Synthetic vs. Regular Motor Oil...

[Mike]

Now, I know synthetic is better, but, at nearly 77,000KM, is it worth while for me to switch to synthetic oil?

Would it harm my engine in anyway to switch now?

Is it worth the extra money?

I was just wondering what everyone thinks about this.

Your help is greatly appreciated. :)

Mike

[ShadowCat]

I switched at 55,000 kms but you already know that.

[hamill]

I honestly don't think it will make a HUGE differance. I figure it this way.......the oils in the lines now....it runs.....I don't care to switch it.

[cawong11]

There are a some things I noticed when switching over to fully synthetic. When I had switched it in my wife's previously owned ZX2, the engine was much smoother. This is more noticeable in a 4 cylinder than in a v6. The gas mileage increased. The engine started much easier, especially in cold weather. See what conventional oil looks like when you do an oil change in winter time, say on a nice cold winter day. It flows out of the drain but slowly, where as synthetic flows out of the oil drain same as in warm weather (comparatively speaking). One last point is that when doing oil changes, the synthetic was no where near as black as with the conventional oil.

On the flip side, oil consumption remained the same as with conventional, synthetic costs way more and theoretically, and you should still change the oil at regular intervals, maybe a bit longer interval versus conventional (I have heard up to 10000kms but oil filter still changed every 5000kms). Given the mileage my Contours see, I do it by time. I can go up to six months between oil changes. I ensure that I have a couple of litres extra to top up the oil during these periods since, as I mentioned above, oil consumption did not change (at least in my experiences).

[MTDrew]

not that its much help, but i switched, havnt done alot of kilometers on it yet though, so i'm not much help

[Ruffian]

I'm convinced that synthetic oil does make a difference. I changed over at about 72000km, and also performed an engine flush at the same time. The synthetic oil stays cleaner longer (had 2000km by the time the oil started getting darker), and it helps the engine start better in the cold as stated above.

[SpreeGuy]

what about a car with 150,000 kms. Should I worry about seals leaking etc.?

[Palerider]

At the moment I have 330,000 kms on my old car (1992 Caprice Classic). I've been running Castrol Syntec on it since 150,000 kms so I don't think it matters how old or what the mileage is to cross over to synthetic oil.