45auto

No, your not a dumbass, but at 5K on a Syn, you are throwing away perfectly good oil!!!!! There is no need at all to spend the extra $$ on syn to only go 5K, when a good Dino will do the job as well if not better for 1/2 the $$! The purpose of syn is to go longer!

Nope, not an oil God either, but 40+ years of first hand experience dictates otherwise. I've been around since the days of Syn started to catch on, only to see and experience the quality and technological advances in Syn technology. Mind you, as much as I like synthetic oil, I don't use it in everything. I need incentive before I go full throttle on anything. Case in point, I'm all for Bio-Diesel, it burns cleaner, it's much more natural, less oil "dependant", but don't me started on that, LOL, renewable and cheap to produce!!!! Only catch is, it's a lot more expensive at the pump over diesel!! Why??? GREED!!! Sooooo, I will stick with dino in my tank and in my crank case!! Just imagine how many would switch to syn or Bio if there wasn't so much GREED involved and we all would probably be better off. But, as long as government is involved, don't expect for anything to get better anytime soon!!!

NGM

Here is an idea of what I am up against. We did the BMW recommended oil service for this car and reset the oil counter. Here is a pic of how long they go between changes. This means for this many miles no one looks at the car no one goes under the hood no one checks the fluids.
I will be honest this engine is clean inside. I suspect he does them more often than every 15.5k. I am waiting on this customer to come pick his car up right now. I pulled it out and thought I would take a pic of what I have been talking about with BMw/MB and VW and extended LOFs

45auto

Newer vehicles now have that ability to display a service warning in the programming, which is easy to clear after a service. You can change as often as one wishes to and at that mileage, it will show. If no one looks under their hood, they then deserve to get what they get! Again, to me this equates to neglect. This also means you will likely remain in business that much longer and make more $$. A win win if you ask me. If people are that lazy, take their $$ with a smile!

NGM

Unless we perform the required inspection service we cannot reset the light. BTW I talked to the customer when he picked it up I mentioned the clean engine. He said it should be clean its a new engine only like 10 k on it. LMAOOOOOOO

45auto

If your changing oils at 5K intervals, which is perfectly fine, you are wasting good $$ on syn. when a good dino will be equal to of better than for much less $$. In other words, if a 5K interval is a regular maintenance schedule, there is no need to run syn, IMO!!!

jakewash

Not My engine it was my fathers, its a 5.4L. At work we have numerous 5.4L that have 200,000+ on them and no problems with any oil burning nor plug fouling and all we use is 5W30 non synthetic, oil changes every 3 months - mileage varies from 2000 to 10,000 for some trucks.

As I said my father has bought into the synthetics and I feel this has something to do with his 2 trucks burniing oil and fouling plugs. One was a GM and one is a Ford. I have tried some synthetic in my 91 Stanza(287 k) and within 1500k I had to add a liter, switched back to nonsynthetic and it has been 3000 and it is only down 1/4 liter. Just too much coincidence for me. I am staying with the old, tried and true stuff for now.

P.S I have been a mechanic for 20+ years as well and this debate has no winner, seems to be a real personnal preferrence thing to me, some swear by it and others don't. Synthetics have not worked well for me that's all.

45auto

I can see more oil consumption on any vehicle with that high of mileage and switching to syn. There is much less friction with syn than dino so you will have issues due to wear from dino and the syn cleaning out your engine. This is why so many new vehicles come from the factory today with syn's through out. It creates less friction with superior coating properties and is better for cold starts. Many new vehicles now come with 5w-30 from the factory, also in part for emissions. Ever wonder why your 4.6 or 5.4 rev's so damn high at start up?? Primarily do to emissions controls at cold start! The best benefit to running syn is to switch very early on when the vehicle is new and stay with it!

jakewash

As I had mentioned my father switched over early(first oil change at 5000) on both his trucks and he had issues with oil consumption and plug fouliing. I am willing to switch, but his experiences have me more than a little apprehensive, those spark plugs are expensive. Dino works great for me and seems to still be the prefered spec oil for most manufacturers up here.

whitecrystal1

Maybe true but I did a switch over to Castrol syntec at 150,000 then shortly after I switched to Mobil One. Car does seem to consume one to two quarts between oil changes but it alway seem to before the switch. So I can't say if it hurt or helped, it's still running strong and the Mobil One is gonna stay in it till the end

lynn97

i use mobil one 5w30 and one quart of lucas oil stablizer and i change every 7500 or 8000 miles