Switching from Synthetic to Conventional

some of you may be saying.

But shoot, I change my oil religiously every 5k and I recently ran out of free synthetic changes at my dealer. Conventional is easier to come by and is obviously cheaper, I was wondering if I'd be looking at any problems switching back to conventional?

I plan on taking care of her every 5k miles, so help me understand why this may be a bad idea (or not).

It's a 2011 btw. And I already did a search but could only find people going from conventional to synthetic =/

 

Obviously it's your truck, and you can do what you want....

Synthetic has much better lubricating and viscosity qualities than conventional. Conventional breaks down a lot quicker than synthetic too. What I do for my truck and my recommendation: I run Mobil 1 synthetic & get the 5 plus quart bottle. At atuozone its around 34 to 38 bucks Its the exact amount that our engines take. I buy Toyota filters in bulk - 10 for $50. Trust me... in the long run it saves you a good chunk of money.

 

Good advice, i'll look into those filters.

Well a little background, it's a daily driver and I live in Memphis, TN so more humid weather than anything, but no extreme one way or another as far as ice or fire is concerned. I don't tow much with it unless I go up to our lakehouse where it sees a jet ski trailer. I just have heard that flip flopping between conventional and synthetic can be dangerous. I've also heard that's a myth.

 

if you buy when Autozone or any of the other players (advance, O'Reilly's) has the synthetic on sale...

heck, I get the stuff from Walmart for like $19.95 per 5qt+ standard jug, get the OEM Toyota filter for about $5.50, $25.50....how much less is conventional? not worth the switch, IMHO...

stick with the syn stuff...

 

When you look at the cost difference of doing synthetic every 10k miles or conventional every 5k miles plus the added benefits of synthetic I would go with synthetic Mobil 1 EP.

 

What do you buy? Sometimes I have trouble finding synthetics in a jug.

 

I live in Memphis too, with how our weather is, I run 10W30. Been running it in an 07 4runner with 121000 miles since I got in late 06 with 2000 miles. That thing runs like day 1.

 

No, there is no issue with switching from synthetic to conventional.

 

Good stuff, yeah i see that now. I'll have to keep an eye out for your truck. I mainly stick to the east Memphis area close to Poplar and 240.

I think I'm going to go with a 10w20 synthetic or the like this time since 0w20 is so hard to find.

 

yeah, my truck is pretty unmistakeable with my bar in the front. i'm kinda all over the place, usually around shelby farms and germantown parkway.

 

Mobil 1 5qt jug is $27 at Walmart. With an OEM filter you're talking less than $35 after tax.

 

I used to use synthetic in my 2000 Celica religiously. Now a days I hardly drive it, less than 400 miles in the past year, so I switched back to conventional oil with a Toyota filter. I also switched to 5W-20 oil.
The Tacoma is coming up on 45000 miles. The free services are all used & the Land-Car services are used, so now I'm going to switch to 0W-20 synthetic with Toyota filters. I going to let it go 10000 miles between oil changes, with a filter change at 5000 miles.

 

Whats your trucks recommended oil weight? 0-20 is a syn only oil

 

Yeah, it says 0-20 but I'm pretty sure 5w-20 isn't going to hurt it or anything.

Thanks for all the responses guys. I ended up going w/ Mobil 1 0w-20 w/ a Bosch filter for under $35 at wal-mart.

 

The way they rate oil filters is to take a measured amount of ground glass, add it to the heated oil and run it once thru the filter, the % filtered out is the rating (Mobile 1 = 98%) They also have a 3 pass rating for cheaper filters, the % filtered out in 3 passes is the rating (multipass). Also when filters clog they bypass (no filtering) synthetic oil can be changed every 15K and not void the warranty, (check with your dealer) I use synthetic 0W - 20W and I change my oil filter every 5K