Synthetic or no?

1999sr5 said:
the way i look at it is they roll of the line with conventional so why change it? if it aint broke dont fix it! haha i know in some newer cars they are equipped with synthetic but ill stick with conventional. and i will never go back and forth between the two.
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Well you shouldn't go back and forth between the 2, pick one or the other. But the reason I switched is because changing the oil is my LEAST favorite thing to do on my vehicles. I hate it and the less I have to do it while still properly maintaining the engine, the better. That alone makes it a no-brainer for me.
 
great thanks for the info and opinions i also am not at all interesed in changing oil so if i run synthetic and get 7500-10000 i'd be thrilled
 
I have 3 cars, my mother one and my sister one. We do synthetic in all of our cars. Cleaner, better protection, and in the long run you actually end up spending less $$ as you can go longer between changes. Havent used dino in years, seems a waste of money to me with the added hassle of more pit stops at the mechanic for changes.
 
JeremyH said:
An oil change is the easiest way to save yourself money on your car if you do the work yourself....
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I agree. But it isnt worth my time or effort. And youre talking to a guy that rebuilt the carb on his 75 Firebird when I was 16. These days, Id rather buy the parts and pay someone I trust to do work like that for me while Im at home watching tv rather then waste a Saturday doing it myself after a hard week at the office. My time is worth more to me then that effort.
 
JeremyH said:
Mine is too, but I just simply dont trust the grease monkeys at those Quick Lube places. Also, I can change my own oil faster than I can drive to the 10 minutes place and let them do it.
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Fair enough, but Id never let a quick lube place touch one of my cars. I take them to a mechanic Ive been going to for over 20 years, and I show up with my own parts, even for an oil change. Minimum cost, minimum fuss, and the job is always done right. Over the years between me and my family, weve trusted probably close to 80 cars with them.
 
The way I see it is this (sorry for the previous overload link lol) Oil breaks down but not as fast as they want you to think it does. Even dino oil will last way longer than 3000 miles before breaking down. They (oil companies) will say " your dino oil looks like crap after a 1000 miles so you should use syn " Well... they are right it does but not because it's already broken down. It's because all the natural impurities like wax etc have dirtied it up. They use additives to suspend the dirt but it only lasts so long before the additives get used up and then you have to change the oil otherwise you end up with sludge. Syn are designed to last longer in two ways. 1. they don't have impurities to begin with. They are pure so that's why syn doesn't look dirty very quick. 2. They add more additives to keep suspending the dirt longer which means longer intervals between changes. As an example, Mobil 1 additive is called SuperSyn. In the Mobil 1 Extended Performance oil they put 50% more SuperSyn in than they do in the regular synthetic oil. Hence up to 15000 miles between changes guaranteed. I'll buy that for a dollar!! (actually Autozone had a sale 5 quarts and a filterr for $35, I pounced on that deal)
 
Muti007 said:
Fair enough, but Id never let a quick lube place touch one of my cars. I take them to a mechanic Ive been going to for over 20 years, and I show up with my own parts, even for an oil change. Minimum cost, minimum fuss, and the job is always done right. Over the years between me and my family, weve trusted probably close to 80 cars with them.
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Well, if he has treated you right for that long, then he wont start now. I wish I could find someone like that. Like you, sometimes my time is worth to me than my money...
 
JeremyH said:
Well, if he has treated you right for that long, then he wont start now. I wish I could find someone like that. Like you, sometimes my time is worth to me than my money...
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Yep, I consider myself lucky in that regard. Then again, my family being car nuts, over the last 20 years weve also probably put his kids through college, lol. J/K. I truly believe a good, trustworthy mechanic is worth just as much as a doctor you truly trust. Both are few and far between, and when you find one, you stick with them.

Dont get me wrong, sometimes I like to work on my vehicles as well and some things are actually fun to do. Ive got a new dvd/in dash navi coming this week and thats all me. But I only do the stuff I want to do, the rest Im happy to pay someone else to do while I get fatter on the couch eating donuts watching an Avatar academy screener in 1080p :)
 
Muti007 said:
But I only do the stuff I want to do
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Agreed. It's funny....I wont touch a transmission other than to drain and fill it...but I'll gladly tear down an entire axle. I guess we all have our cutoff point...I just simply dont like working on transmissions.
 
JeremyH said:
Agreed. It's funny....I wont touch a transmission other than to drain and fill it...but I'll gladly tear down an entire axle. I guess we all have our cutoff point...I just simply dont like working on transmissions.
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Dude, trust me. Transmission shops dont even like working on transmissions!! Theyre a giant pain in the ass, lol.

Its funny, I was talking to a friend at work today that just got a yellow 10 Challenger, R/T 6mt (that is one sexy ***** btw!!)and hes already thinking of trading it in on next years new SRT8 which will now have a 6.4 and 500-ish hp. Hes a real car nut like me. We were talking about working on our cars and he told me hed never want to install the head unit IVe got coming in, he thinks its too frustrating. But hell gladly get under one of his 60s muscle cars and spend all day under there wrenching away.

Different strokes for different folks. Were all car nuts, we just find pleasure in different things.
 
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Haha...I've never tried an auto tranny...but, when I was a kid, my dad helped me (well, he sat there and drank beer and told me I was doing it wrong) tear down a manual tranny (to replace a throwout bearing, IIRC). That just wasnt any fun, IMO. I do, however, LOVE working on transfer cases...both chain and gear driven. I've had the NP231 out of my jeep countless times!
 
JeremyH said:
Haha...I've never tried an auto tranny...but, when I was a kid, my dad helped me (well, he sat there and drank beer and told me I was doing it wrong) tear down a manual tranny (to replace a throwout bearing, IIRC). That just wasnt any fun, IMO. I do, however, LOVE working on transfer cases...both chain and gear driven. I've had the NP231 out of my jeep countless times!
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Ugh, no thanks!! Youre a glutton for punishment, lol. I dont ever want to touch a transmission.
 
Bump N Run said:
Dex III used trans fluid is crazy nasty. I can smell it a mile away. I only do drain and fill on my rig and wear rubber gloves always.

Back to topic.........
I recently swithed from Mobile 1 syn to Penzoil Platinum syn due to some extensive research on oil research sites and forums. It has good cleaning properties according to test. Its not the best but for the money Im gonna try it for a while.
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I always had great luck with Penz Plat. I haven't used it in my 4Runner yet, since I'm running Valvoline SynPower. But I used nearly 50 quarts of Penz Plat in previous vehicles. Good oil!
 
I run M1 in my wife's RX300. Back when I had my FZJ80 I switched from dino to M1. Got 3 oil leaks. I guess it cleaned them out. My 4runner has been run on Mobile Dino for it's 175,000 life w/Toyota oil filter. Oil looks great at 5000 miles. Let the sleeping dog lie.....
 
For my other cars i like Shell Rotella 5w-40 Synthetic, but then again i am running it through Diesels. Mine is Non-syn Shell 10w-30, i think 10 I dont remember.
 
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