Synth OC Intervals

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Hi. I'm new here but have been fussy about changing oil in my cars/trucks for many years. Right now I have a 2003 Nissan Sentra XE with 61,300 miles and Castrol Syntech 10-30 in it. I switched to Synthetic last Winter while trying to improve my gas mileage, at first to QS "Q" brand, then was told to NOT use QS oil, so I drained it and put Syntech in.
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I only have about 2200 miles on the Syntech now (with a K&N oil filter that are often on sale together). I was wondering about the intervals to change it at now. Guy at parts store where I got the oil said 9 months is OK but after reading here and other places I think 1 year ought to be OK. Is this correct in your opinions?

The type driving I do : I only put about 3000 miles a year or so on it. I have a motorcycle I ride much of the time. I drive it around town a lot, or to a town that's 8 miles away or to another place that's 13 miles away, or sometimes just to the store that's a mile or two. I live in East Tennessee USA.

Was surprised to learn that the "can't go back to dino oil after synthetic" saying is a myth to many people. Do you all agree here? I don't think it would be a great idea for me to go back to dino oil but I'm not sure. I just want my car to last a long time with the best oil. I do OCs myself and am not real crazy about it so the once a year OC vs the 6 month OC with Dino oil is probably the wayI'd rather do it. Before Synthetic I ran Castrol GTX 10-30 in my car.

So, in a nutshell, my main question is : is one year OC OK for Synthetic, and is Syntech a good enough oil to use or would it be better if I used some other similarly priced brand?
 
I think that after looking at a lot of UOAs many board members would conclude that you cannot lose with 7500 miles or 1 year on modern synthetics.

"I just want my car to last a long time with the best oil."
Well, then the answer is clear. Use REDLINE SYNTHETIC OILS
 
You ride 8-15 miles around town? Sheesh, you should get a turbo nitros+meth injection 50cc scooter so we can argue about which oil you should use in that! Come on!
 
Originally Posted By: djlinux64
You ride 8-15 miles around town? Sheesh, you should get a turbo nitros+meth injection 50cc scooter so we can argue about which oil you should use in that! Come on!


My bike is only a 249cc United Motors V2S 250R, a small oil/air cooled V-twin.
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I've owned bikes up to 1100cc but these days, at age 58, I'm not wanting to be tempted into getting any more speeding tickets. :) My bike gets about 75 MPG.

Car will get 40 MPG on the highway, or at least it did in the Summer of 2008, and gets only about 28-30 around town, which I guess is OK but nothing to write home about. I was going to sell it but couldn't get the price I wanted so I kind of lost interest in that. Was going to get a good used Civic, Corolla, or Tercel, or even another Sentra if the price was right. It might not be a real good idea. My Sentra is a great little car : no leaks or issues whatsoever and has been 100% relaible in the 2 years I've owned it. I guess I shouldn't argue with success.
 
Have you done a UOA?

Sounds like with a premium oil you could do 12 months without and issue.

You can change to whatever base oil type you want, whenever you want.
 
Hi Pablo.

I never did a UOA on any oil. About how much does it cost?
 
That's not bad. It seems to me that a UOA might tell me some interesting things about my car and it's needs. I just might go for it. :)
 
Syntec is a good oil
1 year will work fine
It is a myth. Many members here have switched over and over again from Dino to Syn Oil. It will not hurt anything. Plus, blends are dino/syn combined so how could it be harmful?
 
Lots of people do one year OCIs. You could use almost any oil and go 3k miles per year with it.

RL oil would do nothing for you that Syntech wasn't already doing, and in your application would just be a waste of money.

Switching back and forth is usually not a problem, many on here have made a career out of doing just that :)

What oil do you use in your MC?
 
Originally Posted By: ZZman
Syntec is a good oil
1 year will work fine
It is a myth. Many members here have switched over and over again from Dino to Syn Oil. It will not hurt anything. Plus, blends are dino/syn combined so how could it be harmful?


Yeah, I hear ya. :)

Ideally though, in your opinion, which oil, blend, and OC interval would be the best for my engine to make it run *forever*?

I have some homework to do on this website.
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I don't call Syntec a 'REAL"Synthetic.I quit Castrol many years back over that nomenclature and went to a REAL synthetic.I call it a synthetic blend.To me most REAL synthetics you don't find on shelves.You order for the most part.One year or 7500 miles on these synthetic blends should be fine from what I have read.I personally feel more comfortable going 7500 PLUS or one year on a real honest to goodness true synthetic.I may get flamed for saying such?
 
Lots of people do one year OCIs. You could use almost any oil and go 3k miles per year with it.

Hmmmm.... veddy intedesting. I may experiment with that a little. This is a very interesting site. I'll bet my Sentra runs as sweet at 161k as it does now with 61k. I don't think there is a more important thing we can do for our vehicles than OC.


