Synthetic or standard oil

Surfpronto, another on of those nembulas areas under discussion. I googled Mobil One and they list all of the vehicles that use Mobil 1, right out of the box. Quite extensive and many are high end, too. They also have a list of myth's about syn oil and break in. Basically they say, don't worry about the mileage on a new car/truck as engine manufacturing technology has progressed so far that little of this applys. Back years ago I wanted my Dad to try Mobil One in his horse towing vehicle(80's, Ford V8. with tow pkg.) At that time they said do not use it for various reasons and Mobil one is recommended for tow vehicles, so things change.
Mobil 1 and I believe all syn's exceed manufactures spec's for dino oil

As you will note in some of my replys I have said that I am thinking about changing to Mobil 1 soon, I use Mobil 1 in our long term Subie. However, I don't want to be changing Mobil 1 at 5000 intervals as if I use it I would like to extend my intervals longer.

Jeff
06, V6, 6spd, acc cab, 4x4

 

Very good topic. I like sticking with OEM.

 

Mobil 1 every five thousand on all my vehicles - only the grade changes between them.

 

I am due this month for a change and will take it to my local dealer, as it is to cold to be doing this outside, still considering Mobil 1 and if I thought I could get by with changing every 6K on Mobil 1 I woiuld do it as our other car has been on syn for its life time and I don't like to have to buy two different oils at our local WallyWorld.
TacoMan, what has your consumption level been on syn?

Jeff
06,V6,acc cab, 6psd, 4x4

 

My previous truck was an '89 Toyota with the 3.0 liter.
I bought it used at 80,000 and now my brother drives it with more than 245,000 as a third vehicle for him - his civic isn't really suitable for towing and hauling. I used Mobil 1 10w30 and changed it at 5,000 mile intervals. However, I only changed the filter every other time (a practice I don't do now). If it ran over 12,000 between filter changes, then I would notice oil burn.

Example: 10,000 miles - oil and filter
15,000 miles - oil
21,000 miles - oil and filter - no burn

10,000 miles - oil and filter
15,000 miles - oil
23,000 miles - oil and filter - quart low

(miles would indicate odometer reading)

The wifey drives a Trailblazer that we use Mobil 1 for also. Filter and oil every 5,000. Have gone 10,000 on accident with it, no oil burn.

I use the regular multigrade synthetic - not any of the special ones, extended performance, etc.

Fluids are a fairly cheap way of maintaining your vehicle. I plan to change them frequently, and while it is uncommon to hear of engine failure from oils available today, it is not uncommon to realize performance losses from infrequent fluid change.

 

Thanks Tacoman for the info, my previous vehicle, a 96 MonteCarlo Z-34, had Mobil 1 in it also and I am convinced of its worth, as well our Subie. Our Walmarts have decent prices on Mobil 1 . My neighbors(and good friends) have Toyota's (94's) and they do all there maint in there garage and use dino oil, I would like to get into there maint schedules if possible.
Jeff
06,6spd, 4x4

 

I've been lurking here for a while -- not a Tacoma owner yet, but soon.

Anyway, there seems to be a lot of misinformation on synthetic oil. From experience on my motorcycle discussion forums, asking about oil is like saying "what kind of tire do you like" -- it's usually time to duck.

That said, there was an excellent discussion thread on this topic some time ago on another board (which I sadly cannot locate), with a number of posts from a GM powertrain engineer.

Here's the short version:

There is no advantage to synthetic oil over dino oil with respect to longevity. The additive ZDP is the primary anti-wear component in oil, and it is this material that takes the shearing load and keeps your metal bits apart. It is a zinc based material, and is broken down over time by mechanical stresses in the engine. Aside from minor variations, the amount of ZDP in oils is relatively similar. The engineer also stated the GM oil life monitor (as someone here mentioned) tracks engine loads and driving behavior to calculate the life of the ZDP, and includes a significant safety cushion. He also said that under normal driving conditions, dino oils have gone the equivalent of 12,000 miles or more on their test bed engines. One aside here -- I believe newer Mercedes Benz can go as long as 25k miles between oil changes based on their internal oil life monitors. The PT engineer did not recommend trying to wring excessive mileage out of your oil -- it's cheap insurance.

Synthetic's advantages come in regard to temperature. I don't recall the specifics, but synthetic oil will perform better at temperatures above 320° F., the point at which most dino oils begin to smoke or break down. This is not critical in most vehicles since the oil never gets that hot. The exception is turbocharged or highly modified engines subject to higher loads. Turbocharger bearings can reach extremely high temperatures when under load.

All this said, I tend to be a synthetic oil fan. I run synth in my 2005 Outback XT turbo and 2006 WRX STi (also turbo'd), and I also run it in my K1200RS BMW motorcycle. I haven't been so concerned about synth oils when running most other vehicles (GM and Ford Trucks). My dad's old 1971 F250 ran its original engine for 330,000 miles on dino oil -- and only died when the nylong came off the cam gear causing the timing chain to jump.

Hope this helps. Sorry for being so verbose in my first post!

Regards,

Jay M.

Edit: One other item. Oil life is basically a function of oil volume because this influences the number of "passes" a given amount of oil makes through an engine. Over the road trucks have something like 100 gallons of engine oil, allowing them to go roughly 100k miles before it must be changed.

 

i'm a auto tech for a gm dealer.i've been turning wrenches for dealers for 27 years. in the 70's an 80's the oil quality was not as good as it is now.but being from southeast louisiana where the temps are hot most of the year 3000 miles with regular oil changes is not a bad idea. i personally use mob 1 in my tacoma an in my lexus.
in the late 80's toyota had a problems with motors slugging from not changing the oil by 5000 miles. i had a friend who as a tech at a local toyota dealership an said either change at 3000 are use synthetic i did i had a 01 tacoma at the time. so you can take from there an run with it!

 

eenascar, thanks for the input, good advice from people who are in the business.
Jeff
06,6spe, Acc Cab, sr5, 4x4

 

Great info!

 

LOL @ GM auto tech driving a Lexus.

 

Well that was worth a thread bump. I want my 5 seconds back.

 

just trying to blend in with the rest of the TS

 

i go with mobil 1 synthetic