Toyota Oil, Synthetic vs Conventional for short trips

Right. I don't trust anybody besides myself and my buddy to do anything on my cars. Does not matter if it's the dealer or John Smith's 10 minute oil change. They said I can do it without voiding my warranty as long as I'm ASE certified, which I'm not. I have to knowledge and experience, but not the documented hours to get the certification. They also say any shop can do it, but keep the records of them doing it. A shop is a shop to me. I would rather do it, but I don't want them trying to screw me out of a warranty item if something actually did go wrong.

 

Why not? It works fine.

 

Spending more money than needed in forever

^ this ^

 

The only benefit to running synthetic oil is to increase oil change intervals. Synthic doesn't provide any better protection.

If you change your oil every 5k then synthetic or dino won't matter.

You might want to consider using a lower weight oil if you do all short trips. That would provide more protection.

 

True... lighter weight oil would provide more protection in the sense that it flows better and will reach the moving parts faster than a heavier oil. And if you're doing short trips, that's more startups/shutdowns on average, so the better flow will help. There is no correlation between oil weight and oil film strength.
In fact, if you are doing mostly short trips, you should be following the "severe service" maintenance schedule which means changing your oil more often. So it really would not make sense to spend more on synthetic oil since you won't see the benefit of extended oil drain intervals.

For the record, my Tacoma 2.7 has merely 138,000 miles. I switched to synthetic at 120,000 with no issues, still runs like new.

^ this part makes no sense.

 

Something about synthetic being too slippery for new bearings and he wants regular oil in it while he still has tight tolerences until 75k. I've never heard of anything like that. Once I started to question him more on it, he told me to just do my own research on it. Maybe I misunderstood him. He's an excellent mechanic and taught me 90% of all I know, but we have different views on certain things. So that's why I wanted to know when did all the high milage guys switch to synthetic. People like the gentlemen with 400,000 on his motor and used Mobil 1 EP from day one is a perfect example. But on the flip side, if anybody had a horror story, I would like to hear that too. Personally, I think oil is oil. Some are better than others, but as long as you change it on time, use the right stuff, use the right stuff foe the right conditions, you're good. I don't think running synthetic from 0 miles will mess up your engine, seals, gaskets, or bearings.

 

Fox Body Brethren!

 

Love the way that fox body looks with the later model GT wheels!

 

You can't kill these trucks. You're overthinking it. You can put maple syrup in them and they will keep running.

 

Maple syrup is too expensive..... just run water in the engine.

 

Spit usually works too. lol

 

You are correct on all points -- the most important thing is use quality oil with the correct viscosity and API category according to the owner's manual, and change it on a regular schedule. Regarding protection of metal-to-metal contact and oil film strength, synthetic oil does not provide better wear protection than conventional "dino" oil. The benefits of synthetic oil are better flow, better resistance to shearing, better resistance to high temperatures, and usually better engine cleaning. What this means is, synthetic oil lasts longer and you can use synthetic for a longer drain interval, assuming a good filter is used and all other things being equal.

About using synthetic in an engine with tight bearing tolerances, many new cars come with synthetic oil fill at the factory because synthetic does not offer greater wear protection than conventional oil -- the new engines still "break in" (i.e. wear) while running synthetic oil just as it would break in with conventional oil. Many modern engines have such tight tolerances that 0w20 is recommended, it is so thin it looks like water. But that thin viscosity is needed to provide good lubrication into such extremely tight spaces, and the thinner oil also helps a tiny bit with fuel economy.

 

You stopped short of claiming "fake news". Why?

 

Funny how you can go to different dealership or different sales and or service at same dealer get a bag full of different answers I was told never bother with synthetic in my 06 by service writer

 

You're right...I think the internet caused all this fuss...'oil is oil' is mostly what you hear from folks who work on vehicles for a living.

 

Well my buddy pointed out something to me once that stuck with me. He asked me if he should spend $360 on 1,000 brass rounds for his AR or $230 for steel rounds. I said, go with brass. He later bought the steel. When I asked why, he said this: assuming steel screws up your barrel, how many rounds would it realistically take to wear out your barrel? 1,000 rounds? 2,000 rounds? 10,000 rounds? Each 1,000 rounds you save 130 bucks. Now, how much does a barrel cost?

With a car/truck. Are you going to keep it? Do you want the best of the best or what's going to work? How much is it worth to have the best? Is it worth it to have the best or just buy a new engine like a new cell phone?

 

I have no idea what this comment means. Or what you are asking.

 

If you run synthetic are you going to still change your oil at 5,000 miles?

 

Every 6 months regardless of milage to keep the warranty, then even 5k or every year. I have 2 free oil changes to use up, so I'm not worried about cost yet.