Synthetic Oil?

[kingvitamin]

I'm about due for an oil change, and was wondering if synthetic oil would help any. As of now I have 8300 miles on my MP3, and have used Castrol GTX 10w30 (Actually I haven't changed the oil yet, because I just bought the car off a guy 2 weeks ago, but that's what he used). I want to keep the engine quiet. If not synthetic, what type of oil do you all recommend? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[20ESGUY]

Synthetic won't hurt anything, oil is mainly a preference in street cars. I wouldn't run say a 20w50 unless I lived in the middle of the mojave desert, but other than that anything is pretty much game. Personally I run mobil 1 5w30 in just about everything I've owned and have no probs. Just remember that mazda's have extremely small oil drain back holes in the heads so keep up the oil changes.

 

[kingvitamin]

Thanks for the reply. I guess what I'm wondering is if there is any benefits, such as engine wear, from using synthetic on a smaller engine such as the 2.0? Thanks again.

 

[PaulMP3]

i have 15,000miles now and have been using Mobile 1 10w-30 since 3,000 miles

 

[melicha8]

Hey all things considered in the end almost all oil is the same. There is one oil, Slick 50, that is a big no no. I can't remember the name but it contains TEFLON in it. Their marketing gimic for this is that you associate teflon with being slippery non-stick and high temp resistant, but the problem with it is that it is an incredibly large (Polmerized Tetraflouro Ethylene). Sice this polymer is so large it can't get into the microscopic crevices of your cylinder wall which it claims to do. Even if it did it would only do it for one cycle before being filtered out by the oil filter. So all your basically doing is buying a regular oil that decreases the efficiency of your filter. There are some that are a little better than others like Redline but for our high output I4's I'm sure with regular oil and filter changes with your run-of-the-mill lubricant our engines will be fine. I change mine every 3000 miles

Layta

Death to the Rockets of Rice!!!

 

[enry]

I went synthetic. NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL. But hey at least it might keep the inside of the hood cleaner. Which reminds me I gotta get it washed.

 

[kingvitamin]

Thanks for all the responses. Am I correct in assuming that once you use synthetic, that you have to use it for the life of your engine? I think someone told me that, or I read that somewhere.

 

[gene in cincinnati]

I like synthetic oil. Per the BMW maintenance schedule, I have only had 2 oil changes in 2.5 years with 37,000 miles on the car. I am about to put it in the PR5.

 

[20ESGUY]

no once you used syntheic you can change back to the organic based oil. Just make sure you change the filter and don't mix the two, i.e. you're doing an oil change and you 've got two quarts of organic and one of synthetic.

 

[cjstringer]

Did my first oil change last night at 1600 miles. (missed the 1500 mark a little) I couldn't find amsoil locally (easily), so I used Mobil 1 full synthetic and the mobil 1 filter ($12, OUCH!). Anyway, It was about 3 1/2 quarts and came to just over $25 doing it myself with the $12 filter. Seems like a steal to me! They want $25 for a standard oil change at the quick lube places, and $50 for synthetic!
Don't recommend mixing oils. Just not a good idea.
Hope it all works out! You'll get some great advice from this board.

 

[cfbjr]

You should change your oil according to the manufacturers specs listed in your owner's manual(although our manual says that the filter requires a special tool and you should take it to the dealership to have it changed - total BS!). If you do the maintenance synthetic will do nothing for you except drain your wallet quicker. Make sure you know if you are a "severe service" operator or not. Believe it or not, frequent short trips are more severe than long trips and continuous running. My opinion is that if you use a good brand name oil (something you've at least heard of before) and change your oil on a regular basis and CHECK you level and keep it topped off on a regular basis you're putting yourself on the right track for long engine life. I check my level at least once a week when the car is cold.
Gene, I'd never buy a used car from you. I don't care what BMW says!
Our engines also only hold 3.5 quarts of oil so that also makes it a good candidate for keeping an eye on oil levels and changes.

Of course, I say all of this assuming your engine is stock. Those with turbos and NOS should probably use something a little more tolerant of higher heat and should change more frequently becasue of the additional heat that would be generated. Especially important with turbos!

 

[gene in cincinnati]

cfbjr,

There are some obvious cost benefits to using synthetic oil. The benefit of synthetic oil isn't low-friction so much as chemical and viscosity stability over temperature changes, stability over time (long-change intervals), and relative lack of additives diluting the oil (meaning more actual oil and less other stuff getting in the way).

If you do not agree with me, that's fine - I don't really care if you would or would not buy a car from me.

 

[kingvitamin]

Didn't mean to start a fight. Guess I thought synthetic was some sort of magical elixer that would make a huge difference. Guess I was wrong. Are there any specific brands of regular oil that are better than the rest, or any I should steer clear of. The guy I bought my MP3 off of used Castrol GTX. I guess I'll stick with it. I'm going to a Valvoline oil change center about a block from my house, they've always been good to me. What about oil filter's that they might have in stock? Thanks again.

 

[20ESGUY]

For the filters bosch is about the best bang for the buck filter out there it's about the same cost as say a Fram (which is a total POS) and it has about twice the filtering capacity. We cut a few of the filters up at the autoparts store I used to work for and found that the Fram filters were the worst. About 1/2-1/4 the amount of pleats and very large "screening", for lack of a better term, area than all the rest. The bosch filter should run you about 5-6 bucks verus 12-14 for the Mobil 1.

 

[LinuxRacr]

I use Royal Purple with no problems! I remember the engine (my old one) running smoother with it.

 

[mazdamp3_18]

About the oil thing... im going to be switching to Amsoil... i had amsoil in my 2001 Golf TDI and i loved the stuff... it ran so much smoother and better and no one could believe the car was a diesel b/c it ran so quietly... but another factor in that was that a little after i switched over to amsoil i added another filter.. so i was running 2 oil filters at once... which is very beneficial for diesels...

 

[cjstringer]

Ok, let us in. How do you run 2 oil filters at once? I gotta know.

 

[mazdamp3_18]

there are companies that make a relay that actually goes through 2 oil filters and i added a higher efficiency oil cooler on top of that... its actually pretty easy but i dont think it matters much on a gasoline engine since they dont have high sulfer content... with the 2 oil filters with amsoil ive heard of people with tdi's going 25000 miles without changing filters....you could go longer too... amsoil has a very good reputation with diesel engines... they had a semi that went 1 million miles without changing the filter and just adding some oil everyonce and a while and after that 1 million miles they still didnt have to overhaul the engine... thats just plain amazing.... if anyone wants some prices i know of someone from my old tdi club that is a distributor for amsoil... but you can also get amsoil at places like pep boys...and if anyone wants me to get info on the 2 oil filters i will find out if there is a possibility we could modify the kit to fit our cars...

 

[cfbjr]

Diesels use a different type of oil than regular gasoline engines. At least, they should...

King,
No fight, gene's just reading his synthetic oil brochure to me. How about we just say this: what might be good for gene's BMW may not necessarily be what you need for your MP3. BMW's are really a whole different kind of beast. I could actually see the BMW recommendation being synthetic just because they specify all kinds of special things for their vehicles (brake fluid, etc.).I'm sure they've got some reason.
It's an age old battle between synthetic oil vs. regular oil. I'm not going to take someone's oil choice personally. I just think it's important to make sure you are running sufficiently clean oil at all times to help insure the long life of your engine. This usually requires a fairly regular maintenance schedule.

 

[gene in cincinnati]

kingvitamin,

We are not fighting - there are just some people who hang onto old wives tales about the synthetic vs. organic debate. Porsche, Corvette, Viper and BMW engineers can't all be wrong.