Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives How many of you guys use synthetic oil?

I forgot to mention that you should run a filter that is designed for synthetic oils, there are three that I know of. The Mobil-1 and the Puralotor Pure 1 are two that I know of at this point in time for automotive use that are easy to find, along with the AMSoil that is a top notch filter too. The filtering media for synthetic oil is just different, enough said.

Marcus

Marcus,
I've used synthetic oils since 1989 in various vehicles,all new and have had very good luck with them. I did not know you were suppose to use a filter for synthetic oil.I always just used AC or Fram filters.I change the oil and filter every 5000 miles.Will the synthetic filter help that much?
Thanks.

T Turner,
The filter media for synthetics is a finer mesh (so to speak), it will trap smaller particals, so they will be trapped and the oil itself will stay cleaner longer. The down side of this is the oil filter will fill up faster. The Mobil-1 filter for a Chevy 350 for instance has 351 square inches of filter face as the Pure 1 has 400 square inches, as oil filters go in that size that is a lot of surface to pass oil through. To answer your question, I have to ask you a question as well. If your driving includes a lot of pulling trailers and a high mix of stop and go driving as in large cities, then you would be well served to use a synthetic oil specific filter. If your driving is mostly highway driving, then most any high quality filter will work, with one exception; the Fram Double Guard oil filter. This is a very high quality filter that has Teflon particals in the filtering media, which is released into the oil as the oil is passed through the filter. This is an absolute great idea for mineral based oil, but it does have some draw backs for use in synthetic oil. The Teflon additive is not 100% compatible with all synthetic oils, so to be on the safe side I would not recommend the conjunction of the two. Although, if you are using the two together don't run out and dump your new oil, just consider what you may want to use next oil change. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.
Take care!
Marcus,

Teflon is not good for an engine.

If you want the real skinny on oil and such, visit Bobistheoilguy.com

Thanks for the link on air filters. If I hadn't read it for myself, I wouldn't have believed it!

I NEVER would have believed how POORLY the K&N filter actually filtered. K&N claims both superior air-flow and superior cleaning, but it seems that the superior air-flow is over-emphasized and the filtration is actually quite inferior.

Jeff

I'm calling BS <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I'm calling BS on this one as well. Somebody was feeding you a line of BS. If you expect anyone to believe that Mobil makes oil for all the other manufacturers,you're crazy.

Now if you'd have said that Mobil makes some of the "house" (Napa,Walmart,ect.) brand oils I'd buy that.

I'm on Taurus number 6 right now, most of the others have gone over 180K miles and two over 200K miles before they were replaced. I've never put anything in them except the WalMart $4.88 per 5 quart oil, and a $2.50 fram filter. I've never had an engine failure. I change the oil religiously every 3K.

badger,

On my previous BMW there was no set mileage for oil changes or service. There was a gauge on the control panel that signalled when it was time to do so through a green-yellow-red system. Supposedly, this system "looked" at how many starts were made, mileage, speed and temperature etc etc to determine when the oil should have been changed. On average, I changed aboout every 9000+ miles with this system. BTW the 15000 mile oil change came about with the introduction of the synthetics AFAIK.

I forgot to add that when my mechanic pulled the camshaft and declared zero wear, he also commented on how unusually clean the intake was for the miles the truck had. To my way of thinking, that because the synthetic oil didn't cook off and create smoky gasses that the ERG would then have sent into the intake. Just my theory. To me the extra cost is worth it. I used to change conventional oil at 2500, and now changed Mobil 1 at 4K. I could probably just change the filter and keep going but don't.

OKIE DOKIE........

FWIW, here is the results of the latest, greatest BMW maintenance regimen inflicted on a 1999 528i by the local dealer, using BMW synthetic oil & changing it when the vaunted Service Interval Indicator dictated the the car needed an oil change. (Odometer reading of 88 322 miles at the time it was towed to us with no oil pressure)
Your mileage may vary...........

