synthetic oil

[blaise]

I wonder if anybody knows which are the Toyota approved synthetic oils.

 

[LTC9024]

Synthetic or Dino

My service manager has advised that I should change my oil every 6000 km vs 8000 km as suggested by Toyota for my 2003 V8 4Runner Limited 4x4. I intend to follow this advice.
Any thoughts on the age old question, "Should I use synthetic or dino oil?"
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Thai]

None are recommended by Toyota in general. However, many mechanic (Toyota or not) recommend Mobil 1 and Castro. Basically, if you stick with big brandnames, you won't go wrong.

Here are two threads more on this topic:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=229

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75

Thanks.

 

[Ken Briggs]

I went 152,000 miles on the K2500 Suburban I just traded in on my new 2003 V8 Limited. I used Redline synthetic in everything, engine, transmission, transfer case and differentials. They were perfoming just like the day I bought it, even though it didn't make a penny's diference in the trade in value.

 

[blueheeler66]

I've been running Mobil1 in my '95 Tacoma since shortly after the break-in; it's got 200,000+ miles on it and it runs like a top (synthetic Mobil1 lubricants bumper to bumper). I changed over to Mobil1 synthetics in my '92 4Runner (bought 2nd hand) and it is still running well at 192,000+ miles although it's got a few things that are needing attention (problems probably initiated with the previous owner).

 

[TSP-MIKE]

All the new toyota motors use a sythentic blend. The toyota oil is made by Mobil. When you buy a new toyota it's a good idea to keep the Sythetic blend, or go all out sythetic. From what i've seen, if you go sythetic and switch back to convertional, it will kill the engine. I'm using Mobil 1 Sythenic in my 4runner and it has over 250,000 miles on it. When i pulled the valve covers, the inside looked like it had 1000 miles on it. Looks brand new!

Mike

 

[Thai]

Mike, are you sure?? From what i have seen, Toyota dealership are using Castrol GTX (top-notch quality regular oil based on refinement process). In fact, Honda uses Castrol GTX predominantly on their cars too.

 

[TSP-MIKE]

If you want to check it out, just go to the dealership and take a look at the quart. It says synthetic blend and, the bottle looks like the Mobil sythetic blend bottle. Now toyota has just switched there oil to another company so it might be castrol now. I'm not 100% sure on that.

Mike