Synthetic oil and oil change intervals.

Distrbd · 08-01-08, 08:30

I found this article in another site and think it clears up a lot of questions people might have about expensive synthetic oil oppose to discounted price synthetic oils .
My routine is every 7500 KM I change my new Civic oil with Mobile 1/Amsoil 5W 20 ,and for my 2002 Hyundai Accent I use whatever I find on special as long as it's synthetic and it's 10W 30.
The article below is telling me that I'm doing the right thing for my older car and may be wasting my money buying the more expensive oil for my newer car,and for all practical reasons there's not much difference in performance between the two oils .
for the time being I still stick with my plan as far as my newer car goes.

The surprising truth about motor oils

Accumulator · 08-01-08, 09:06

Distrbd- I *think* I read that before (despite all my griping about them I'm still a CR subscriber) but it was still an intersting (re?)read.

For vehicles I'm not too concerned about I use cheap oil (and yeah, I do look for that Sunburst icon) and change it around the 6K mark.

Yeah, people see all those oil change ads, and remember what their dad did back in the day, and waste a lot of money IMO. Heh heh, people who never change their brake fluid still change their oil all the time!

But for vehicles I really *do* care about, and any that see track/etc. use, I use Mobil1 (rotaries excepted) and change it more frequently. Even synthetic oil is cheap compared to rebuilding certain engines, and it's also cheap relative to my peace of mind

Lost Pup · 08-02-08, 06:29

Head over to Bob is the Oil Guy Web site for the same OCD attention to this topic that we see here among Autopians and detailing.

Bob Is The Oil Guy - Powered by Motor Oil

I installed an oil bypass filter on my Truck and use non/syn oil when needed. Actually change the filter only and add top off oil back to the full mark.

Oil sample testing reveals ideal/actual change requirements for the individual cars. Check out the listed site. Tons of reading material here.

Rob22315 · 08-02-08, 06:59

The one difference between the cars used in the CR test and my personal vehicles is much of my driving involves short trips. The CR test is based on vehicles that are running for long periods of time. The CR test doesn't deal with cold oil and start-up issue my DD vehicles go through. I use synthetics changed every 7K miles or, on my 1993 Saab, once a year.

There was a test done with Mobile 1 for 18K miles without changes showing it held up well as long as one did periodic top offs. The top offs really seemed to make a difference in maintaining the life of the additives as shown in the sample testing throughout the experiment.

Accumulator · 08-02-08, 11:46

Rob22315- Interesting about the 18K mile thing....I woulda expected contamination (water, primarily) to be an issue in cases like that. Maybe I'm just used to the cold start/short trip effects like you mentioned.

Top offs...yeah...some of our cars need topped off fairly often but others go ~6K without using a drop

lecchilo · 08-02-08, 12:13

omfg an oil thread on Autopia... NOOOOOOOOOO

JuneBug · 08-23-08, 05:42

I spent 2 hours reading about oil on a VW forum, there was this Amsoil shill that just couldn't quite understand that his miracle in a bottle was NOT on VW's list of approved oils. I'm not violent by nature, but if I ever meet that guy in person, I'd tear off his head and use his neck as a toilet.

paradigm · 08-23-08, 06:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by JuneBug

I spent 2 hours reading about oil on a VW forum, there was this Amsoil shill that just couldn't quite understand that his miracle in a bottle was NOT on VW's list of approved oils. I'm not violent by nature, but if I ever meet that guy in person, I'd tear off his head and use his neck as a toilet.

so you're saying you like the guy, eh?

i don't read too much into oil change intervals...IMHO it's like people that do 50 layers of zaino. it's a mental "feel good" but not necessarily doing anything beneficial in the end.

sweet. now i've combined an oil thread AND zaino in the same topic! the forums will explode!!!!

JuneBug · 08-24-08, 04:41

I read the VW manual and it says - 1st oil change at 5k, then at 10K, then every 10K afterwards. OK - 10K between changes just seems a bit long even with Mobil 1, if money ain't a biggie - like 50 bucks or so, then every 5K sounds better to me, I've always thought that oil was cheap compared to an engine problem. But, then the factory says 10K - ???I don't know, I just want my little GTI tp run for a long time, I really found a car that I love. It's been 19 years since that happened - 1989 Acura Integra - red with black interior, loved that!

BoostedMopar · 08-24-08, 04:44

I run Mobil 1 and change it every 2500 miles. Crazy..YES! Its my baby though

Accumulator · 08-25-08, 10:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by JuneBug

I read the VW manual and it says - 1st oil change at 5k, then at 10K, then every 10K afterwards. OK - 10K between changes just seems a bit long even with Mobil 1, if money ain't a biggie - like 50 bucks or so, then every 5K sounds better to me, I've always thought that oil was cheap compared to an engine problem. But, then the factory says 10K - ???I don't know..!

IMO, no matter what you're gonna have a *lot* of contaminants in the oil after ~6K. My Audis have long specified change intervals, but no way I'd go 10K.

IMO factories give the longest intervals they can get away with without having problems during the drivetrain warranty period. Sounds good to say how low-maintenance the car is. With cars that have free scheduled maintenance they save themselves money too

Florida-LS · 08-28-08, 07:29

I use Royal Purple in my vehicles. I do my oil and filter change every 7,500 miles or about twice a year.