Car/Truck maintainance/tuning recommendations

[Bushman]

Boy my spelling is bad! Anyway, I just got a 1998 Toyota T-100 2wd x-tra cab truck. 78K miles, Looks as if the oil hasn't been changed in a long time! I mean a Looong time. Good thing is that it had a good filter. I read on Truck world forums that for the toyotas, The OEM filter is as good as it gets. and this is what it had on it. I do not believe that It was the original though. (don't laugh) a friend of mine bought a car and I think it DID have the original filter on it [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

I replaced with PZ10-30 and a Fram tough guard filter. (it was all I had) and will run it about a 1000 miles and then Change it again. This time with the Toyota filter.

1. What Oil do you use and why?

2. What filters (Air and Oil) and why?

3. What is the best way to get a little more power from your stock engine? This one has a 3.4 liter V-6 EFI Dual overhead cam 24 valve. engine in it. I was thinking exhaust mods first but am not sure.

I asked these questions over at truck world BBS and was met with staunch silence.

here is some intresting info about oil filters
http://minimopar.net/oilfilters.html

[JackBlades]

I run Castrol oil & Fram filter.
My air filter is a K&N that is very efficeint and easy to clean & re-oil. I drive a 1994 Chevy full-size pickup with about 73,000 on it. Bought it new and change oil every 3000. Never had a problem, but then I'm a maintenance freak.
Last coolant flush showed the inside of radiator still shiny as new!!!

[Bushman]

Hey Jack blades, did you take a look at the oil filter link above. I have used fram all of my life but i think that I going to change now. At least I used the Tough Guard which seems to be the best of the three.

Why Castrol? just curious

What led you to buy the K&N? They are expensive but supposed to be pretty good free flowing filters.

[Light-Headed]

Hey Bushman,

My dad has been an auto mechanic for 40+ years now. I had this same discussion (which is best?) with him last Christmas and he turned me towards WIX filters (air and oil). They are extremely high quality and are the officially licensed filters for Nascar (I figure most people probably don't treat their cars as rough as a Nascar) so they should hold up pretty well for most of us. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

They have a helpful website here:

http://www.wixfilters.com/

The most important thing to do now is to at least buy "decent" quality filters and do regular oil changes (most major brands of oil should be fine). I do them at 3,000 mile intervals. I just use the regular name brand oils and have not tried any of the synthetics or the blends.

Also, seeing as how the last owner may not have kept up the maintenence as well as they should have, I would probably have the transmission fluid drained and changed as well as having the radiator flushed out and re-filled. Also, inspect all the belts and hoses for cracks, etc. May also want to consider having your spark plugs replaced since they probably never have been. Check out your brake pads and disks as well to make sure they aren't worn and in need of any attention. Lastly, a lot of people forget about the fuel filter. I had mine replaced with a Wix brand fuel filter at 63,000 miles. You don't have to do all this stuff at once, but might want to consider it over the next couple of months.

As far as the best way to get a little more power from you engines. Probably one of the least expensive and easiest is the aftermarket air filters that JackBlades mentioned in his post (like K&N filters). They allow for less restricted airflow while still filtering out harmful particles, plus, they can be cleaned, re-oiled, and re-used. Then, I would go for the exhaust mods.

Hope that helps.

[Luff]

True story:

My uncle participated in the final test program for Mobile 1 many years ago in California before the product was introduced to the public.

They bought a fleet of company vehicles and put them to hard, daily use. The only engine maintenance (outside of topping fluids) was to do oil maintenance every 3,000 miles. This consisted of removing the used oil filter, putting a new one on and replacing the lost quart of oil.

After 100,000 miles, the engines in the test group were dismantled and all parts were checked against original specs and examined at high magnifcation. There was NO discernable wear on ANY part, except spark plugs.

While I still find the story hard to believe, he was an honest guy and that's what I've done for the past 154,000 miles on my Suburban. It seems to be working just fine for me. And, doing it this way makes the cost of using a synthetic more affordable than regular oil. But, as my uncle warned, don't you dare forget to change that oil filter every 3,000 miles.

