Synthetic vs. Dino usage in Europe

[camrydriver111]

I was reading oil articles and I remember one mentioning that in Europe virtually all cars nowadays use synthetic oil despite much higher costs of oil. Can anyone from Europe confirm? I am curious what is the synthetic vs. dino usage is in USA/Canada vs. Europe.

Of course I realize synthetics might not be "full synthetics", they are marketing terms, the difference is getting smaller, etc.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Being from Europe originally, I can only say that what drives the use of synthetics over there is the push towards very long OCIs. Most cars over there these days recommend changing oil once every 2 years or somewhere around 30k km. A mineral oil does not work well in such conditions.

 

[Trav]

Today i would say that is true. Dino isn't very popular with people who own a car thats much more than a clunker.
I haven't used dino since the early 80's and never will again.

 

[abycat]

I'm in Canada but I'm using pyb for a short interval but 99% of the time I use syn.

 

[dlundblad]

From what I have seen, European cars have longer factory OCIs and larger than average sumps. Makes sense synthetic would be used I guess.

 

[Finn]

Of my cars not even Cherokee has conventional oil in it anymore. None of my buddies use even semi-synthetic as far as I can tell.

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: dlundblad
From what I have seen, European cars have longer factory OCIs and larger than average sumps. Makes sense synthetic would be used I guess.



european sumps, especially for diesel engines are often smaller than those in asian cars.

 

[ctrcbob]

I vacation in France (and Italy). I always lease a Renault (www.renaultusa.com) for anywhere between three and seven weeks. A lease not a rental. The owners manual says to change oil every 30,000 kilometers. (That's 18,750 miles). Don't remember if it said one year, two years, etc.

Don't forget, European synthetic (group 4 or 5) is better than American synthetic (group 3).

Did you ever notice how many synthetics have printed on the bottle, for use "Only in the Americas".

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: ctrcbob
Don't forget, European synthetic (group 4 or 5) is better than American synthetic (group 3).

Not necessarily the case anymore. Group 3 is now classified as synthetic in most of Europe, with the exception of Germany.

Besides, modern group 3 oils have no problem going the distance.

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: Jetronic
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
From what I have seen, European cars have longer factory OCIs and larger than average sumps. Makes sense synthetic would be used I guess.



european sumps, especially for diesel engines are often smaller than those in asian cars.


With gas engines at least and if you do the math (sump capacity/engine displacement), they come to about the same in size.

They are just bigger than what we are used to since the average sump size seems to be about 5 quarts.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: ctrcbob
Don't forget, European synthetic (group 4 or 5) is better than American synthetic (group 3).

Not necessarily the case anymore. Group 3 is now classified as synthetic in most of Europe, with the exception of Germany.

Besides, modern group 3 oils have no problem going the distance.
Agreed, Pete, not everything is "better" in Europe.

 

[chrisri]

Since mid 90s i would say about 90% of oil usage in Europe is synthetic with group 3 oils being most common. 5w40 is probably most favourite grade followed by 0w/5w30 used in late models.

 

[chrisri]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: ctrcbob
Don't forget, European synthetic (group 4 or 5) is better than American synthetic (group 3).

Not necessarily the case anymore. Group 3 is now classified as synthetic in most of Europe, with the exception of Germany.

Besides, modern group 3 oils have no problem going the distance.


Euro synthetics are better as a final product since they need to comply with much tougher ACEA and Euro OEMs specifications when compared with Api SN, GF5.
They are not better in a way that they use better base stock oil.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: chrisri
Euro synthetics are better as a final product since they need to comply with much tougher ACEA and Euro OEMs specifications when compared with Api SN, GF5.

True, although we should probably step back and define what "better" means.

One could define "better" as resulting in improved fuel economy, in which case an oil meeting GF-5 spec would be "better." But as far as longer OCIs, I would agree that ACEA and Euro mfg specs take the lead. There are always trade offs.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Agreed, Pete, not everything is "better" in Europe.

I don't know. The cars are better, the women hotter and the beer and food tastier. What else is there? LOL

 

[dothedrew1202]

Originally Posted By: Trav
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Agreed, Pete, not everything is "better" in Europe.

I don't know. The cars are better, the women hotter and the beer and food tastier. What else is there? LOL

All that's debatable. Cars, maybe. Beer, yes. Food and women no. No offense but everyone that I see on tv and movies are super pale and have jacked up teeth. I like women with a tan and pearly whites. Food... nothing beats American bbq.

 

[crazyoildude]

here in America at least dino and synthetic are so close its not too much of an issue i use dino in most of my engines i use syn only when rebuilding something that requires it.

In most older high mileage engines that "grew up" on dino tend to leak more on syn so dino has its place and their are many very high mileage dino fed engines with 300,000 and more.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: dothedrew1202
Originally Posted By: Trav
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Agreed, Pete, not everything is "better" in Europe.

I don't know. The cars are better, the women hotter and the beer and food tastier. What else is there? LOL

All that's debatable. Cars, maybe. Beer, yes. Food and women no. No offense but everyone that I see on tv and movies are super pale and have jacked up teeth. I like women with a tan and pearly whites. Food... nothing beats American bbq.

Other than BBQ we don't have better tasting food than them, especially junk food like hamburger at MD or BK.

Go to almost any beach in France(and most European beaches) you can enjoy abundant topless beautiful women everywhere, even in restaurants on the beach.

Back to topic, my OCI with synthetic in LS400 is 12mo/15-18k miles while it is 6mo with dino. So I get my money worth of synthetic oil.

The E430 has only synthetic and the OCI is 12mo/1013k miles.

 

[steve20]

Originally Posted By: Finn
Of my cars not even Cherokee has conventional oil in it anymore. None of my buddies use even semi-synthetic as far as I can tell.


...as far as you can tell...? Why, do they walk a little differently if they used semi-syn? (j/k)

I'm not from Europe, but I only use syn because you can buy it for the same price, or less than dino

 

[expat]

There are not that many Shade Tree oil changers in Europe. Therefore people want to go as far as they can between OCI's.