Synthetic oil + gas mileage

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David at Road Runner - 23 Jan 2007 02:01 GMT

I have several questions regarding synthtic oil. Have others noticed a gas
mileage increase with synthetic or synthetic blend oil?

I just switched to synthetic blend in my 1996 Integra LS about 6000 miles
ago. I noticed my highway mileage went up about 2 mpg, from 32 to 34 with
the switch to synthetic. Is this similar to what others have seen?

I was having the oil changed at 3500 mile intervals, but went to 5000 with
the synthetic. I have 80k miles, drive about 8000 miles a year, mostly
highway. Is a 5000 mile interval reasonable, or could I stretch it to 7500?
7500 would end up making it an annual change. I live in central North
Carolina, where it hits the 90's in summer and the 30's in winter.

Thanks.

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Tegger - 23 Jan 2007 11:00 GMT

> I have several questions regarding synthtic oil. Have others noticed a
> gas mileage increase with synthetic or synthetic blend oil?

Not a whit in my case. And I keep extremely detailed fuel mileage records.

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Tegger

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/

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Michael Pardee - 23 Jan 2007 12:38 GMT

>I have several questions regarding synthtic oil. Have others noticed a gas
> mileage increase with synthetic or synthetic blend oil?
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Thanks.

I suspect the lack of response is out of a desire not to get into another
endless discussion about synthetic versus mineral oil. Those threads go on
for weeks and don't resolve anything or influence anybody.

As far as your question, I participate in two Prius Hybrid fora and many of
those guys are fanatics about fuel economy. Nobody sees any difference
between synthetic and "dino" oil for economy but it's been brought up a lot.
Most agree that overfilling the oil by half a quart, which is easy to do on
the Prius, reduces fuel economy about 1%. (Fanatics, you know.)

Mike

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Art M - 23 Jan 2007 22:57 GMT

>I have several questions regarding synthtic oil. Have others noticed a gas
> mileage increase with synthetic or synthetic blend oil?

> I was having the oil changed at 3500 mile intervals, but went to 5000 with
> the synthetic. I have 80k miles, drive about 8000 miles a year, mostly
> highway. Is a 5000 mile interval reasonable, or could I stretch it to
> 7500?

Not sure about the blends, but you should be able to go 10,000 miles on pure
synthetic (especially with mostly highway miles) assuming it's not a turbo.
(Don't get me started talking about my 1.8T Audi sludge)

Lots of info at http://members.rennlist.com/oil/Motor%20Oil%20101.htm but
not much there about the blends.

--Art

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