Darell has good reason to like the product.

Quickest performance boost (if you can afford it, can get access to it and are willing to really watch your vehicle's temperature gauge): 100-octane unleaded aviation fuel. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] vroom-vroom.

[Bushman]

Please tell me more about the use of Av-gas in motor vehicles. how does more octane give you more power? could one just dump some 104 or whatever the brand name is into the tank at each fillup?

[Luff]

I do hope there's an engineer lurking this thread that can do a better job of explaining the effect higher octane has on power and efficiency ... I'm just a bumpkin that's done it.

I'm sorta guessing here, so if this needs correction, please educate us all:

Higher octane = more aromatics in the fuel = more power per combustion stroke and that combustion requires less fuel and has more explosive potential ... so fuel burns cleaner, which means less product wasted out the tailpipe, which means higher miles per gallon.

It's probably cheaper & doesn't burn as cleanly, but 8-10 mothballs in the fuel tank produces much the same effect ... but then, the blue flames that pulse out the tailpipe are downright scary!

And, by the way, if you burn up your engine doing either of these without knowing more about it up front, don't say you weren't warned! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Saaby]

Hello? Hello? Wannabe engineer checking in.

Octane is a complex game. Basically Octane is a measurement of the fuel to resist combustion. That is, resist early combustion. Low octane fuels will ignite more easily at a lower compression than higher octane fuels. This is why luxure cars with their super high compression engines require high octane gas. It's also a measurement of the ability to resist engine knocking, which is just the gas exploding earlier than it should.

So actually, the most efficient gasoline for your engine is the lowst octane you can run and get away with it. Utah is high altitude...lower pressure than, say, California. Both my (parents) cars are rated for 87 (Or "Regular") Octane gasoline. This is the lowest grade sold in low altitude places, like California. However, in Utah 87 is mid grade. We run 85 through our cars and it works fine. It's more efficient too.

Most modern cars are, well, computerized. They can detect engine knock and make ajustments to the timing to avoid it. You may see a slight performance boost by running higher octane fuel--but not much, that engine computer is going to keep everything under control...all for the sake of smoothness and engine protection.

"Higher octane = more aromatics in the fuel = more power per combustion stroke and that combustion requires less fuel and has more explosive potential ... so fuel burns cleaner, which means less product wasted out the tailpipe, which means higher miles per gallon."

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Nice start...more power per combustion stroke in an engine designed for it...

[Flashlightboy]

OK I'm about to start something here but sometimes the truth hurts. From those who've taken them apart, Fram filters are just about the worst thing going. They have a great marketing scheme but inside where it counts, other filters are much better. STP filters, if I remember correctly, are simply Fram with different paint. You might try this link for a bit more info by someone who actually analyzed numerous filters.
http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/oil_filter_study/

I'm using the Mobil1 filter and oil changing both every 5k. The Purolator PureOne is also highly recommended and it's about half the price of the Mobil filter. Amsoil filters and oil are also great but very expensive.

[Bushman]

Thank you, It does help. I do change oil every 3000 miles also. I know that the auto tranny fluid needs changing, I am so obsessive that I often carefully suck out most of the brake fluid out of the resivoir and replace it with fresh. Kinda like an exchange transfusion... I have been known to do this to the power steering fluid too. just making careful that I do not introduce air into the system.

[Darell]

I'm a big, big fan of Mobil1 engine oil. Been using it forever in motorycycles and the one remaining ICE car. Mostly it is the technology that I'm in love with. I have no idea what great effect it has on the overall life of the engine or performance, but you certainly can't go wrong with it since it is superior to dino-oil in every way that I'm aware of (besides price!)

[Wits' End]

Living with VERY low winter temps has made me want to switch to synthetic. My concern is that when I did this w/ my last car I started having engine problems, smoking etc. Any suggestions on switching or cause and effect here?

