Synthetic advantages.

[MAXX RS4]

My car has about 105k miles on it and it's due for another oil change. If I were to swap over to synthetic, would I be in any advantage? I was told by one person that it wouldn't help me out at all since I have high mileage, but I thought that a high mileage car would take a liking to some extra care like that..?

What would my advantages be and would it be worth the extra money. If so, what oil do you suggest?

96 gt

 

[bdcardinal]

i switched my stang to synthetic around 102k miles. didnt notice a huge change, the motor seems to get a bit better gas mileage, but i also have Mobil 1 ATF in the trans and Mobil 1 gear oil in the diff.

 

[Dark Knight GT]

To be honest, you probably won't see much of a difference. If you don't have any problems with regular motor oil, it would probably be best to continue using what you've been using for that last 105k miles, and save the extra money.

We did switch to full synthetic Amsoil in my mothers 89 Aerostar van at around 80k. It now has around 102-103k miles, and no leaks or problems as of yet with the synthetic motor oil. Was it worth it to switch ? Considering the only reason why I did it was so I could just change the oil once a year, and changing the oil on that van can be a PITA, then yes. As far as switching to increaseperformance, then the answer is no as there wasn't a difference in performance.

The choice is up to you.

 

[MAXX RS4]

I'm not looking at performance but more so at the treatment of my engine. It seems as though I'm starting to burn some oil (about a quart every 4k miles, roughly). Would it be considered and investment (for lack of a better word) to the longevity of my motor?

 

[stang74]

maybe 5 or 10 years switching from reg to synthetic oil would give you better wear protection. but todays regular oil is closing the gap on synthetic oil. If you look at some used oil analysis today, synthetic oil has no advantages over reg oil when it comes to wear #'s. The advantages synthetic oil has over reg oil are extreme cond and extended drain interval.

 

[ponysarepretty]

maybe 5 or 10 years switching from reg to synthetic oil would give you better wear protection. but todays regular oil is closing the gap on synthetic oil. If you look at some used oil analysis today, synthetic oil has no advantages over reg oil when it comes to wear #'s. The advantages synthetic oil has over reg oil are extreme cond and extended drain interval.

and resistance to heat.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Only difference would be to your wallet...

 

[DogVomit]

One lady in my office just had her VW Beetle motor seize. VW quoted her 10 thousand bucks.
She's been taking her car to Jiffy Lube and because they used conventional motor oil instead of synthetic, VW won't cover her motor under powertrain.
They say that the regular oil totally gummed up the motor.

I find it hard to see regular oil destroying the motor like that. But this appears to be the case.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

One lady in my office just had her VW Beetle motor seize. VW quoted her 10 thousand bucks.
She's been taking her car to Jiffy Lube and because they used conventional motor oil instead of synthetic, VW won't cover her motor under powertrain.
They say that the regular oil totally gummed up the motor.

I find it hard to see regular oil destroying the motor like that. But this appears to be the case.

Every manufacturer's recommendations are different for every model Probably says in the VW owner's manual "Use Synthetic Oil Only".

 

[DogVomit]

Every manufacturer's recommendations are different for every model Probably says in the VW owner's manual "Use Synthetic Oil Only".

Isn't this the case with GT's/Cobras?

OOPS, I put GT's and Cobra's in the same sentence...

 

[Fast02]

i switched to synthetic in my old car it had 149,000miles on it. I spun a main rod bearing within a week. Dunno if this was due to switching to synthetic or not but I wouldnt do it again on a high mileage car.

 

[03ghoststang]

its better to stay with the oil your using right now because you can cause damage to an engine switching to sythetic with that many miles the synthetic is not as thick as the conventional. So due to the synthetic being thinner oil you can spin a bearing cause the oil clearence between the bearing and crank are closer and it can cause it to rub metal to metal thus spining a bearing

 

[bdcardinal]

its better to stay with the oil your using right now because you can cause damage to an engine switching to sythetic with that many miles the synthetic is not as thick as the conventional. So due to the synthetic being thinner oil you can spin a bearing cause the oil clearence between the bearing and crank are closer and it can cause it to rub metal to metal thus spining a bearing

um no....

 

[ponysarepretty]

synthetic fixed my leak... or there s some serious starvation

 

[sgarlic]

I switched my wife's Jeep ZJ to Mobil 1 at 167,000 miles, and my foxbody to Mobil 1 at 100,000. I've had no leaks since. Almost every major synthetic oil manufacturer has proof on their website that running synthetic oil on high mileage engines doesn't generally lead to leaks. If it does, it's time to replace whatever's leaking anyway.

And to whoever above said there's no advantage to running synthetic over regular dino, you should research synthetic a little more. Not only does synthetic have a sizeable percentage more detergents in it, but it has much more protection during cold startups, which is where the majority of regular dino oils are lacking.

 

[SigmaPride]

I would keep using what has gotten you this far. If you had a new car then I would use synthetic, but you don't so be faithful to the oil you have been using. Plus, losing a quart every 4k miles is no big deal and is well within ford specs. Just keep an eye on the level and change every 3k miles. I would not wait until 4k personally with dino oil.

 

[Yellow2004GT]

I've had some high-mileage 5.0's in the past that have used up a lot of oil. I was adding about a quart per week. I switched both of them (@ 100-125 thousand miles) to Valvoline High Mileage oil and they ran a lot better. You won't feel the difference, but those high-mileage oils have additives in them that help fill in the seals where friction has worn a bit away. It helped with the smoke in the tailpipe issue as well, for the same reason. These were old "beater" cars that I didn't feel like having rebuilt and, thankfully, I didn't have to.

 

[mustanggt3685]

I have been using synthetic because that is what it has been changed with everytime, so I figure might as well keep it up. No use in changing over with a sure thing.