What kind of oil do you use in your car? (1 Viewer)

On my new car I use Mobil 1 Synthetic. Synthetic oil is vastly superior to conventional oil. It will not break down thermally like conventional oil and the only reason to change it is because it gets dirty. I knew an older fella that would drain his oil, change the filter, refill the car with the old oil and top it off with a new bottle. He would only use new oil once a year or every 4th oil change. I would not recommend that, but it worked for him and the car ran fine. Synthetic oil will not allow the internal engine components to wear. This is why you must drive a new car on conventional oil until the first oil change and then switch over to the synthetic. The syn. oil will not allow the engine to break in properly because of its anti-wear properties.

Also, it is beneficial to use in older vehicles for the same reasons mentioned above. Obviously its not as good as if it was used since the car was new but it will prevent wear from the time it is put in the engine. The only time I would not recommend using it is if you have an oil leak. The stuff is pricey and I would not want it just running out onto the ground.

Just so you know, I have over ten years of experience working in the auto parts industry so I have a good handle on this kind of stuff:)

Some people will tell you one brand of oil is better than another but their all basically the same, the important thing is regularly changing it. I think it really comes down to personal preference but my favorites and I would say the most popular are; for conventional oil I would go with Castrol GTX or Valvoline. For synthetic I like Amsoil but its hard to find and really expensive, its what most people use in their race cars, or what I use now in my mustang is Mobil 1, which is my favorite of the readily available synthetics. In reality you can't go wrong as long as you do regular changes.

But to answer your original question, synthetic is much better than conventional oil, especially if you plan on keeping the vehicle after it has over 60,000 miles.
 
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Oh, by the way...my niece is still driving my old Accord. It has 265,000 miles on the odometer.

Yes, I have heard a lot of good thing about Amsoil.. People swear by it... BUt I swear by Valvoline... 213,359 on the Jeep with no oil related prblems...

Had had a Chevy that started to develop lifter knocks using Quaker State.
Had a Ford Blew a front main bearing using Pennzoil. Nexct time you watch Nascar... See how many Fords drop out of the race with Oil related problems.

Yet never had a problem with the Jeep using Valvoline.

ANd no problems with the Harley in anything, but yet it has a new Engine in it. ;)

Joe
 
Yes, I have heard a lot of good thing about Amsoil.. People swear by it... BUt I swear by Valvoline... 213,359 on the Jeep with no oil related prblems...

Had had a Chevy that started to develop lifter knocks using Quaker State.
Had a Ford Blew a front main bearing using Pennzoil. Nexct time you watch Nascar... See how many Fords drop out of the race with Oil related problems.

Yet never had a problem with the Jeep using Valvoline.

ANd no problems with the Harley in anything, but yet it has a new Engine in it. ;)

Joe

I agree about the Pennzoil and Quaker state, I would stay away from them or any store brand type oil. Except for Carquest, their store brand is actually Valvoline just put in CQ bottles.
 
i guess this is one of the few times where im considered an expert.

i run an oil change shop, and im an ASE, AOCA, Nissan/Infiniti, Honda/Acura certified technician. plus i actually got an automotive college degree.

with that said, heres the truth:

1st priority.
use the grade of oil recommended by the manufacturer, IE: 5w20, 5w30, 10w30, etc.

honda, ford, chrysler, and toyota are currently using 5w20 in a good number of their newer vehicles. honda and ford have been using it in almost all of their cars since 2000. chrysler and toyota have more recently been going with it.

heres why: engineers are trying to squeeze every bit of power out of the engines while maintaining low emissions levels AND getting good gas mileage. to achieve this, they are making the tolerances in the engines tighter and tighter. thicker oil will not flow as well, and the more resistance to flow, the more friction it makes and will make the engine work harder.

too many people still pull into my shop saying "i want straight weight 40" or "i want the thickest stuff you got" for their brand new vehicles. they will never get good MPG with that line of thinking. i spend a lot of time with my customers trying to educate them.

2nd priority
use at least the minimum quality of oil recommended by the car manufacturer.

there's a label called the API on all bottles of oil. this label describes the level of testing that the American Petroleum Institute has put the oil through. older cars can use lower level API oil, because when the vehicle was designed, that level was the best available. newer cars should not go any lower than their API label, because you will increase emissions and shorten the life of the oil. all vehicles will benefit from using a higher API label than their minimum requirement.

