Do any of you use...

[Tama]

synthetic oils in your vehicles?

I use Royal Purple motor oil, trans & differential oil.

I like synthetic. It seems to shift slightly smoother.
The only negative is the cost...it's pretty expensive.
I know the offset is fewer oil changes, but I like to change my oil fairly often so I can see whats going on in my engine.

The positives are that the oil stays cleaner longer. There are more polymers in synthetic, so it's supposed to have superior film strength and lubrication properties.


Any of you sold on the advantages of synthetic?
Dave

[popinfresh]

I've used Redline, Royal Purple, Quaker State and Amsoil in the past most often for my project cars. Castrol Syntec, Pennzoil or Mobil 1 in the daily driver.

FWIW, in a daily driver I don't think there's any advantages to synthetic's really. If you change your oil regularly enough, a good quality conventional oil is fine.

[Tama]

Originally Posted by popinfresh

I've used Redline, Royal Purple, Quaker State and Amsoil in the past most often for my project cars. Castrol Syntec, Pennzoil or Mobil 1 in the daily driver.

FWIW, in a daily driver I don't think there's any advantages to synthetic's really. If you change your oil regularly enough, a good quality conventional oil is fine.

Yeah, I think you are right.
My X-Runner is the last new truck I'll ever own...just cant stand the payments.
I started it out with Royal Purple thinking it will prolong the engine life.
Truthfully, I'm not 100% sure about it.

So far sop good tho.
The engine has 22,000 on it and looks good inside & runs great.

Dave

[Mike N]

I use conventional oils in everything from my daily driver to my 10 second Camaro.

[lowendfriend]

I use Mobil 1.....I think of it as insurance for when I get my head down at work and come up for air realizing I haven't changed the oil for 13000 miles.

[TOOL460002]

you know, ive heard people say royal purple is the best, but ive never used it. i just go to jiffy lube and get whatever synthetic oil has always been used every oil change in my car. i think its mobile 1. i forget. its like 70 for the change though.

i think using quality oil and gasoline and changing the oil every 3-4k miles, or 3-4 months will prolong engine life. that just makes sense to me. im not sold on the "get it serviced every 15k miles or whatever," but i have gotten a couple of those. theyre way too expensive though. it just makes sense (to me) that a cleaner engine will last longer.

also, on the gasoline thing, my father has been an employee of one of the major american oil companies for over 30 years, so i feel like ive heard way too much on the subject. you see commercials about special stuff different companies offer, but basically, even though something like chevron, shell, or exxon mobile will claim to be the best, they will be of the same quality. even though no name mom and pop gas stations might be cheaper, there can DEFINITELY be a difference. that is absolutely a fact. its a mine field. i have never used cheap brand gas in my car. i never will (well, i always buy the brand my dad works for, so that might be part of it, but its still not something you can really debate).

anyway, thats my advice. like most things, you get what you pay for, except for things at the very top, which might be just slightly better, but considerably more expensive. buy name brand, but you dont need to buy the most expensive of those name brands. thats just unnecessary in my mind.

[Tama]

Hey Tool:
I use only Amoco Gold fuel in my truck.
What do you think about the quality of their 93 octane?
Dave

[TrooperFarva]

I use synthetic in my new truck. I like the extended mileage between oil changes. I use Mobil 1 because I've used it in the past, and haven't had any problems with it.

[MJ5150]

Originally Posted by Mike N

I use conventional oils in everything from my daily driver to my 10 second Camaro.

Good to know. I trust Mike N.

-Mike

[doktorfeelgood]

I have a 1999 Ford Escort that was bought new by my Mom and willed to me before she passed in 2002. I got the car with about 15,000 miles on it and from doing gigs all over the area where I live, it now has about 107,000 miles on it. From the day I got it, I've put Castrol GTX oil in it and changed it at 2500 mile intervals with a new oil filter of course. At 40,000 miles I put a K & N air filter in it and at 75,000 miles I started using Castrol GTX High Mileage oil and besides a tad small amount of cam noise on start-up, the motor still runs clean and strong. No oil burning or leaking. The car gets a steady average of 34 MPG around town/highway combined and I sometimes get 44 MPG if I have a long highway drive to a gig. That's with all my gear in the car at a 70 MPH average. I had considered Royal Purple for awhile about a year ago, and talked to one of their reps on the phone about making the switch. He told me as long as the car wasn't leaking or burning any oil I'd be OK. I never made the switch because although it's more costly for me to continue to use conventional oil, I just figured if it ain't broke, I ain't gonna try and fix it. And BTW, unless I'm stuck on the highway and can't get anything else, I have used nothing but Shell regular gas in the car. )=(

[MusicBokonon]

I usually just buy whatever 5w30 they got. I'm not a real motorhead (good band btw), and gas, oil, and batteries are about the extent of my mechanical powress.

