LOL! You mean "WHY?"
As in why would you ever be ok ONLY paying $30 for an oil change. Sorry, I care about my vehicles a bit toooooo much for that.
Dealer service said synthetic oil will cause my 2003 Subaru to leak.
- Thread starter lokijoker
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As in why would you ever be ok ONLY paying $30 for an oil change. Sorry, I care about my vehicles a bit toooooo much for that.
I think there's a particular way you have to phrase this situation in order for it to be accurately stated. Synthetic won't cause it to leak, but it can make leaks worse, in my experience. My '78 Monza had a wet pan when I bought it, but it didn't start dripping on the driveway until I put Castrol Syntec in it. The explanation from the technicians at the Pontiac dealership I was working at was that synthetics have a tendency to clear away sludge from around gaskets, allowing more oil to pass by them. It's sped up a process that was inevitable on an Iron Duke.
I just wanted to ask with this 78 Monza you had, was the PCV and all of the hoses clear of junk?
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Exactly. I heard about seals and mineral spirits lacking but past the mid 90s don’t worry.
On my 1970 LeMans I used lead additive because of the valve seats. That was 34 years ago. I bet there’s no lead additive today for old cars. Could be wrong
Go figure
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M1 EP HM, try not to worry
I know the games the dealerships play. I worked as a shag boy for a couple of dealerships in highschool.
That is the last oil I put in my 2008 Honda Element with no issues. Before that, the first full synthetic oil I put in my Element was 2 changes of Pennz Ultra Platinum.
So one thing the service writer at this Subaru dealership told me is that synthetic blend is a scam. When I told me that he wouldn’t recommend the full synthetic for my 03 Legacy and that I should only use conventional, I asked him, “What about synth blend?” He said they don’t use it because synth blend is basically a scam.
He has interesting but uninformed opinions.
It got a new pcv valve (and lots of other stuff) and a full tune-up after I bought it. The PCV hose was about 3 in long, so no clogs there.
Internet used to say or still saying:
I assume high speed travel require a very thick oil but the viscosity and the UOA of the leak are kept secret. As tax payers, we need to know these kind of information!
- Synthetic is more slippery and flows better in tight places.
- The molecule sizes are more uniform or smaller and creep or flow better in tight places.
I assume high speed travel require a very thick oil but the viscosity and the UOA of the leak are kept secret. As tax payers, we need to know these kind of information!
I undertand your argument. My issue may be the moving definition and reference.
Selected excerpt from A Defining Moment For Synthetics, by Katherine Bui, Lubricants World, 1999
" ... action taken by the SAE to delete any reference to "synthetic" in its description of basestocks in section J354 and API's consequent removal of any mention of "synthetic" in API1509 were decisions by the industry not to restrict use of the term "synthetic" ..."
Professor J.M. Perez, a lubrication and technology expert from Pennsylvania State University, who told the NAD that true synthetics require "the formation of chemical products from simple well-defined molecules by synthesis or chemical reaction." Perez cited isomerization, reforming, hydrotreating, and hydrocracking as some of the many chemical and physical processing steps applied to petroleum to produce a variety of useful products, but said that they do not produce synthetic products. He argued that hydroisomerization does not create synthetic material because it does not create or build molecules, but merely rearranges the same molecules that were present in the original petroleum fraction.
Professor O.L. Chapman, an expert in synthetic chemistry from the University of California, also testified that synthetic materials are constructed from pure compounds that are themselves not natural and that the resulting synthetic material has well-defined properties. PAO and ester, he said, are built from pure small molecules that have already been subject to a chemical reaction, and are not built from natural petroleum.
Mobil also asserted that the definition of synthetic propounded by Castrol is contrary to the definition used by other motor oil manufacturers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Under the EPA's 40CFR435.11(x), "the term 'synthetic' material. . . means material produced by the reaction of a specific purified chemical feedstock, as opposed to the traditional base fluids such as diesel and mineral oil, which are derived from crude oil solely through physical separation processes."
Exxon, on its Web site, stated that a synthetic lubricant is a "... lubricating fluid made by chemically reacting materials of a specific chemical composition to produce a compound with planned and predictable properties ... ." Similarly, Mobil contended Chevron, Lubrizol, Mobil, Valvoline, and Quaker State all disseminated definitions of synthetic that did not include hydroisomerized oil.
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Regular oil is "semi synthetic" now anyway, as far as what I've seen on bottles. Schedule online and avoid talking to the person, if it's possible. Just put a note you have the coupon or whatever when you schedule online. That's what I often do when their online scheduling is working...
Yeah it's called boutique oils. I'm sure some out in the shelves of stores, but if your wanting the Grp 4&5 high zinc, moly, etc is gonna cost you what ain't in a discount store usually.