by ericatdallas » Wed Oct 02, 2002 10:13 am
I ran my protege for 2 years or about 27k miles before I made an oil change. I used this oil filter and 5 qts. of oil that I got from Autozone on sale, for $5.
About the last 3k of those miles I had to top it with synthetic oil and it started leaking through the gaskets. I made an oil change with reg. and it didn't leak through the gasket anymore...
I again ran that for about 12k miles and then successive oil changes I made every 5-8k miles and ran that thing for another 20k miles with that car. The engine was working great but the tranny failed and I got rid of the car.
My point is, there are stories on both side.
I asked my Automotive Tech teacher (20+ years of experience) and he says, the thing he notices about synthetic is they leak, but he's not sure if it's still true on today's newer synthetics. He does think they are better, but not quite necessary for the average car. If your car hits the temperatures needed to break down synthetic then your engine is dead anyway. If you live in Alaska or canada then it's good to have that oil.. It's less likely to sludge. He's ran his truck for 12 years on dino with 3k oil changes and it's at 170k miles now. He's never had to take his engine apart or rebuild it. He's not sure if he would be better off with synthetic, but if it died tomorrow he would be satisified with the way the car ran. He drives a Chevrolet.
So it's your call what oil you use. Today's cars are all really well built and todays automotive products are pretty well manufactured.
2000 Solara SLE V6 - Green w/ Beige Interior