[Daniel Ramsey]

Here is my two cents about synthetic fluids, where I live (Alaska) and being in charge of a fleet of concrete mixers plus my 25+ years as a mechanic...
Synthetics are the future but do not like older engines, reason is that high sulphur of parafin based crude oils like Quaker State leave a buildup of sludge after years in an engine and thats usually because an engine is not run long enough to melt this layer off like short trips to work etc. So when you have an older engine say with 50,000+ miles the seals are also beginning to deteriate and become brittle, most newer engines use silicone seals now but there is always the sludge buildup around seals, in the rocker covers and all the interior of an engine.
Synthetics are alcohol based and when you change over what is happening is that the new oil is dissolving this protective "sludge barrier" at the crank seals and now the new oil which has more permeability or cold weather flow properties now has a wide avenue to escape, also at the valve stem seals, solutions in part is to use a "blend" for several months before using a pure synthetic. In Alaska its what we use when its -50, a jug of regular oil solidifies and cannot be poured and often can even break the oil pump shaft, I've seen it many times plus if the engine is started there is no oil pressure because it is solidified.
As for the other end of the temperature extreme synthetics also outperform as is very desired for air cooled engines as the regular oils cannot take the extreme heat. There is a wide array of replacement synthetic fluids from Rotella T for diesel engines, Mobil 1, Castrol Syntec (my favorite) and even Quaker State (best price) and the others such as DOT 5 Synthetic brake fluid (I use it too) Dexron Mercon (in my dually yep)and differential fluids (in my wifes Subaru differential) all these keep our vehicles running even when its -50.

[BuddTX]

Ahhh, the Never Ending Debate! Synthetics vs Dino Fluids! This topic is pretty close to discussing politics or religion or talking about dog foods (dog feeding philosophys can get pretty heated too!)

Please read what I say about Transmission fluid below!

The following is my opinion, but it is pretty accurate.

I've spent many many MANY hours reading on newsgroups, and internet sites, and www.edmunds.com and www.pickuptrucks.com about this subject.

Go to www.deja.com (now a google search site) and type in "synthetic oil", and see what comes up! Spend about a year reading all the posts.

First, the science. There is a whole industry called lubrication, and there are people that get advanced degrees in "lubrication engineering", and you can find web sites with charts, figures, mathamatical equasions, long, detailed discussions, etc.

BUT, unless you are driving a car that is not under any kind of warantee, or you want to risk putting non SAE API certified oil in your car, or buy some "brew" on the internet somewhere, or have a lab to brew up your own lubrication, you have just the choices that are available on the shelf.

This topic is broken down into several sub-topics:
-Synthetic Oil
-Regular (Dino) Oil
-Synthetic Oil Blends
-"Designer" Synthetics
Amsoil
Royal Purple
Redline
-Transmission Fluid
-Other Fluids
-Oil and Transmission Additives

OK, here we go.

Synthetic Oil
Quite simply, if you want the absolute best oil to put in your engine, use Synthetic. Change your oil every 3000-5000 miles. Period. End of Story.

Now the argument might be, do you actually need the benefits of synthetic oil? We will discuss that in the next topic.

Now, what Daniel Ramsey posted above, is very true also. For VERY VERY cold environments, Synthetic oil is a MUST. Not an option. Also, for old engines that ALREADY HAVE A LEAK, but that leak is "plugged" by dino oil sludge, synthetics will do such a good job of cleaning your engine up, that it will desolve that "sludge", and open up the hole, causing you a leak.

Synthetic oil Lubricates better, cools better, is thinner, yet provides more protection, keeps your engine very clean and overall protects your engine better.

AND, there is one oil: Mobil 1

Everything else is an "also ran". There has been a big disucssion on whether Castrol Synthetic is actually synthetic. I think a lawsuit by Castrol was suing Mobil for stating that Castrol is making false claims.

Now there might actually be better name brand synthetics better than Mobil 1, but Mobil 1 has been the leader, and will continue to be the leader for a while.

Now Mobil 1, at first, said that the oil was good for up to 25,000 miles per oil change, and, unofficially, people think that is still true, however, as noted above, you were still supposed to change your oil filter, and people were not doing that, and engines were getting damaged, and the car manufactures told mobil that they can't say that, as it overrides the auto manufacture's warantee recomendations, so Mobil took of the 25,000 mile claim, and now says to follow car manufacturer recomendations, but you can go to the maximum interval recommended by your auto manufacturer.

