eva243•20d agoProlific Poster

Talked with a retired fleet mechanic last weekend and he changed my mind about synthetic oil

I was down at Lyle's Garage in Portland on Saturday and this old guy who used to work for the city fleet told me he ran conventional oil in all his personal trucks until 200k miles. He said the real secret was just changing it every 3,000 miles no matter what and that synthetics are overkill for most drivers. Made me wonder, how many of you stick with conventional oil still or am I just behind the times?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordanr8920d ago

yeah I gotta disagree with the old timer on this one. I mean sure 3,000 mile changes with conventional oil worked back when engines were built looser and tolerances were bigger. but modern engines run tighter clearances and higher temps, conventional oil breaks down way faster. I've seen too many tear downs where conventional left sludge and varnish by 100k while synthetics kept things spotless. also the whole 3,000 mile thing is basically a myth from the 70s, most modern synthetics can easily go 5k to 7k miles without issue.

grant_ross2720d ago

oh man, you're totally spot on with that. Have you ever pulled apart an engine that's been running conventional its whole life? I did one last year and it was a nightmare, thick black sludge everywhere, oil passages partially blocked. my buddy runs a shop and he's shown me the same thing, clean as a whistle with synthetic even at 7k intervals. the old school guys swear by 3k but the data doesnt back it up anymore, most owners manuals now say 5k to 10k and they know their stuff better than some guy from the 80s. what oil do you run in your daily driver?

corad8420d ago

You know, I actually saw this firsthand with my own car. I bought a used Honda Civic with 90k miles on it, previous owner ran conventional oil and changed it every 5,000 miles like clockwork. When I pulled the valve cover to do a gasket job, there was this nasty brown sludge caked on everything, especially around the cam journals. Switched to a high mileage synthetic blend and ran it another 60k miles before I sold it, and at that point everything underneath the valve cover was golden and clean. The old 3,000 mile rule was definitely pushed by oil companies to sell more product, not because engines actually needed it. Modern synthetic oils can handle way more heat and stress without breaking down, so changing it at 3k is just throwing money away.