Is synthetic overkill

[Finklejag]

I have posted questions about this in the past. My mother has a 01 VW Beetle with the 2.0L. She only has 18,000 miles on it. She drives less then 5,000 a year. The car is used mostly in stop and go city driving. I been buying Mobil Delvac 1, and shipping it down to Cali. I told her to use the OEM Mann filter. She uses the local VW dealer for this. She has been going for a oil change every 6 months.

Should I keep with the Delvac 1 every 6 months or extend it to one year OCI's. Or should I just have the dealer just fill it up with their bulk Castrol GTX oil every 6 months?

My father has 02 Chrysler PT Cruiser non turbo. He has 28,000 miles on it. He rarely drives it anymore. He bought a golf cart, and uses it to drive to his job and the golf course. He will probably put about 2,000 a year on his car now. I been doing the same, and buying the 5 quart jug of Mobil 1 10w30 from Walmart and shipping it to them. I bought some Mobil 1 filters also. Can he just stick with this combo and extend the OCI to once a year?

He bought the extended warrenty. So he needs to kinda stick with the factory recommended OCI's.

Thanks for the help.

 

[JohnnyO]

I think syn holds up better in low-use cars (saw an article a while ago in Motor magazine about that). I think changing once a year would be fine though.

 

[Matt89]

One year on each of these would be great. If the PT requires a six month change for warrantee, I wouldn't bother with the M1.

 

[Grossomotto]

quote:

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My mother has a 01 VW Beetle with the 2.0L. She only has 18,000 miles on it. She drives less then 5,000 a year. The car is used mostly in stop and go city driving. I been buying Mobil Delvac 1, and shipping it down to Cali.

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I'll tell you Delvac 1 is one of the best oils on the planet. I have a friend (exGF) that wouldn't change her oil for nothing (although she would check the dipstick). I put Delvac 1 5W40 in her 4Runner at 20,000 miles. I just talked to her yesterday while she was getting her oil changed. I asked, "what's the odometer read?" She says, "36,000 miles".

That's 16,000 miles (1 year) on Delvac 1 with no top up oil! I'm sure the TBN was near 0.

Delvac can easily go one year/5,000 miles.

 

[Grossomotto]

And to answer your question, "Is synthetic overkill?"

Not if you plan on running it one year or extended OCI like 16K miles.

 

[Road Rage]

The gap between today's best severely hydrocracked mineral oil base stocks and what is called synthetic has narrowed greatly over the last 5 years. Today's best minoils outperform many synoils in day to day use. Motorcraft mineral oil uses GIII base stocks, which other mfr's call synthetic, based on Catrol's re-definition in the famous Texaco lawsuit. In Europe, I understand they cannot call a GIII as synoil.

Based on what i have seen, the best synoils still have an edge at high and low temps, and extremely high sustained RPM. Esters are a benefit for cars driven infrequently, as their polarized molecularity stays put on high wear engine areas like cam lobes. So adding a bottle of Red Line to a good min or synoil is a good strategy for garage queens.

I personally like LE 8130, which is a high blend of PAO with quality GII parafinnics. It has tremendous oxidation resistance, making it a good candidate for extended OCI's. So I use that in my Cobra and Honda S200 sports cars.

My 2 cents is that unless you are going for exctended drains or extremely stressful track days, the best minoils are more than adequate. I use Motorcraft or Havoline in my 2004 Acura TL, in vis 5w20. I change when the computer says, usually around 7k miles. Note that I do not drive the car hard, and the winter climate here is milder than some, the summers hotter. But my UOA's with the Motorcraft synblend have looked great, and I see no reason to go full synoil for this usage.

Hope that helps - or have i just added to your confusion/indecision?

 

[huffmuds9320]

Depends, if cost is not the main concern then synthetic is not overkill. But conventional should be fine in both cars. If the VW 2.0 does not consume any oil, then a 5w30 would be fine. The VW dealers usually use Castrol GTX 5w30 for non-turbo cars unless you ask them to. If 5w30 conventional is to be used on the VW, I would choose Motorcraft 5w30. However if it did consume oil, then 15w40 or the Delvac 5W-40 would be better.
I don't know what they recommend for the Chrysler, but I guess a conventional should work just fine for that car too. If the owners manual list a long inteerval for the oil change, then synthetic would be a better choice.

 

[Steve S]

This is not about the oil but who services the cars? does the oil level and other fluids get checked? what about airing the tires? some times an oil change is to get the maintenance items looked at. Just my opinion.

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

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I'll tell you Delvac 1 is one of the best oils on the planet.

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For a heavy weight ...absolutely. I just wish it was cheaper.

quote:

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That's 16,000 miles (1 year) on Delvac 1 with no top up oil! I'm sure the TBN was near 0.

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Don't be too sure. I did 8.5 months and just shy of 13k and had a TBN of 2.9 under the "new" method. It would have made it to 18k (1 year) without too much effort, IMHO.

Your ex-GF is wiser than smart. She compensates well for her shortcomings.

 

[farfel]

Curious -

Why do you ship Delvac 1 to your mom? Surely she can buy any good synthetic like Mobil 1 straight from the dealer?

 

[Finklejag]

Thanks for the replies guys. I buy the oil and filters and ship it down to them. I pretty much buy all their car parts online, and then ship it down there. They are on a fix income. They live in a retirement city. The dealers hose the old folks there. They know to ask me before they get anything done at the dealer.

It looks like I will go with once a year oil and filter change. Thanks

 

[Audi Junkie]

My Mom's 1996 VW 2.0 Passat saw exclusively 6 month intervals of Castrol RX 15w40 until last year when she missed one change. She drove only 10,000 a year, ALL stop-and-go city driving. That is probally the limit of dino HDEO. I say so because I swapped her to 5w-40 Shell Rotella T for 6 months and the oil was a lil dark, so I did another garage clearing synthetic change of random oils (Saab Synth, M1 0-40, Superflo Syn). It went dark fast. I usually like the 6 month interval for lo miles cars, but have doubts now. 1 year on D1 seems good if they cannot find good service. 6 month intervals on GF-4 10w-40 GTX or A3-rated DuraBlend 10w-40 would be a good pick if you wanted them to visit the mechanic to check other mechanical systems more frequently.