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!