[Tama]

Originally Posted by doktorfeelgood

I have a 1999 Ford Escort that was bought new by my Mom and willed to me before she passed in 2002. I got the car with about 15,000 miles on it and from doing gigs all over the area where I live, it now has about 107,000 miles on it. From the day I got it, I've put Castrol GTX oil in it and changed it at 2500 mile intervals with a new oil filter of course. At 40,000 miles I put a K & N air filter in it and at 75,000 miles I started using Castrol GTX High Mileage oil and besides a tad small amount of cam noise on start-up, the motor still runs clean and strong. No oil burning or leaking. The car gets a steady average of 34 MPG around town/highway combined and I sometimes get 44 MPG if I have a long highway drive to a gig. That's with all my gear in the car at a 70 MPH average. I had considered Royal Purple for awhile about a year ago, and talked to one of their reps on the phone about making the switch. He told me as long as the car wasn't leaking or burning any oil I'd be OK. I never made the switch because although it's more costly for me to continue to use conventional oil, I just figured if it ain't broke, I ain't gonna try and fix it. And BTW, unless I'm stuck on the highway and can't get anything else, I have used nothing but Shell regular gas in the car. )=(

Sounds like you have done good with that car.
I used to sell only Castrol at my motorcycle shop...unless otherwise requested.
Always had good luck with it.
The key is simply changing oil & filter often enough.
I did a very un-scientific test and got an extra 1-1/2 m.p.g. with the Royal Purple.

But again, my test could be off some.
Truthfully, I run it cause I like to spend money on my truck.
It's no Callaway Corvette, but there are only about 2,500 of em made each year and I think it's a really under-rated truck.
Toyota doesn't even advertise it like it does their regular line of autos.

I really like it.
Cheers, Dave

[TOOL460002]

Originally Posted by Tama

Hey Tool:
I use only Amoco Gold fuel in my truck.
What do you think about the quality of their 93 octane?
Dave

well, i personally have never used amoco, partly because im not sure if theyre in california, and partly because i only buy chevron 89 (okay, i dropped the name of my dads employer...). because of this, i tend to ignore other gas stations, which makes for me not really knowing where they are, you know what i mean?

anyway, to answer your question, i would give amoco a thumbs up. like i said, i dont know them, but i do know they merged with brittish petroleum, which means theyre good (funny thing is on the gas cap of my car [2006 mustang] it says ford recommends brittish petroleum).

heres the reasoning behind my thumbs up on amoco: like i said, they are part of bp, and wikipedia says it was one of the largest mergers in recent history, so amoco was pretty big as well. anyway, a large oil company has more cash to throw into research and quality refineries and whatnot. smaller companies dont. as i mentioned in my previous post, the big companies are all pretty close. chevron has techron, whatever the hell that is. shell has some special name for something thats in their gas too. im not a chemist, but im sure it makes some difference. theyre all going to be close in quality, regardless of whatever special ingredient they say they have.

also, my first tip off is that they carry 93 octane. i could be wrong, but i doubt the majority of smaller companies have that available. heck, plenty of large companies dont.

anyway, i hope that answered your question. i will send an email to my dad anyway, and post again if theres anything extra that he says, but i would imagine he would give it a thumbs up as well (despite not being chevron brand gas...). he has all kinds of knowledge regarding company structures and environments, the whole corporate attitude of various companies. for example, exxon mobile is apparently hardcore super professional and all business, no messing around. i mean, its not like other companies are joking around and have some morons on board, but they are apparently are full of big name school, super professional folks, at least more so than other american oil companies. that might makes some difference, who knows. most oil rigs and wells are not just one company. they tend to diversify and be owned in various percentages by various companies to reduce risk, and my dad is currently on the contract side of the business, so he interacts quite a bit with other companies, hence knowledge, though im sure most people in the business know how their competitors operate.

short question, long answer. sorry.