What I do, is every 5,000 miles, change the oil and filter, and get a lube. I use a premium Oil Filter. I was useing AC/Delco Ultraguard, a GREAT filter, but AC/Delco stopped making the filter. So now, I use PureONE from Purolator, or Mobil 1. About 5 and 10 dollars, respectfully. The general rule has been to stay away from Fram. Wix is supposed to be good.

I intend to keep my truck for many years, so keeping the engine in good shape, way beyond the waranttee period is important to me.

Regular Dino Oil:
Now nobody dis-agrees that Synthetic Oil is the best. However, LOTS of people dis-agree with the need to use synthetic oil. Kind of like comparing two cars, and one can accelarate to 140 MPH, the other. to 180 MPH. Who cares, if the speed limit is 55?

A lot of people argue that a modern SAE API approved oil already HAS a lot of synthetics in the oil already, to meet modern SAE API standards.

There is a proven track record, of people that use "whatever is on sale at the quickie lube mart", and just get the oil and filter changed every 3,000 miles. You can find people all day long, that just practice the 3,000 rule, and have engines that have 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 miles on them, and are 10-30 years old. And, even though I am a big beliver in Synthetics, I also believe that an engine can last the life of the car, if you just practice the 3,000 mile oil change rule.

It's even better, when you buy a quality oil filter, or OEM filter (not necessarly a ultra premium) and stick with a name brand, maybe the same name brand, oil.

Synthetic Blends
If you want most of the cost savings of regular oil, but want some of the benefits of synthetic, use a blend. Now, IF I were to use a blend (and I do not), I would make my own. I would buy 4 quarts of Mobil regular oil, and one quart of Mobil 1 synthetic oil, and mix them. The reason is, when you purchase pre-mixed syn-blends, you have no way of knowing what the mix ratio is. It might be a good amount of synthetic, or it may have a drop, you don't know. Stick with the same brand oil for both the dino and regular, or go with your favorite brand of regular oil, and Mobil 1 as your synthetic oil.

Designer Synthetics
-Amsoil
-Red Line
-Royal Purple
and others.
These oils almost have a cult religious following. Amsoil specifically, still promotes, very long oil change intervals. This is another, never ending, debate on the internet. Any Amsoil experts out there, please feel free to jump in here, and be more specific. I am not an expert, but Amsoil still promotes the possibility of almost never having to change your oil. They sell bypass oil filters, and you are supposed to send a oil sample in for chemical analysis every XXX miles, and all kinds of other stuff. If you were to choose the Amsoil way, make sure you educate yourself, and know the pro's and con's of what you are getting into. Many people SWEAR by Amsoil. According to them, it's the oil "too good" for the oil industry. Also, it is sold by MLM. You have to know someone, or buy it on the internet, you usually can't walk into the auto store and buy Amsoil. Redline and Royal Purple are also, "better than the best" type of synthetic oils. I personally will stick to Mobil 1.

Transmission Fluids
OK, here is were I am a BIG beliver in Synthetics.
Drive around town. How many Engine replacement specialists do you see? OK, maybe you find some, but not a lot. NOW, how many TRANSMISSION SPECIALIASTS do you see? A BUNCH!!! "Double AA, Beep, Beep, M-C-O" I have had 3 transmissions go out on me, in my life. This is one of the reasons why I have a truck now, because I believe that the transmission was designed to haul stuff, and be tough, and last. I HATE it when your transmission goes out!

When I got my truck, it had 250 miles on it, and the first day, I took it to a shop, and did a complete transmission fluid replacement on it, putting Mobil 1 full synthetic transmission fluid.

I believe that transmissions DO go out, and using a full synthetic transmission fluid will give your transmission a longer life. It's cheap insurance. And DO change the transmission fluid every 20-30 thousand miles too. Remember, just dropping the pan, you may only get a quarter to a third of the fluid out, because a lot will be in the differential, I think (or somewhere else in the transmission). A fluid replacement is the only way to get a complete transmission fluid change.

