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<RJ> - 13 Aug 2006 20:34 GMT

I haven't paid much attention to OIL
since I stopped changing my own.

At a recent visit to WalMart, I saw;
High-Mileage oils, synthetics, heavy duty oils,
oils for "older vehicles", truck/SUV
semi-synthetic oils, etc. etc.

All these specialty oils were a bit "pricier"
than your everyday 10W30.

Advertising hype ? or real benefit ?

<rj>

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grappletech - 14 Aug 2006 03:00 GMT

> I haven't paid much attention to OIL
> since I stopped changing my own.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> <rj>

Synthetic oil reduces friction, provides more protection, and can
increase gas mileage and is great to use in cold areas. If you care
about keeping your car a long time, go for it. But sometimes people use
synthetic and think they can get by only changing it every 10K miles!
I'd rather use regular oil and change every 3K than use synthetic and
change every 10K miles! Maybe using synthetic and changing every 5K
miles is a great compromise. For ultimate protection, using synthetic
and changing every 4K miles might be best. Also depends on how you
drive your car or truck. If you town a lot, change the oil sooner.

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CCC - 22 Sep 2006 23:04 GMT

>> I haven't paid much attention to OIL
>> since I stopped changing my own.
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption
> =----

I am a big fan of synthetics, but a car program, I forget which one did a
test a few years back on oil changing. They wondered if the "Every 3000
miles" bit was pushed by the quick change places. Many manufactures have
5000 or 7500 mile recomendations.

Anyway, they took 2 identical vehicles, purchased new. Tore down the
engines and mic-ed everything and recoreded it. The they drove the cars for
about 2 years until they racked up 100,000 miles. One car they changed the
oil every 3000 miles. In the other car they NEVER changed the oil, only
added oil if it was low.

At the end of 100,000 miles they tore both engines down and measured
everything again. They found no difference in wear between the two engines.
Take it for what it's worth, I'm not sure I'm convinced from one test, but
it does make you wonder.

Thanks
CCC
www.collectorcarcentral.com

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Edwin Pawlowski - 23 Sep 2006 03:43 GMT

"CCC" <CCC@*nospam**collectorcarcentral.com> wrote in message

> At the end of 100,000 miles they tore both engines down and measured
> everything again. They found no difference in wear between the two
> engines. Take it for what it's worth, I'm not sure I'm convinced from one
> test, but it does make you wonder.

Back in 1981 my company car was a full maintenance leased Olds Cutlass from
Avis. They gave us coupon book that we could take to a dealer or major auto
chain for service. I don't recall the frequency of oil changes, but they
would only pay for a filter every other change. How cheap is that?

My commute to work is an easy 26 miles. In that distance. two stop signs,
four traffic lights. I go with the 7500 mile interval.

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Paul - 23 Sep 2006 04:57 GMT

Synthetic oil has great resistance to heat, cleanliness is a virtue
of synthetic, since they don't burn up, they don't sludge up.

My advice, change oil if dirty, run new oil couple hundred miles
check for dirt, if dirty, change again, new filter each time.

A clean engine lasts, a gritty one doesn't.

If your engine is clean, switch to synthetic for maximum heat
resistance.

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