Switching back and forth is usually not a problem, many on here have made a career out of doing just that :)


Glad to put the myths behind me and feed my car the best there is w/o wasting money on unnecessary OCs.

What oil do you use in your MC?

I've got the Bel-ray Synthetic in it that the shop put in when they did the 1st service on it at 1600 miles, last November. I think the bike has about 3800 miles now, so it's been in for about 2200 miles. I think they told me this oil can stay in for 3k to 5k miles. What do y'all think of this? I'd be real interested to hear your opinion. Offhand I'd say the 1 year rule might be a good idea with my motorcycle oil. Would I be wise at all to try running Dino oil in it? It may have always had Synthetic oil in it.
 
PS - should I change the oil filter at one year also or could I leave it in for another year if I do 1 year OCI with 3k miles?
 
I would say for you a good reasonably priced option would be:

Pennzoil Platinum or Mobil 1 Oil (Both very good oils)
Wix, Carquest blue or Napa Gold filters (Good filters)
Buy the Combo Oil/Mobil 1 filter deals when available from Auto Parts stores.
Stick with once a year oil changes and filter changes.

**Buy oil by the jug at Walmart and save some bucks.
 
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Originally Posted By: hounddog
I don't call Syntec a "REAL" Synthetic. I quit Castrol many years back over that nomenclature and went to a REAL synthetic.


You have to be real careful with these statements... Castrol Syntec 0W30 European formula (Made in Germany) is REAL synthetic (i.e. Group IV base stock) AFAIK. US made Castrol in other weights may just be semi synthetic highly refined Group 3 with add pack. Some say the same about Mobil-1 formulations - the 0W40 European Formula being true synthetic while the other grades are not full Group IV base stock. I only say this after reading so many of the discussions on this site about the topic. No sense in getting into the age-old discussion about whats syn and whats not here... Just beware that not all Syntecs are created equally. If I use Castrol Syntec or M1, I always stick to the 0W30 Castrol or 0W40 M1 for that very reason - I want the full synthetic base stock in the BMW twin turbo. Not as concerned in my Volvo since its a NA engine and Volvo recommends the Syntec 5W30 there.

As for OCI's and SYN, I fully agree and go 7500 miles or 1 year whichever comes first for me (about half the recommended BMW OCI).
 
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Lurch,

My brothers Cadillac CTS is only a year old and so far his drives to work and home only gives him 3K/year also so his dealership chooses Castrol "Syntec" instead of Mobil 1. I believe you OK on that interval using the synthetic of your choice. I however have used QS "Q" with fantastic results so why you decided to switch I can't figure out. Although I use M1 as a standard I found the "Q" much better. Using "Syntec" is fine oil too so you decide.

One thing I think you should do is on the weekends I'd take your car for a good spin to get the oil nice n' hot to drive out the moisture that accumulates inside the crankcase. That's what I do once per week for my truck/car dispite the advances in synthetic oil.

Durango
 
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Originally Posted By: Lurch

I only have about 2200 miles on the Syntech now (with a K&N oil filter that are often on sale together). I was wondering about the intervals to change it at now. Guy at parts store where I got the oil said 9 months is OK but after reading here and other places I think 1 year ought to be OK. Is this correct in your opinions?


1 year change interval for full synthetic is AOK. GM makes this recommendation with their Vettes, so if it's OK for a Vette is should be OK for anything IMO.

In my Vette, the Oil Life monitor says to change full synthetic after about 5,500 miles with hard driving, and around 10,000 miles with mellow driving style.
 
I think you should be fine with Syntec for a year with the miles your talking about. I don't think that time is really a big factor with oil, your driving is the key. Most people would say that any SM conventional oil would be fine for 5k over a year so split the difference and run a blend. It all depends on if you want to minimize cost or not. Synthetics are technically "better" but you may never see a tangible difference. Pennzoil Platinum seems to be a great oil and Syntec is as well. If you want to save some money, try Syntec blend and get a UOA somewhere along the way and see how it's doing. Always change the filter because it's easy to do a adds minimal expense unless you go M1 or K&N. A Wix (Napa Gold) should be fine for your application.
 
Originally Posted By: ZZman
I would say for you a good reasonably priced option would be:

Pennzoil Platinum or Mobil 1 Oil (Both very good oils)
Wix, Carquest blue or Napa Gold filters (Good filters)
Buy the Combo Oil/Mobil 1 filter deals when available from Auto Parts stores.
Stick with once a year oil changes and filter changes.

**Buy oil by the jug at Walmart and save some bucks.


Sounds like a good idea to me. I've seen people get great results here using about any good available oil they could find on sale or whatever.

I used to think Wix oil filters were cheap and I used to avoid them and use only Honda oil filters in my 1994 Civic (that I put 253k on in 6 years). But, I will re-think Wix and the other filters after getting your recommendation here. Thanks.
 
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