There are no magic oils currently on the market at any price.

However, if you use synthetic and take advantage of the extended drain intervals at the end of a year you will find more money in your pocket.... changing your oil every 3000 miles gets expensive.

If you are a high mileage driver (i.e. courier, expediter, etc.) and want to keep your vehicle for years, then there are probably many advantages to using synthetic.
If you drive < 12,000 miles a year and trade your vehicle in ever 4 years.... why bother?

Something I read that I was not looking for was that additives in synthetics wear out at the same rate as additives in regular oil. Whether or not it is true I don!t know.

[quote=CELICA_XX


2. If dino and synthetic were the same price, would anyone still choose dino?
[/quote]

Bill would im betting

In most cases, you end up about the same cost wise.

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.

IME with the fleet at work, that's simply untrue. Even with somewhat less maintenance time, you don't get enough more out of the 'synthetics' off the shelf to get to cost equivalence in most cases. There are some potential exceptions, but generally not.

We use the words 'cost', 'better', 'extended', 'severe', 'exceptions', etc. How much do synthetics cost? Are we talking about a $60 amsoil sso oil change or a $25 PP oil change? Are we comparing that to a regular price dino at $15-20 per oil change or one of Bill's wickedly cheap $10 (or less) oil changes? What products are we talking about? What are we defining as an extended oci over conventional oci? What is considered severe and/or an exception?

You could make an argument either way (dino versus syn) depending on how the above statements are presented and defined. It's like watching a dog chase it's tail

At the end of the day, use whatever makes you feel good. You don't have to justify it to anybody.. unless you think you have to

The real answer to your question, to find what is "best", is to have oil analysis done frequently to develop trends. Have Terry Dyson interpret your analysis and he will be able to tell if an oil is making your engine perform "best".

Do you only eat the "best" food? Drink the "best" coffee?

Your last two sentences is why I run PP or any synthetic. I want to be able to go on vacation without worrying if I happen to go over. Or as in last weekend when I had run out of town with the MIL in hospital.. went a little longer than I wanted to. Granted dino could do the same but I feel a little better with synthetics in there.

The synthetic vs. dino thing is for me is psychological. I put synthetic in with the full intention of running it for maybe 10k miles. However, once I get to about 5k I start wondering about all the unburned fuel, water, depleted additives, scary monsters, etc. and I chicken out. Therefore, I've gone back to dino changed every three months.

I can't help it even though my brain tells me that synthetic is better all around.

I hear you!!!! The mind tells the body to get under the car and drop that oil! Whats helped me is to read through all the posts here of people fighting the monster and letting that oil stay to 10,000 miles or 1 year. Some brave souls go even longer, try a UOA it might help!

Frank D

I think I've been brainwashed by all the Jiffy Lube "every three month or 3000 mile" propaganda. Who said advertising doesn't work?

I'll have to break down and do a UOA one of these days.

I hear ya. Up until BITOG I wouldn't change brands of oil, used Fram filters, and if the oil was in the crank case for more than 3,000 miles I would stress and stay awake at night. I recently switched to 6 month OCI's in 2 of my 3 vehicle fleet, changed filter brands and switch oil brands now. One vehicle has done 1 year OCI's and I still drive it to talk about it.

Frank D

I knew this topic would cause the anti-synthetic people to freak out. Take out the cost argument.......and they still talk about cost.

"You don't need it" is not a downside unless we're talking about cost which we're not.

I have and always will run synthetic in the TL. To offset the HUGE cost of the Amsoil ACD I will skip the morning Starbucks one time.