Other Fluids
Brake fluid
Power Steering
Anti-freeze

Brake Fluids
Not a total expert on these. I do know that DOT 5 is not NECESSARLY better than DOT 4, and DOT 4 is not NECESSARALY better than DOT 3.

Power Steering
Swap it out for a full synthetic if you can find a full synthetic.

Anti-Freeze.
More is not better. A 50-50 mixture is ideal. In the south, we are not so much concerned about ANTI-FREEZE, as much as we are about COOLANT (the same thing). Water has 4 times the cooling power as Anti-Freeze, but none of the protection. In my old car, Red Line's Water Wetter actually did make my car run cooler. It had absolutely no affect in my new truck.

Oil and Transmission Additives
OK, quite simply, to quote Fox Mulder from the X-Files, "I WANT TO BELIEVE". Seriously, I want to believe that there is some majic fluid, that I can add somewhere to my car, and after my car is treated, I can drain my oil, and power steering, and coolant, and transmission fluid, and STILL run my car at Indy speeds for hours in the Nevada Dessert Sun!

If a product like that actually existed, and you could buy it for 50-100 dollars, ALL the auto companies would factory install that product in all their cars. Do you know how much money they would save in engine and transmission repairs during the warantee period?

Do a search on ENGINE TREATMENT or SNAKE OIL in Google, to read lots and lots of information about engine and transmission products.

Basicly, to date, none of them have been proven to work. OH WE WANT them to work, and pay big bucks for them, but they do not work. The one exception, I have heard, is a product called ENGINE RESTORER, for old, very warn engines. Without any magic, it is suppoesed to give more power to the engine, due to lost power from the wider gaps that the warn engine has.

Some products actually DO give better gas mileage, reduced RPM's etc, but they do that at a cost. They use Chlorine as a lubricant, that works very well, but reduces the life of your engine by deteroriating the parts.

You want an additive? Add a quart of synthetic to your regular oil! It will cost you about 3 bucks more than a quart of regular oil!

OK, here it is in a nutshell!

If you want to keep your auto for long after the waranttee is out, use synthetics. If you are going to keep it for only a couple of years, and not sell it to anyone you know, save the money and use regular.

For the best combo of the two, throw in a quart of full synthetic to your oil change.

Never skimp on the Transmission fluid. Do a full fluid replacement, using the proper type of a full synthetic transmission fluid, and change it every 20-30 thousand miles.

Stay away from ALL ENGINE ADDITIVES.

Back to work now!

[Bushman]

Ok budd, now you have scared me. I had thought about using synthetic but there is sludge buildup in the engine From looking in the filler area. So i guess I will stick with dino oil for now.

Transmission is another thing. My fluid is brown. and I am sure that it has never been changed. I know that I can drop the pan and change the filter and top off but how can one "flush" the whole tranny? Bet I can't do that at home can I?

[Albany Tom]

I'm probably in the minority on this one, but if you can change the tranny fluid yourself, I think you should. Any dirt/metal is going to settle to the bottom of the pan, so wipe the pan out clean when you change it, of course use new filter and gaskets, and be carefull not to overfill. The most important thing, from what I've heard/read, is to keep it clean. Really clean. The idea of synthetic tranny fluid sounds great. I've used synthetic differential (gear lube) fluid in a truck before, and it's great.

Maybe try a blended synthetic, and gradually switch to full synthetic? I went looking once at mobil 1's tech info, and their claim was that early versions of mobil 1 didn't have an additive that would expand all seals the same as normal oil, so that switching from regular to synthetic would cause the seals to stop being swollen, so they would leak. The mobil site said this had been corrected in the current oil.

[BuddTX]

Bushman,

Just because there is sludge, does not mean that you should not use synthetic. All that means is that you have sludge.

If you have a dirty engine, you just have to change the oil more frequently, or at least change the filter. Syn oil will clean up your engine.

ONLY if you ALREADY HAVE a leak, and the leak has been pluged by oil deposits and the tiny leak is now clogged up by the oil. If your engine is running well, well who knows.