BTW: All service records were in the service booklet in the glovebox <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Badger, those are hard photos to look at! Any further details about the type of driving, and actual miles between changes? I've never heard of BMW oil. Who makes it for them?

BMW Full Synthetic oil is made by Castrol to BMW specs. Looks very similar in color to Syntec. I do not know what type of driving the car was subjected to but according to the service booklet, oil & filter were changed at 9-14k mile intervals.

I also believe (& have not had anyone disprove my theory yet, even the local BMW Field Service Engineer) that the use of plastic valve covers, oil fillers, intake manifolds etc aggravate this problem because of their rapid temperature drop when the engine is shut off, especially in low ambient temps. This causes condensation to form & emulsify with the oil making it even more important IMO to change change it more frequently on modern engines than the older designs that use metal valve covers etc.

badger

Thanks for the follow-up. I'll continue to change my Mobil 1 @ 4K until I learn better.

Badger;

I have read recently that Mobil took Castrol to court for claiming their synthetic oil was just that... But Mobil maintained it was not.
It was described that their base stock was just highly refined parafin based oil. I ran a long change of Castrol and noticed slug build up on my oil fiilter and then pulled the valve cover and also noticed that it had quite of bit of slug on the engine head....

I switched back over to Mobil One and that eliminated that problem....

I will post my experiences with Mobil One seperately, but it is HIGHLY contrary to what has been experienced by others here....

cheers
seafire

My use for synthetic oil, mainly Mobil One has been for 25 years or so....My experiences with it was based on doing a lot of research originally and also keeping an eye on the head, taking the valve cover off and looking at the filter when I change it to see if any sludge build up or varnish was on the filter bolt area.....

My experiences have been totally different than those that have experienced failure or bad problems with Mobil One... I base my experiences with strictly Mobil One....

I change the filter every 5K, and use either Fram or Motorcraft fillters I get at Walmart...MY wife does much less driving than I do, so I change her oil every 15000 in most of the cars she has owned....

I change it every 20K to 25K in the vehicles that I drive.....

The most I have ever ran it was 40K.... once again with all filter changes at 5K.
I want to point out that none of these vehicles have the results shown on the BMW pictures.... NONE have had sludge or varnish on the heads, or have had plugged oil galleys...
As far as how long these vehicles have lasted.....

1985 Honda Prelude... 300,000 miles plus ( gave to young kid, friend of family) changed every 20,000
1984 Volvo..... 351,000 miles ( buddy was rusted out, 11 yrs in Minnesota) changed every 10,000
1992 Acura Legend ... 155,000 miles and still own, going strong, no sludge or Varnish.... changed every 10,000
1994 Toyota Camry 4 cylinder..... 185,000 miles and no sludge or varnish.. changed every 20,000
1988 Honda Prelude... bought with 115,000 on it, last oil change had been Pennzoil with only 3,000 miles on the change, but that had been two years since it was changed.... It had varnish and sludge build up,... records show oil changed since new every 3000 miles using Pennzoil 10w30....Ran this car 40,000 miles ( since I got it cheap and sold it recently for what I paid for it) on Mobil 0W 40.... added roughly 3 qts in 40,000 miles... Pulled the valve cover off of it before it was sold..... all the sludge and varnish that had been on there when I got it was long gone!

Final rig; 1988 Toyota 4 Runner, bought new in Sept 1987....
OIL changes every 20,000, filter every 5 k..... Rebuilt engine and tranny in 2002.... engine was getting "tired" , no oil consumption etc.... Mobil's Delvac One ( truck version of Mobil One) 5 w 40....
NO sludge or varnish in engine during tear down..... 430,000 miles on it....Rig now has 473,000 miles on it, and between 440,000 and 470,000 ran 5 w 40 Delvac One, with 5k filter changes..... NO sludge or varnish on engine, as I just adjusted the valves.... engine has 5 W 40 Delvac in it now and I will change it at 500,000 even, .... Engine oil will have 30,000 on it at that time....

