Synthetic vs. Conventional Oil

Meanderthal

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I knew a guy, a courier. A full tank of gas every day !
Sometimes more, we made a chit ton of money.
90% heavy city traffic in the central Florida heat.
He changed his oil every 5,000 miles.
He let Jiffy Lube do it, the cheapest roach oil and the cheapest no name filter.
The filters were white and only a part number on them.
At 500,000 miles he traded it in on a new one.
Never had an engine problem,
Never used any synthetic blend or full syn.
500,000 miles ! He did it again with the next Four banger Tacoma.
I took one to 528,000 on full synthetic, Mobil 1
I did 10,000 mile oil change intervals.
Iin the Florida heat. Same heavy loading as my buddy.
Only diff was I was mostly on the interstates and often pulling a 2,000 enclosed trailer.
We always had 600 to 1200 pounds in the truck bed.
Compression was so low the vehicle was unsafe.
Now tell me again the advantage of full syn ?
I’d really like to know.
I use the Motorcraft blend .
Observations of singular examples are not statistically significant. There are too many variables to use your own personal observations of even a handful of vehicles as evidence of any trend.
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PaulOinMA

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As stated, anecdotal experiences are not statistically significant. No conclusions from n = 2.
 

watchnerd

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I also use synthetic in turbo charged engines
 

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You guys are absolutely right.
The two I spoke of above were both Toyotas and a few vehicles don’t count as useable data.
There were 17 couriers at that one Cyclotron Lab and three Tron’s total in Florida. Then there were about 30 Mo-99 Generator labs and they each averaged 12 drivers.
All these Couriers driving all different makes of SUV’s, pick ups, and Vans.
All getting past 350-400,000 miles, except for the slackers who were not smart enough to take good advice.
More than half ran full syn,
The remaining ran blends or roach oil.
The company did surveys and collected data so they could advise new people on the best strategy to go into the quarter million mile club and beyond.
The top advice was to follow the server duty recommendations in the owners manual.
The only trackable data on oil was that only Really good top shelf synthetic was better but the main advantages were,
10,000 mile change intervals saved money.
And overall full synthetics often netted a 3-4% mpg increase.
What I did know is there were others running cheap Walmart oil and going 100K x 3 and x 4.
This was not uncommon.
We were doing oil changes every three weeks. Full syn let me go 6 or 7 weeks.
 
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JAD67428

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Alright Bronco Sport owners. Tell me who is using synthetic vs conventional oil and why. Pros and cons. I always assumed synthetic is better am I wrong? I used synthetic in my Edge sport.
Synthetic is the way to go, it doesn’t break down like conventional motor oil. It’s just made better for the vehicles.
 


Mark S.

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Now tell me again the advantage of full syn ?
I’d really like to know.
I use the Motorcraft blend .
The primary advantage for our cars centers around the turbocharger and direct injection. Our turbocharged engines generate far more heat than atmo engines, especially around the turbocharger bearings. Full synthetic oil is more resistant to high-temperature break down, which means it will last longer with less chance of coking the turbocharger bearings. Synthetic is also less prone to evaporation, which will reduce carbon deposits on intake valves.
 
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SgtT11B

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To be honest since I am keeping on top of the oil changes on this vehicle I am going to stick with the Semi-Synthetic. With oil changes of 3-5k miles the switch out to full synthetic seems over kill. Now in the Mustang with the 7500 rpm I switched out to full synthetic.
 

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I have orepurchased my oil changes with the upfront service plan. This of course uses Ford's synthetic blend. The dealer tells me that I can use full synthetic and only pay the difference in the actual cost of the oil between blend and full synthetic... $50 extra per oil change!
 
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Mrmike

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Personally, I run Mobil 1 and Motorcraft filters in my vehicles. I also use it in my garden tractor, Kymco scooter, snow thrower, and my small mower. I buy my oil at Wallmart (best prices I've found for Mobil 1). I also check the Mobil 1 website periodically. They usually have great rebate programs. I end up buying Mobil 1 for less than conventional oil.
 

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Personally, I run Mobil 1 and Motorcraft filters in my vehicles. I also use it in my garden tractor, Kymco scooter, snow thrower, and my small mower. I buy my oil at Wallmart (best prices I've found for Mobil 1). I also check the Mobil 1 website periodically. They usually have great rebate programs. I end up buying Mobil 1 for less than conventional oil.
Me too. I find the quality to price of Mobil 1 to be great. Plus, the price-to-performance for the OEM Motorcraft filter to be above average.
 
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SgtT11B

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I too paid for the Ford service plan for 3 years, Im just sticking with the synthetic blend. I pay for one and then Ford pays for one. I don't follow the oil monitor. Also, at 15k miles I am having my PTU and rear diffy fluid changed to get rid of the break in oil. Then after that every 25k miles.
 

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I’ll do my PTU and rear diff @ my 30,000 mile service.
 

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All seriousness either should be fine, follow the recommendations. My dad used Pennzoil on everything he owned and they ran like champs. Good filter, motorcraft is spec their engineers had a plan. Apparently Napa Gold is rated the best filter on the market? Anyone have better info?
NAPA Gold filters are made by WIX. IMHO they ARE the best oil filters on the market. I've used them on all my Mopars the last 20+ years and they are top shelf. NEVER a problem in over 260,000 miles. A number of years ago Mopar did an extensive test of oil filters and WIX was rated #1.
 

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Like others have mentioned, synthetic oil has more pros than the conventional does. It is usually a little more expensive to change, but it will keep your turbo engine protected especially if you are using ALL of the oil change interval. If you are off-roading in hot climates and the engine is under a lot of strain, synthetic is the way to go as it does not break down like conventional oil. Synthetic blend is still a better option than straight conventional :cool:
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