An older engine is a crap shoot. Some say that if your seals are all dry and would be leaking, but there is sludge blocking up the holes, and you switch to synthetic, it will eventually clean out all the sludge in the micro cracks, and your engine will develope a small leak, (remember the leak was already there, the oil did not cause the leak), but then the oil will soak into the seals, and they will swell up, and the leak will go away.

Have a mechanic look at the brown transmission fluid. If you do a transmission fluid flush, you will also need to change the filter. It just makes sense.

Some people say that if the fluid is that far gone, to leave it, as the "brown" is the friction that the transmission needs to grab and shift. Changing it will cause your tranny to not shift.

Then again, it could just be old transmission fluid.

If it's an old car, what are your long term plans for the car?

OK, I just re-read your post. A 1998 truck. That is not old. I would bet that it is ok to change to a full synthetic, and to get the tranny serviced (new filter) and then do a complete fluid swap.

Don't sue me if I am wrong, but that is what I would do.

Check to see if the tranny is a 100,000 mile service tranny. Lots of tranny's are rated to go 100,000 miles before a scheduled service.

Go to www.pickuptrucks.com for more advice.

[JackBlades]

Originally posted by Bushman:
Hey Jack blades, did you take a look at the oil filter link above. I have used fram all of my life but i think that I going to change now. At least I used the Tough Guard which seems to be the best of the three.

Why Castrol? just curious

What led you to buy the K&N? They are expensive but supposed to be pretty good free flowing filters.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Wow, I just read that link! I have an oil change coming up and now I'm questioning whether to continue using Fram.....
I have used Castrol oil for years with no problems. I used to run my Honda XR600 very hard and hot with Castrol and on teardown the parts looked great!
Likewise K&N air filters have served me well. I figure that if I can't even see some dirt on my fingertip after rubbing it on the inside of the air cleaner housing, it must be getting clean filtered air!

Not sure what they mean by "drainback" on the Fram filters. Would that only apply to horizontal/upside-down mounting? Chevy smallblock filters hang down. Nice not to have oil dribble all over the place when you unscrew the filter...

[Albany Tom]

Noticed the avgas thing - unless they've changed avgas in the last few years, it still has lots of lead in it. Less than it used to for planes, but probably more than autogas did. So you'll fry your converter. You wouldn't get a HP gain anyway, I don't believe, without also changing your timing.

[JackBlades]

Originally posted by BuddTX:
Bushman,
Check to see if the tranny is a 100,000 mile service tranny. Lots of tranny's are rated to go 100,000 miles before a scheduled service.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I believe they rate the new FLUIDS up to 100k.
I would still service the trans every 15k for normal use. Tranny fluid is cheap compared to tranny service! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Bushman]

Jack blades, Antidrain back is a valve in the oil filter itself... Small block chevy has a good thing going with the upside down filter setup. My surburban is a cinch to change out. If you have a side mount or a upwards cant to your filter the antidrain back keeps the oil on the DIRTY side of the filter from draining back into the engine. That would be the side closest to the can not the part that you can see down into. that part has filtered oil in it.

[sunspot]

I am a member of V8SHO forums and the K&N air filters are used by almost all members.

[snakebite]

Originally posted by Bushman:
Jack blades, Antidrain back is a valve in the oil filter itself... Small block chevy has a good thing going with the upside down filter setup. My surburban is a cinch to change out. If you have a side mount or a upwards cant to your filter the antidrain back keeps the oil on the DIRTY side of the filter from draining back into the engine. That would be the side closest to the can not the part that you can see down into. that part has filtered oil in it.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">another nice thing about that filter arangement is that you can fill it up before installing it and prevent or lessen the dry start at each oil change.

[Termac]

Nicely handled topic... My 2 cents: Use a good conventional oil in the neglected engine, but change often. Certainly Mobil1 will be fine later if all is well with the vehicle. I run Hastings Filters with Mobil1 and double inntervals. If you're running Mobil1 for high/low temperature benifits the filter is not a big deal, but for long intervals it probably is. With conventional, I'll run 10W-30 in the summer and the specified 5W-30 in winter: the 10W will have more base oil, giving it at least a theoretical advantage. Ofcourse, you can easily make a vehicle last until you are totally sick of it with conventional oils and fluids, at least in average driving. Finally, don't use Mobil1 in your lawn mower, because then the stupid thing will last practically for ever, and what fun would that be?