3rd priority
synthetic vs. conventional

unless the manufacturer specifically states to use synthetic (or not to use synthetic, like in rotary engines), the choice is up to you. there's pros and cons to both though.

conventional oils use a base stock, which is refined from crude oil. additives and detergents are added to the base stock, and thats basically it. detergents clean the working parts of the engine, and there's additives that attract waste particles and trap them in the oil to keep them from depositing on the internal engine parts. there's also additives that force the oil to maintain a certain viscosity at given temperatures, which allows oils to have multigrade ratings (5w30 vs 10w30) as opposed to single grade ratings ("straight" 30) contrary to popular belief, the W in 5w30 doesnt stand for Weight. it stands for Winter, which means that 5w is the winter viscosity rating, or how thick the oil is when its cold, and the 30 is the operating temperature viscosity rating, or when the vehicle has already warmed up. conventional oil breaks down because the additives get used up. the additives that hold contaminants get overloaded, the detergents wear out, and the viscosity modifiers break down, which means the oil stops doing its job. the oil can actually be recycled by removing all contaminants back down to a base stock level, and recharging it with new additives, but the stigma surrounding the name "recycled" means that the auto industry shoots it down.

synthetic oils are made a little bit differently. rather than refine the crude oil into a base stock and then add additives and detergents, the crude oil is reconfigured at a molecular level, which removes all of the impurities. additionally, the additives arent just mixed in, they are engineered into the oil molecules. this makes the oil extremely fluid, and allows the oil to flow well at nearly all temperatures and even under the tightest tolerances. unfortunately, it also makes a small oil leak on an older car look even worse. additionally, the level of detergents that synthetic oil can carry is a lot higher, so it can clean a lot better. thats great on a well maintained car, but bad news on a poorly maintained one. the detergents usually clean so well that they cause the engine to burn more oil (by cleaning the buildup from the piston rings and valve stem seals) or leak more oil (by cleaning the buildup around seals and gaskets). this is why in its infancy, synthetic oils had a lot of horror stories. uninformed customers just said "give me the best stuff" for their high mileage vehicle, and it turned out bad.

these days oil manufacturers make a variation of oil for every application. they make synthetic oil for high mileage cars, which has seal conditioners in it rather than a high detergent level. they also make blends of synthetic and conventional oil (factory fill in most fords), which will give you a great additive package but breaks down sooner than full synthetic. basically, all you have to do is make an honest assessment of how well you care for your engine, and there will be an oil for you.

wow. this is getting long winded. just ask specific questions and ill be glad to answer them.
 
Mobil 1 synthetic.

My dad, a mechanic for 40 years, had gone to a couple of oil classes put on by Allison and Volvo. They said that the was no competition, Mobil 1 synthetic was by far the best oil out there. No question.

My dad could pull the heads off an engine and tell if it was running synthetic-if they were, there was NO wear on the internal engine parts.

As far as what not to use. The Volvo reprentative, when asked about Pennzoil said well if you want to blow up you engine its a good choice.

The only other thing I would like to add is that I keep meticulous records on my vehicles right down to milage of each gas fill up. With using Mobil 1 synthetic I get 1.5-2 mpg better in my 2002 Chevy truck and 3.2 mpg better in my 2007 Cobalt SS. I also get 2 mpg better in my wifes 2001 Grand Prix.

I also know that you get about 5% better horsepower and torque out of an engine by running synthetic in it due to the decrease in friction.
 
is synthetic oil better for older cars???

it depends on how well the car was maintained, and which synthetic you use.

if the car wasnt maintained well, deposits are actually keeping the seals from leaking. a synthetic like mobil 1 has a lot of detergents, and will clean those deposits out and you will start to see slight leakage around the seals and gaskets. nearly all manufacturers have some sort of synthetic for high mileage cars, which have seal reconditioners in it instead of a lot of detergents. those seem to work well.
 
I started using Castrol Syntec on my Nissan work truck at 175,000 miles. It now has 315,000 and runs great. Also, every 50,000 I substitute a quart of DuraLube in my oil change. All I can attest to is it makes the truck run cooler. From 50 percent on my temp gauge in the hot summer to about 40. I have went 6000 miles with the synthetic oil before changing. Also, I suggest a Pure One oil filter.
 

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