Originally Posted By: bubbatime
You could run conventional oil for a year and 20K miles. The oil will be spent, but the engine will last 200K miles easily before you trade it in.
That is a blanket statement that is categorically untrue. There are clearly a number of modern engines that are quite sensitive to the type of oil chosen, the oil change interval and the viscosity.
There are GM engines that make it a whopping 49,000 miles before balancer chain failure. Link:
http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f39/2...arranty-203769/ A problem solved by sufficient viscosity and more frequent oil change intervals.
There are Ford cam phasers that knock and wear themselves apart with uber thin oils. A problem solved by sufficient viscosity.
There are entire fleets of Toyota engines that start consuming oil due to significant carbon formation on the piston's oil control ring and associated drain holes. A problem solved by a quality synthetic.
An entire generation of VW TDI engines chew up camshafts due to the OEM oil requirements. A problem solved by the use of a more robust synthetic oil.
The list goes on and on. Rather than make a blanket statement, let's recognize that we don't know "if" and "when" the newest designs are going to show trouble. Quality oil, and sufficiently frequent oil changes are cheap insurance.
Fact: Most people are unaware of the troubles with existing designs, and are caught unaware by premature failure.