[Mike N]

Originally Posted by doktorfeelgood

I have a 1999 Ford Escort that was bought new by my Mom and willed to me before she passed in 2002. I got the car with about 15,000 miles on it and from doing gigs all over the area where I live, it now has about 107,000 miles on it. From the day I got it, I've put Castrol GTX oil in it and changed it at 2500 mile intervals with a new oil filter of course. At 40,000 miles I put a K & N air filter in it and at 75,000 miles I started using Castrol GTX High Mileage oil and besides a tad small amount of cam noise on start-up, the motor still runs clean and strong. No oil burning or leaking. The car gets a steady average of 34 MPG around town/highway combined and I sometimes get 44 MPG if I have a long highway drive to a gig. That's with all my gear in the car at a 70 MPH average. I had considered Royal Purple for awhile about a year ago, and talked to one of their reps on the phone about making the switch. He told me as long as the car wasn't leaking or burning any oil I'd be OK. I never made the switch because although it's more costly for me to continue to use conventional oil, I just figured if it ain't broke, I ain't gonna try and fix it. And BTW, unless I'm stuck on the highway and can't get anything else, I have used nothing but Shell regular gas in the car. )=(

Personally I think that oil changes at 2500 mile intervals is not necessary. Oil has come a long way in recent years and I have no problem going 4-5000 miles between changes.

[iamlowsound]

I use synthetic in my motorcycles and regular in my cars. No idea why, but that is the way that I have always done it.

lowsound

[TrooperFarva]

Originally Posted by Tama

Truthfully, I run it cause I like to spend money on my truck. It's no Callaway Corvette, but there are only about 2,500 of em made each year and I think it's a really under-rated truck. Toyota doesn't even advertise it like it does their regular line of autos.

The Tacoma X-Runner? I've seen a bunch around, it looks like a pretty good truck. The stance is nice. Too bad it's not AWD. A RWD truck in northeast winters is pretty useless.

[Atoz]

I own a late model Jetta TDI. I have to use VW 507.00 synthetic, or the warranty goes bye-bye.

[Linas]

When i had a car (old turbo volvo), i used shell rotella T 5w40 synthetic. I think its more of an oil for diesel trucks, but my volvo seemed to love it, and ran smoother than with other oils. Not that expensive either compared to M1.

[SchecterC4]

Originally Posted by Mike N

Personally I think that oil changes at 2500 mile intervals is not necessary. Oil has come a long way in recent years and I have no problem going 4-5000 miles between changes.

This is very true. The API comes out with new service/performance ratings for oils all the time and oils must meet those standards.

My cars are all turbocharged and factory spec is at least semi-synthetic. I currently use Mobil1 fully synthetic but have used Castrol Syntec in the past and I honestly can't tell the difference. As long as it has the approved seal of the API and an SAE viscosity rating, I get what is cheapest. Same with gas. It all comes from the same place and all gas stations are mandated to put in a certain amount of cleaning/protective additives. If you show me a solid A/B comparison between Shell and Arco that proves that Shell's Nitrogen gimmick cleans better than any other fuel on the market, I'll switch. Until then I'll stick with Arco.

[Tama]

Originally Posted by TrooperFarva

The Tacoma X-Runner? I've seen a bunch around, it looks like a pretty good truck. The stance is nice. Too bad it's not AWD. A RWD truck in northeast winters is pretty useless.

Yeah Trooper, they are really pretty popular in California. I think they gat the majority of them at their dealers. We get very few of them here in central Illinois.
I love it.
Ya know what I think is "too bad?"
Thats that it doesn't come with the Toyota V8 engine !!!
That would be nice !!!
It's truly underpowered. The V6 is pretty powerful, but not as much as one would like. Pulling out of hard corners requires more horsepower than the 4.0 can muster.
Another bad thing is the gear ratios.
The 1st gear is a stump-puller....2nd drops the tach like a rock

But hey, if it had a powerful V8, my insurance would probably be pretty high.
HMMMM.. how bout a 550 h.p. Chevy aluminum small block ??

Ah, dream on, I may sell it someday.
Cheers, Dave