 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Car Forum / Saab Cars / December 20069-3: Mineral oil vs. synthetic
I am a fairly new owner of a 2003 Saab 9-3 2.0t. The car appears to have been well maintained by former owner(s), but is high-mileage - 100,000 miles. As some point, the engine oil was changed from synthetic (factory recommended) to mineral oil. I asked my mechanic, and he said he could bring the engine back to synthetic by flushing out the old mineral oil. I am looking for a recommendation as to if I should bring the car back to synthetic, or if I might just keep it at mineral, at this point. If it makes any difference, the Saab is being operated exclusively in a sub-tropical and temperate climate zone - Southern California coast. Njörð Nóatún > I am a fairly new owner of a 2003 Saab 9-3 2.0t. The car appears to > have been well maintained by former owner(s), but is high-mileage - [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > If it makes any difference, the Saab is being operated exclusively in a > sub-tropical and temperate climate zone - Southern California coast. There's no question about it. Use synthetic ( or even semi-synthetic ). It's perfectly compatible with traces of the old mineral oil btw - don't fret. At that mileage it would probably pay to run a flushing oil through it too or use a flushing additive when draining the old oil if it's still fairly clean. Graham >There's no question about it. > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > >Graham The downside to switching to synthetic is that it cleans out a lot of stuff that is in your engine. An engine that has higher miles and has run dino oil most of its life will have a lot of gunk in the engine seals - some of which is helping them seal now. Cleaning it out sometimes results in oil leaks. I think you'd be OK as long as it spent a fair amount of it's life on synthetic. Synthetic is much, much better for the turbo itself. Dino, changed frequently, is probably just as good in NA cars. > >There's no question about it. > > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > seals - some of which is helping them seal now. Cleaning it out > sometimes results in oil leaks. Maybe but the engine will last longer on synthetic. > I think you'd be OK as long as it spent a fair amount of it's life on > synthetic. Synthetic is much, much better for the turbo itself. Dino, > changed frequently, is probably just as good in NA cars. It's a turbo though. Graham >> >There's no question about it. >> > [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > >Graham I'm sure this exact question was asked almost word for word about a year ago. And everyon told him to switch back, find the former mechanic and shoot them etc. Maybe a trolling attempt again?  SignatureCarl Robson Audio stream: http://www.bouncing-czechs.com:8000/samtest Homepage: http://www.bouncing-czechs.com Now Playing at home:Robert Johnson-Honeymoon Blues > >> >There's no question about it. > >> > [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > > Maybe a trolling attempt again? Not at all - just a basic query to learn about something I know little about, and to help me make a decision that would be good for my car in the long run. Thanks for the advice so far - sounds like I should be restoring to synthetic. Rgds, Njord >Not at all - just a basic query to learn about something I know little >about, and to help me make a decision that would be good for my car in >the long run. > >Thanks for the advice so far - sounds like I should be restoring to >synthetic. Ideally yes. Synthetic would be the best oil for a modern Saab engine. It sounds like a non Saab garage may have maintained the engine. Do you have reciepts for the non synthetic oil or a record in the service book for what was used? I just wondered how you know it was non synthetic? SignatureCarl Robson Audio stream: http://www.bouncing-czechs.com:8000/samtest Homepage: http://www.bouncing-czechs.com Now Playing at home:Robert Johnson-Honeymoon Blues |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.