Is there a point to putting synth oil in?

cdngrl420 · Post by **cdngrl420** » November 3rd, 2005, 1:54 am

My car has 174k on it and im sure the original owner used normal oil for oil changes, I wanted to change to synth oil since its better on the car, however people told me not to because it would not do anything for my car because of the mileage, is there still enough time to give my car a pick up with better oil or is it pointless, I am due for an oil change in the next 100 k so any advice would be awesome.

Mazda_Power · Post by **Mazda_Power** » November 3rd, 2005, 2:51 pm

People say that synthetic oil is "more slippery" than standard oil and it will leak through the seals on higher mile motors. This is NOT true. It has more cleaning detergents and will dissolve gunk in the engine that has accumlated where a gasket had previously been leaking.

On a motor with 174K it wouldn't really be wise to run synthetic, it would probably be OK just changing it every 3K with Mobil 1 Drive Clean 5000 or something like that.

Shades · Post by **Shades** » November 3rd, 2005, 8:50 pm

First off synthetic is 4X the price of regular oil. Everything above is correct.

You probably want to use that Higher Mileage oil... it has more cleaning additives and makes sure your seals are sealing, well it tries at least.

anjin1982 · Post by **anjin1982** » November 4th, 2005, 9:26 am

my mx got 206k miles and ive been using castrol high mileage oil for about 2 yrs and ive never had any oil related problems.

jamario · Post by **jamario** » November 4th, 2005, 3:27 pm

I use mobile 1 synthetic and I felt a difference compare to the cheap oil. I also felt a difference in my pocket.

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » November 4th, 2005, 3:45 pm

I have used Mobile 1 on both my cars for some time and will continue to always use it. I'd recomend it for a higher milage car too.
It does clean and may unclog some gasket that was clogged by cleaning the gunk that had the hole covered up, but I'd say the benefit is worth chance at leaking a bit more oil.
All our cars will leak after 17?,000 miles/kilometers so a bit more is not going to be noticable.
The benefits are that synth oil will stick to the metal better, basically leaving a film of oil on all metal parts at all times. Even after you shut the car off and the oil all runs to the oil pan. Protecting your motor on cold starts and stop and go traffic much better than conventional oil. I also used to have a tendency to not check my oil and let it all burn out (old K8 that burned oil like crazy with or without synth) and it is my belief that the synth oil saved me from a premature ZE swap. I literally ran the car for a unknown amount of time with NO oil showing on the dipstick and it never once acted funny or locked up. It also has a higher temp breakdown point (something Mazda V6s need since they run so hot) and does a better job at general lubrication than conventional oil, prolonging the eventual end of the motor.
Another factor to consider is that synth oil is not as expensive as it used to be. With the crude oil prives skyrocketing the comparison price of synth oil is only a few cents (.50-1.00) more per quart now.
So at a cost of tops 4.00 per oil change, I'd say most definately yes, get the better oil.