Long time ago I got to see the factory test results that made Porsche recommend Mobil One as the factory recommended oil... Maybe Mobil still has that available.... it was some pretty astounding reading.....

IN closing, I will relate a story of two brothers that worked as service guys for a company I worked for....Both were Minnesota farm boys, and both bought Dodge Trucks with the old slant 6 in them....They traded them every 200,000 miles which was a little over every 3 yrs....ONe brother used Mobil One since it came out and never ever changed the oil, only the filter....for the entire 200,000 miles... He never cared as he never got squat in trade for a 3 yr old truck with 200K on it and had a lot of rust setting in....

Of course his brother used Pennzoil and changed his oil every 10,000 miles.... the last 50K or so, he didn't change it at all!!!

But that was on old Dodge slant 6s, and the only got a couple of hundred bucks in trade in on the pickups anyway... so they didn't care....

NO one ever killed a car by changing the oil too much, but I am sure a believer in Mobil One... can't say the same for Castrol's Synthetic oil......

As far as fuel mileage, the only car I ever noticed a difference on was on our Acura.... tried 10w 30 Castrol regular oil once and the mileage was 6 mpg less... changed back to Mobil One and it went right back up...

Recommended Mobil one on my folks car ( they are in their 70s) 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis... they got about 5mpgs more is what they claimed....

cheers to all
seafire

Seafire,

I have been using Mobil 1 for about 18 years on my own gasoline powered cars without any issues whatsoever. However, they all use metal valve covers etc. so I don't know if the "plastic generation" engines would exhibit similar sludging tendencies with Mobil 1 as they obviously do with the Castrol Syntec/BMW oil.

badger

Badger,

Interesting theory....All I know is that I use to have a Volvo that was intended for the Canadian Market and had been made in Canada.... It slipped across the border and I still bought it brand new, but it had the Owners Manual for the Canadian Side of the border.... It told one how to fix a lot of things etc, was very detailed.... then I got a hold of a Manual for the USA side of the border and for almost every problem, it did not explain how to fix it like it did on the Canadian Manual, it just said "Take it to the Dealer " over and over....

I really think in the USA, as opposed to the rest of the world, that the Manufacturers still limit the lifetime of a vehicle by recommendations of " take it to the dealer" .... who knows what the dealer is doing....

I'd go so far as to suspect that I wonder if " BMW" official oil was the same as "BMW" official oil in Europe.....

I am not all impressed with Castrol's OILs at all anymore....

Long drains with filter changes ( good filters!, not the $2.00 Walmart/Kmart filters) have done well for me. Actually my favorite synthetic is Mobil's Delvac Oil meant for over the road diesels... I have seen where it was Detriot Diesel or Cummins that honor warranties using Delvac One with 100,000 mile drain intervals and filter changes every 15K.... but this is with over the road diesels which are ON Running all the time....

Contrary to the knowledge of many, it is the turning the engine off and on and condensation build up that sludges regular oil up ( and evidently hurt Castrol's synthetic claims).... With regular filter changes and and engine on all the time, One would be surprised how long of a time regular dino oil will go without needed to be changed.....Like in Taxi Cab service etc.

But still my favorite quote on the subject has always been " NO one ever destroyed an engine by changing the oil too much!"

People keeping an eye on the valve cover insides and the filter's metal top when they change it can tell one a lot about what is going on inside the engine via sludge and varnish....

Of course I am left over from the generations when you could buy a $100.00 Chevy with a 250 ci Six Cylinder or a 283, AS a college kid: and the way to get another 100,000 miles out of it, was to start using Pennzoil and then never change it! What I later learned to Call Pennzoil..... Vega and Pinto Oil!......

Pennzoil sludge was about the only thing that could keep a Vega engine running past 40 to 50 K! 80 w 90 worked well when their rings were almost shot! LOL!

cheers
seafire

6 mpg difference just by changing oil... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I say untruth. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />