Heya, first post here. I've been lurking for a while and I think its time for me to make a change (hopefully for the better) on how I care for my vehicles. But I am still very new this aspsect of automobile care, I'm just a guy who has been hands off for my whole life untill now, when I've decided I want to have a more hands on approch to my vehicle care, Here is my game plan.
I live in a temperate climate, Northern Indiana. we have HOT summers and COLD winters. (100F summertime, 0F wintertime for every bit of two months each)
I have two vehicles:
93'Toyota Pickup (31" tires, 2" susp lift)
3.0 V6 4WD. 5 speed, 100K miles (recently purchased. I dont know its history, oil was a little "worn" though when purchased,Has been changed 2X now in less then 1000Mi and seems to have cleared up a bit)
98'Saturn SC2 Coupe
1.9 4cyl DOHC Automatic 70k Miles (purchased 3 years ago used, I've maintianed nearly text book change intervals at local oil change places)
I'm not certain if the Toyota is burning any oil. the saturn Is burning none (at least not a measureable amount) This tells me that it should be running fairly smoothly without too much wear correct?
I should also note that both vehicles see a fair amount of stop and go driving, the truck being the worst by far.
Both vehicles have been running on Dino there entire life (that I can tell) I know this isnt a bad thing if kept up on maintience. But I want to take this to the next step and start with a clean slate.
My objective is to change the oil+filter Again on both vehicles in the next 2 weeks or so. I will use cheap supertech dino, with a suptertech filter. At this time I want to use 1 treatment of Auto-RX in each vehical. I'm not sure what interval I should drive for. I'm considering doing a filter change on both around 500Mi then leaving the autoRX in for another 500mi.
At this point after both vehicles have gone the 1000mi distance on autoRX I want to switch them to a synthetic oil. (wich one? I havent decided yet. I seem to be able to get Castrol Syntec for a fairly affordable price locally, but I havent done enough research as to wich one suits my needs best, perhaps you can help?)
After the switch over I want to closely monitor MPG and keep an eye out for irregular engine sounds/vibrations and leaks. to insure the switch over was good. I also want to document the process by removing my valve covers and taking some pictures befor the AutoRX and after to see if I notice any improvment.
Trying to keep this thread from getting too long, does this sound like a decent game plan? I love my vehicles and I want to keep them around for as long as possible!
[ March 25, 2003, 11:54 AM: Message edited by: joe4324 ]
I live in a temperate climate, Northern Indiana. we have HOT summers and COLD winters. (100F summertime, 0F wintertime for every bit of two months each)
I have two vehicles:
93'Toyota Pickup (31" tires, 2" susp lift)
3.0 V6 4WD. 5 speed, 100K miles (recently purchased. I dont know its history, oil was a little "worn" though when purchased,Has been changed 2X now in less then 1000Mi and seems to have cleared up a bit)
98'Saturn SC2 Coupe
1.9 4cyl DOHC Automatic 70k Miles (purchased 3 years ago used, I've maintianed nearly text book change intervals at local oil change places)
I'm not certain if the Toyota is burning any oil. the saturn Is burning none (at least not a measureable amount) This tells me that it should be running fairly smoothly without too much wear correct?
I should also note that both vehicles see a fair amount of stop and go driving, the truck being the worst by far.
Both vehicles have been running on Dino there entire life (that I can tell) I know this isnt a bad thing if kept up on maintience. But I want to take this to the next step and start with a clean slate.
My objective is to change the oil+filter Again on both vehicles in the next 2 weeks or so. I will use cheap supertech dino, with a suptertech filter. At this time I want to use 1 treatment of Auto-RX in each vehical. I'm not sure what interval I should drive for. I'm considering doing a filter change on both around 500Mi then leaving the autoRX in for another 500mi.
At this point after both vehicles have gone the 1000mi distance on autoRX I want to switch them to a synthetic oil. (wich one? I havent decided yet. I seem to be able to get Castrol Syntec for a fairly affordable price locally, but I havent done enough research as to wich one suits my needs best, perhaps you can help?)
After the switch over I want to closely monitor MPG and keep an eye out for irregular engine sounds/vibrations and leaks. to insure the switch over was good. I also want to document the process by removing my valve covers and taking some pictures befor the AutoRX and after to see if I notice any improvment.
Trying to keep this thread from getting too long, does this sound like a decent game plan? I love my vehicles and I want to keep them around for as long as possible!
[ March 25, 2003, 11:54 AM: Message edited by: joe4324 ]