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Synthetic oils will reduce wear in your engine, but whether it makes a difference in the realistic lifespan of your car is another matter. I'd bet your automatic transmission will go out before the rings wear down too much or a bearing gives up.
Different story in more extreme climates. In Vermont I feel you'd have to be crazy not to use a full synthetic 0w in a car that calls for it (or even in a vehicle that calls for a 5w) during winters since they're so cold. Even very lightweight conventional oils pour like molasses here. I can't imagine that's doing any lubricating.
Ditto if you're running your engine very hard, like track days or the drag strip, and want it to last.
For what it's worth, I personally know a few people who have the same car I do with an engine that still has great compression and burns no oil, with mileage between 400,000 and 650,000. They've always used a name-brand 0w20 full synthetic.
More cars are turbocharged, and most turbochargers are lubricated and cooled with the engine oil. Turbochargers spin at 80k to 120k rpm or even faster and get very hot, so need a synthetic oil that won't break down at high temperatures.
While the engine itself may last just as long with conventional oil, a turbocharger probably won't. I've been driving only turbocharged cars since 1987 and have never used conventional motor oil. My current daily driver, used for courier work, gets fresh Mobil synthetic every 10k miles and now has about 744k miles on the odometer. I upgraded to a bigger turbo at about 200k miles and replaced that one after about 440k miles, which is pretty good in my opinion.
I use full synthetic in my cars now, its a little easier going 5000 between oil changes and over a long period of time, its always best to stick with the same brand and weight of oil, although I one had an engine guy tell me BRAND is the most important thing, never switch or mix brands of oil.
A little side note here, Not sure if its just me or not, but oil used to be fairly cheap and then it got expensive (around mid to late 90s it seems?).I also think its strange there are no fluctuations in engine oil, gas goes up and down all the time due to price of oil, why is oil not the same?
I always use synthetic on my cars and the best filter I can find. If you do regular oil changes and just do daily commutes, I’m guessing it wouldn’t have a dramatic effect at this point to switch over to synthetic. Synthetic does seem to help quite a bit when starting the car in negative temperatures. Plus I’m not always good at changing my oil every 3 months.
Wrong. There is no more lubricity in a synthetic than a conventional oil. Like most folks out there, you're reciting advertising BS. Do you have a clue what the difference is between a synthetic and conventional base oil these days? Let me help you with that. You'll find base oils come in various Groups. A Group 1 is a solvent refined base oil. This would have been what they used a hundred years ago. There is the Group II which is a hydrocracked base oil. There is the Group III which is the severely hydrocracked base oil. The Groups IV is primarily the the PAO base oils. ALL, read that again, ALL, with the exception of the Group I base oils, do not appear in nature and are man made. Because of that AND that some of the formulators who are looking after the companies bottom line, everything but the Group I is now considered a synthetic base. Back in the 90's, only the Group IV were considered a synthetic. Mobil and Castrol had a tif over it and the Advertising Council found in favor of Castrol. The ONLY thing the synthetic base oils bring to the formulation is stability. The Group III and IV, yesterdays synthetics, do not support the additive package. There must be a binder used to make them work together. Without a binder, wear increases dramatically. They do not provide any support for the seals. The formulators must include a seal swell agent or leaks abound. Synthetic based oils comes with issues, it's not perfection by any stretch of the imagination. The best based oils out there will be the blends. You get the advantages of both base oils and some of the disadvantages of synthetic based oils are solved with blends.
Then comes the viscosity spread. Ideally you want no more than a 20 point spread on multi-viscosity oils. The reason is the formulators will use a polymer to force the base oil to make a larger spread. These are the same polymers that fell out of suspension back in the 90's that sludged engines. While there have been improvements, pushed hard enough these polymers can sludge an engine, especially a low mileage engine.
There are books written about motor oils. Few understand how or where the specs come from that makes up our oils today. ALL car makers belong to ILSAC. ILSAC is the one that sets the standards for the oils we have. API is the enforcing arm of ILSAC but no car maker can sell an engine in the USA and have an oil specific to its engines. They can recommend a SAE viscosity range but it is not an absolute, like some want to read into a recommendation. The best oils out there are not always the most expensive. When it comes to stability, NO oil beats Pennzoil yellow bottle conventional in 10w-30, it's not even close. Research ASTM D5800 or KNOACK. The noted Pennzoil is half that (4.2) of any synthetic(lower is better). Let that sink in before you pay big money for a synthetic oil.
If the manufacturer specs synthetic, use it. Also if the vehicle is seeing extreme hot or cold conditions, extended oil change intervals, racing, heavy towing, etc. then synthetic can be a good upgrade.
But for a vehicle that you're just commuting with, doesn't spec synthetic or see extended oci's or extreme conditions... there's very little benefit.
IMO.
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