRock G41M-LE/Asus Xonar DS R 7.1/YamahaRX-V465 HT receiver/ Infinity RS1001 & Cambridge SoundWorks speakers/Yamaha YST-SW216 subwolf

 

RE: Middle-aged performance mod: K&N air filter . . ., posted on October 27, 2011 at 01:34:18
audioAl
Audiophile

Posts: 1462
Location: So. Texas
Joined: December 16, 2007



Here's a picture, Cheers! Let's go racing boys!
Vista Ultimate 64 bit/e5300 Intel 45nm cpu/ASRock G41M-LE/Asus Xonar DS R 7.1/YamahaRX-V465 HT receiver/ Infinity RS1001 & Cambridge SoundWorks speakers/Yamaha YST-SW216 subwolf

 

RE: What's the word on sythetic oil?, posted on May 31, 2012 at 13:29:16
acroy
Audiophile

Posts: 136
Location: Dallas-area
Joined: December 5, 2011
 Full synth is the way to go. Only exception would be if the motor is already in poor shape and is drinking/leaking oil already.

For a starter, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_oil
For an oil-head analog of the Asylum, venture here: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm

Note only group 4 and 5 are ‘true’ 100% synthetic. 1-3 come from mineral oil and are inferior. Check the bottle! Synthetic blends are a waste of time as far as I can tell.

The limitations of dino oil are becoming more apparent. I have run into 2 specific examples, both are well-known on the respective forums:

• 2.0 liter 4cyl in Mazdas have delicate oil control rings grooves in the piston. At about 100k miles on conventional oils, enough sludge has built up to prevent the oil control rings from seating properly, causing smoky start-ups and high oil consumption. A cleaner followed by switch to 100% synth can sometimes reverse the issue. Only other alternative is an engine rebuild.
• Late model GM V8’s with cylinder deactivation have similar issues on the deactivated cylinders. At 30-50k miles, the oil control rings start to seize and consumption goes up to 1-2qts per 1000 miles. GM has a dealer-performed service involving a solvent, etc to attempt to rectify.

These are just 2 examples from my own research. Neither of the above happens on engines using 100% synth oils. In both cases the engine is fine, excellent compression, no visible wear.

Over time, the impurities in dino oil will sludge/varnish/build up enough to cause minor especially in oil control rings. Issues are exacerbated in finely-machined engines (ring grooves), forced-induction (extra heat from turbo or supercharging), or when run under particular stress (cylinder deactivation, high rpm’s, high specific output). The 100% synth does not sludge or varnish until much higher temperatures.

Another component is the additive package: 100% synths generally have very good additive packages, keeping the engine clean for a long time, and even cleaning residue left by prior dino oils.

Finally, 100% syth oil have much better viscosity characteristics: less shear thinning, less temperature thinning, little or no age thinning.

A good way to look at it is that the synthetic oil does not ‘wear out’ – the additive package does.

When my relatives/friends ask for advice I suggest 7,500 mile change intervals, Mobile1 (usually 0w40), Mobile1 filter. In reality the oil can go 10-15, maybe 20k before the additives are gone. If they are nervous, stick to 5k oil change interval. In my own cars I use Castrol “German” 0w30 or Mobile1, and Napa Gold filters.

Your Mileage May Vary :)

 

Sythetic oil?, posted on June 21, 2012 at 11:39:29
Sumflow
Audiophile

Posts: 382
Location: On the road
Joined: June 7, 2012

Mobile One. If you have your oil tested at 5,000 miles you may find that you can go a lot longer than that between changes.

See:
~~~
Hide it ~ nothing looks better..

 

RE: Sythetic oil?, posted on November 1, 2012 at 04:32:26
LineArrayNut
Audiophile

Posts: 1953
Location: Tenn.
Joined: December 10, 2002





Amasoil in a turbo car 4K
I *like* the loudness button!

 

Page processed in 0.036 seconds.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]