Oil Leak, should I go from Syn to Dino?

[OceanView]

I have a 98 Lexus ES300 with 261K original miles on it.
No problems except I have a small oil leak.
It's been leaking for about a year now and I don't want to spend the money to get it fixed as it will cost me more than the value of the car. The leak is small and I don't notice it getting worse at this time. I heard that switching from Synthetic to Dino Oil can slow the leak. Is this true?

Currently using Mobil 1 5W30.
How about increasing the oil visc?

Thank you in advance and sorry for the newb question.

 

[StevieC]

I would fix the leak... Going to Dino is not going to fix it in the life that your car might have left... Just put up with it. How bad is it and where's it leaking from?

 

[FastSUV]

Mobil-1 makes a High-Mileage full-synthetic oil...

You could go that route because HM oils have more additives in them that can help curb leaks & oil consumption. But if you do not do that, DEPENDING on the how bad the leak, I would consider going to a HM dino oil for a couple OCI's and see if it slows the leak.

 

[OceanView]

Fixing the oil leak is not cost effective for me.

The leak is coming from the back of the head near the firewall.
The puddle in the morning is about the size of a dollar coin.
I'm loosing about a quart per oil change which is 7,500 miles at this time.

 

[DHjr]

What is your definition of a "slow" oil leak? How much are you adding per day/week?

 

[ZZman]

Stay with Syn Oil. Try the Mobil 1 High Mileage or something like Full Syn Valvoline Maxlife.

 

[StevieC]

You could buy a bottle of ARX and run it with some DINO oil for the recommended 2500 miles, and this can help soften your seals and/or swell them a bit. I would then follow up with some High-Mileage Valvoline Max-Life for a few changes and see if it stops the leak. It's not too bad and probably can be fixed by this.

Could is also be that the valve cover just needs to be snugged down a bit to help it seal better ?

 

[hate2work]

Mobil 1 makes a High Mileage 10W-40 that might help you. Not only is the visc a tad higher, but it supposedly has additives to swell the seals, etc, on HM vehicles.

http://www.mobil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Oils/Mobil_1_High_Mileage_10W-40.aspx

 

[StevieC]

I would soften the seals with some Esther oil or ARX first so that they are able to absorb a bit of the HM oil seal swelling agents. I thin this would do a better job IMO. Mobil 1 10w40 HM oil is a great choice IMO too!

 

[FastSUV]

Try the Mobil-1 HM 10w30 BEFORE going to 10w40...No reason to run the HM Mobil-1 10w40 if the HM 10w30 will do the trick...

 

[Ramblin Fever]

Had the same concern on an older engine as well. I switched from the Rotella synthetic oil I was using, to Maxlife...leak has totally stopped within only a few thousand miles.

I agree that sometimes fixing a mild oil leak, and what you're mentioning is VERY mild, can not only cost $$$, but sometimes, and more times then not, other parts get broken or weaken with age and manipulation of moving them around to fix the mild leak. Then your bill can get really high.

Our late Toyota was 20-something years old, every time we worked on it, something else would crumble, just do to age alone. It became a viscious cycle.

 

[PW01]

I would also recommend giving Auto Rx a try. My oil pan gasket was "weeping", and would require raising the motor to fix. 20,000 miles ago I did an Auto Rx treatment (using Valvoline 5w 30) and returned to Mobil 1 5w 30, and the pan is still bone dry.

 

[Drivebelt]

I would certainly give a conventional oil change a shot, and see if it helps.

These days the conventional oils (Group II/II+) are so good (they have closed the gap to synthetics considerably), depending on your sump size, you could run a conventional oil 5 -8k miles and get the same performance as synthetics in terms of wear protection and engine cleanliness.

A couple of other alternatives to consider trying would be a HM (high-mileage) oil, or a different type of synthetic oil like a the Group III based synthetics (Pennzoil Platinum or Quaker State) instead of M1 which has Group IV based oils.