Synthetic Oil - Opinions?

[loudawg]

What do you guys think about synthetic oil? I've been using it for the past 4 or 5 oil changes and I really like it. I'm at about 4k miles now (gonna change it today...been slacking), and it's not even black. just a dark color. Seems to work well. I read some stuff on it and how it doesn't break down or boil and has a better film strength, etc. Is this all true? I feel pretty confident that it does work better. My friend swears by it (don't know how true this is, but he told me he saw on Mobile 1 bottles a long time ago that they gauranteed a 100,000 mile oil change with their oil, but later took it off because it voided car manufacturer warranties.....sounds kinda iffy if you ask me)... my other friend claims that after a few changes he couldn't notice any "lag" (for lack of a better term) in his engine with his Civic as he got close to his oil changes. I'd like to read up more, but every time I search on the web for it all I get is AMSoil marketing stuff all over the place. Man those guys have the web dominated in this subject!!

My flight instructor said that they used 2-stroke synthetic in a little Rotax motor in some small airplane and after a while of use they tore it down and he said he couldn't believe it, that it looked as if it had never been run before. Sooo, am I just trying to make myself believe it's good, or is it really?

Thanks guys...this board rocks.

~Lou

 

[Jason]

i know the stuff about the boiling piont and film strength is true. since i bought my car in feb. this year i've put nothing but mobil 1 synthetic and i love it. it always comes out super clean and the engine runs smooth. i noticed that after my first oil change when i bought car i got about a 1 mile per gallon increase in my gas milage, and since then it's up to about 2. i know i'll never use anything else.

 

[guedo512]

when i got my car the first thing i did was upgrade to mobile 1 syn. i noticed a difference and its well worth it in the long run.

 

[mdre21]

it's better for the environment too

 

[VaBch98GS]

mobil one synthetic is all i use now since i first tried it. i read somewhere on here that they were suing castrol for marketing their casrtol syntec as fully synthetic and its not, it's only partially synthetic. haven't heard the outcome of that one yet.

 

[abstraction]

if you've got high mileage on your car, it's kindof a bad idea to switch to synthetics.... you might notice some seal leaks....

 

[mitsumaster]

does mobil 1 meets manufacture's requirements for 98 eclipse? I've been using castrol and after I read this im thinking about switching to mobil 1 synthetic.

 

[loudawg]

Originally posted by mitsumaster
does mobil 1 meets manufacture's requirements for 98 eclipse? I've been using castrol and after I read this im thinking about switching to mobil 1 synthetic.

I would assume so...I use the Mobile 1 5W-30 right now and it has all those specifications on the cap like normal oil does...like the energy conserving and such. It meets all the SAE stuff. And it's all everyone that I've talked to uses. So I'll stick with it. It's been working beautifully so far!

If only I didn't have a final tonight I'd be changing that oil right now....grrrr....

 

[Bd1000Eclipse]

Originally posted by abstraction
if you've got high mileage on your car, it's kindof a bad idea to switch to synthetics.... you might notice some seal leaks....

i thought it was better for higher mileage engines? i heard you're not supposed to use it on newer engines

 

[mdre21]

synthetic oil is good for any engine. there has been occurences where switching oils results in leaks in certain places. It tends to be common with the natural to synthetic switch because it is more common. Reasoning that i've heard is that the additives are different and things like valve seals get a "memory" and get used to certain additives compounds. I've also heard that the same problems occur when switching from say valvoline to castrol, even if it's not to a synthetic, just because different companies use different formulas.

 

[loudawg]

In addition to what you said, I heard that part of the reason is because of the crap that builds up in your seals and other parts from the normal oil gets cleaned out after a couple oil changes by the synthetic oil, leaving a little more of a gap.

~Lou

 

[abstraction]

^^^ -- that's the reason i know of anyway...

When you use normal oil, it collects in the seals, etc and actually builds up around the seals..... when you switch to synthetics, that old crap gets cleaned out after a while, and you might notice leaks around some of your gaskets.

Now i can't personally vouch for this... but you're running a stock GS, i wouldn't worry too much about going to synthetics.. i'd just go with regular oil.. unless you have a very good reason for believing that regular oil isn't good enough (like if it's giving you problems)

 

[Bd1000Eclipse]

Originally posted by abstraction
^^^ -- that's the reason i know of anyway...

When you use normal oil, it collects in the seals, etc and actually builds up around the seals..... when you switch to synthetics, that old crap gets cleaned out after a while, and you might notice leaks around some of your gaskets.

Now i can't personally vouch for this... but you're running a stock GS, i wouldn't worry too much about going to synthetics.. i'd just go with regular oil.. unless you have a very good reason for believing that regular oil isn't good enough (like if it's giving you problems)

why's it matter if he a gs or not? are only turbo cars supposed to run synthetic? no.

 

[abstraction]

Originally posted by Bd1000Eclipse


why's it matter if he a gs or not? are only turbo cars supposed to run synthetic? no.

No... i didn't say that.. i just think that there's a greater benefit to have synthetics on turbos... With his GS, i don't think there's too much of a point, especially not if the car has already racked up high mileage... it's just like putting down extra money without seeing a benefit.

Personally, i run normal oils.

 

[abstraction]

Originally posted by loudawg


I would assume so...I use the Mobile 1 5W-30 right now and it has all those specifications on the cap like normal oil does...like the energy conserving and such. It meets all the SAE stuff. And it's all everyone that I've talked to uses. So I'll stick with it. It's been working beautifully so far!

If only I didn't have a final tonight I'd be changing that oil right now....grrrr....

i heard stories about people getting lifter tick using Mobil 1, then switching to Castrol and not having that problem?