[axolotls]

I went to three auto stores today

1. AutoZone - All Fram/STP filters [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
2. Kragen - All Fram/STP Filters [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
3. Specialty Auto Shop (even carries the full Redline and Synergen line of stuff) - All Fram filters.

What the heck?

Also, been using K&N for the past ten years. Couldn't be happier with the extra 5 HP + the nice sounds of sucking.

[Light-Headed]

Hey axolotls,

I posted up above about my dad being an auto mechanic for over 40 years and he highly recommends WIX filters which is what I'm using now. They have a nice website with an area called "where to buy". You can enter your zip code there and it can guide you to the nearest locations that stock them. Hope that helps. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

http://www.wixfilters.com/

[Darell]

Good stuff guys. I'm glad we seem to have put the octane discussion to bed. That's one of my peeves, actually. And it can all be blamed on marketing. Generally, the public thinks that the higher octane fuel you use, the faster the car goes. Ug. Ryan did a great job of explaining it.

Just for the record, EVs don't have engine oil OR transmission oil. No oil filters or air filters. There is NO service interval for these cars. Oh... and same thing for electric lawn mowers.

Off my box.

[Saaby]

Originally posted by darell:
Just for the record, EVs don't have engine oil OR transmission oil. No oil filters or air filters. There is NO service interval for these cars.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">And in the other corner we have this beauty...

[Light-Headed]

Ahhhhh......the old EV1 vs. Saab battle. Is that going to be on pay-per-view again? [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I tell you what, the more I find out about Mobil 1 full sythetic oil, the more impressed I am with it. I recently decided I'm going to start changing my own oil (with proper disposal of course), just because I sort of enjoy doing a little work on my own car. I usually just go to one of those quickie oil change places.

Now, I figure with the money I'll be saving, I can put in the Mobil 1 synthetic while I do it. Don't know if I'll start springing for the Mobil 1 oil filter while I'm at it or if I'll just stick with my "tried and true" WIX filters. Either way, I figure it'll be a good combo.

[Minjin]

Mobil 1's sucess is the result of marketing, just like Energizer. I thought you guys saw through that stuff??

I'd certainly recommend synthetic on any performance engine, turbocharged engine, and any that you want to live for a couple hundred thousand miles. It just makes things a little better.

There are certainly percentage points to be gained with the various synthetic fluids but whether you or I are capable of noticing it, remains to be said. Our checkbook certainly notices that synthetic stuff though. Try doing a Mobil 1 oil change with an Alfa V6, 7qts at around 5 dollars each. In the end, synthetic is better, but whether its worth the high cost is something your budget needs to decide.

As for oil filters, stay away from Fram. And I'm not quoting some silly website. I've personally had an engine taken out by an internally disintegrated Fram filter and I've taken several off of cars that were well on their way. The better oil filters are the Mann, Hastings, Wix, Purolater Pure One, and others. Take note that many of Napa's filters are made by Wix. However, I don't advocate spending money on expensive oil filters like K&N and Mobil 1. Its simply rediculous.

Brake fluids were mentioned earlier. Use Dot 3 in clutch systems and Dot 4 in main system.

As for coolant, look for a phosphate free and silicate free coolant. The better auto manufacturers sell this style coolant because they don't like lots of their customers coming back for water pump jobs while still in warranty. BMW will even warranty their water pump for life as long as you use their nice blue coolant. The blue Audi, pinkish orange VW, and orange Dexcool (GM) are good as well.

On the subject of GM, they actually specify synthetic transmission fluid for many of their vehicles now. I believe its Dexron V...

As for Saabs...I've worked on many. And there's a very good reason why everyone in my shop has sworn to not allow each other to buy a Saab. No matter how cheap or how nice it appears. Stay Away! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Mark