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i was told that i shouldnt use full synthetic after 20,000 kms or if it was not used since the start of the engine's life.. i bought my car second hand and i did my first oil change at 36800 with castrol 5w20 full synthetic.. anything wrong? im not sure what type of oil the previous owner used.. and generally, how long should i get an oil change with full synthetic? i said 8k, but he said that would risk oil breaking down..

 
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no, it is not bad.

however, please keep in mind that once you've switched to full synthetic, there is NO going back. please remember that.

 
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There is nop problem between oils. This myth comes from long ago when oil was crap and before addatives. Todays addative in oil can suspend carbon that is created in the combution process, long ago they just used to flow through the eninge and deposite them selves where ever they felt inclined to causing al kinds of problems. SO lets say you get a leak in your head gasket, not a big just a small one, using the oil with no addatives, the carbon may have actually sealed it up and kept the engine running. Then someone comes along and puts this fancy synthetic stuff in the breaks up the carbon deposites and suspends them, well you just took the carbon bandaid off your headgasket and now you have a leaking gasket.

Don't get me wrong, carbon being deposted in the engine is a very bad thing, but today all the oils you buy (dino or synthetic) have these addatives, so it's no big deal to switch between them.

As for life of the oil, that depends on how you drive and the climate where you live/drive. 8,000 kms shoudl be fine on that oil, and the oil starts to break down the instant you use it, it's just a question of how much of it can break down before it no longer functions properly. Just a side note, if the oil comes out nice and clean looking, this is bad. That means the addatives where used up and the oil could not suspend the carbon, hence it was deposited on the engine, oil shoud be dark after use.

 
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no its not bad

 
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jr fish you should do a write up on oil. Make it organized by application, like turbo, then climate or something.

 
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im sure there is a write up somewhere on this site...there has to be

 
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use full synthetic, its great, and expensive...

 
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entirely not correct.

 
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i've heard you can only go in half steps like blend is best, or if you start synthetic then you can only go down to blend

 
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you can go back and forth as much as you like full or blend. I have done it a couple times myself with no adverse effects. these myths have been going around for a long time. I think it had to do somethig with older 70's 80's cars and the seal materials that where used back then . this does Not apply to a modern car or truck.

 
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lol... That would be nice, it probably is on this site in bits and pieces, but I find that generally if I do a write up and sticky it, people still ask the questions. But that's alright because most people have different situations and it's hard to start generallizing special apllications like that. But it is a good idea, if I get time I may have to start one.

 
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why use synthetic on a civic tho?

 
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the only real reason to do so is if you drive more than 15,000 miles a year (so oil is only good for 6 months, and if you drive say 10,000 miles in 6 months you can extend your oil change interval) or you have a heavily modified civic.

 
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the question is why not?

 
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i guess that's entirely up to the car owner's decision for his/her baby....

 
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well no its fact. they even have synthetic blends. you can go back to dino whenever you want.

 
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Because it costs twice as much and does NOT give you better protection contrary to belief

 
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i say, motor oil is just fvcking motor oil. as long as i get the right weight i really dont care if its synthetic or not and have never had a problem with the oil....yet. also been through many different brands.

 
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Why would driving over 15k a year call for synthetic? And are you saying oil is only good for 6 months?

Theres plenty of good reasons to use synthetic. However on our cars, it doesnt really make that much of a difference. Our motors are easy on oil.

 
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ill stick with dino and lc20. at 60k i will switch to valvoline maxlife.

 
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Yes, some instances do call for synthetic, however a stock civic, or close to stock doesn't need it.

Yes, most oil is only good for 6 months after you put it in to the engine. There are some oils that can go a little longs, Mobil 1 makes an extended life that I use in my chevy truck because that truck only sees about 2,000 miles a year.

So keeping that in mind, lets say you drive 4,500 miles in 6 months. A dino can cover that just fine, and the oil is bad by that point (because of time), so why spend more on synthetic oil when dino oil will work just fine? They both will provide plenty of protection of the time of operation, so why use synthetic?

Now lets say you drive 7,500 miles in 6 months, now synthetic oil makes since becuase in that 6 month time you could go with just one oil change with a synthetic oil, where as you will be almost on your second oil change with a dino oil, so if you drive a high number of miles, then synthetic makes since.

I say 15,000 miles, because 15,000 miles is 3-4 dino oil changs or 2 synthetic oil changes, so I have found that personally that is my break even point. If I drive more than 15,000 miles a year on any single car/truck, I generally switch it over to synthetic and just change the oil every 6 months or 8,000 miles. less than that, I go with dino oil every 4,000-4,500. But thta is just what I personally have found works for me, certianly everybody may be different.

 
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wasn't there a test done with lc20 and the oil was still good at 10k miles? cant remember

 
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I think you need to do a little more research...

Why exactly does oil go bad after 6 months?

LC is a bunch of crap. Theres no need for it at all. I ran m1 for 7.6k and it still had a very, very strong tbn and low wear metals

http://home.comcast.net/~apexigsx/m1june.jpg


*allow me to reword my thoughts. There is no need for LC in our cars in my opinion. They are not very hard on oil. In other applications, such as turbo motors, LC may help out a lot.

 
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Research? lol would you like to enlighten me as to why it won't go bad? Because last time I heard oxidation occurs the instant you turn the car on with the new oil and the intial additives are burned off, which take all of about 5 seconds. Then the oil oxidizes on its own, even when the engine is not running. Sure you can add things like zinc dithiophosphates, hindered phenols, aromatic amines and sulfurized phenols, but they only slow the oxidation reaction down, they don't stop it, and if you put to much in, you'll cancel out the antifoaming agents and have bigger problems. Also oil companies add things like organic complexes containing nitrogen or sulfur, amines, sulfides and phosphates to slow oxidation, but agian you can only SLOW oxidation down. Now if you don't believe me, you can also look on the bottles of oil you buy, most of them state right on there how long it lasts. Then agian most people will say "they are probably just putting that on there because they won't you to change your oil more often and buy more of their product..." Okay then, I'm not forcing anyone to change their oil.

If you really don't believe, send your 2 year old oil or whatever out to be tested, I would like to see that result.

 
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idk why this guy hates lc so much. i noticed a big difference both in power and gas mileage. i cant drive without it anymore.

 
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i used fully synthetic on mine 15w50 mobil one but my car has 130k miles and isnt a civic

 
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throwing around big words to to try and sound like you know what youre talking about eh? go to bobistheoilguy.com and tell them oil goes bad after 6 months regardless of use. $10 says you get laughed at

 
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He has credentials...jerk

 
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lol, I've been there, and that's what they all say too.

 
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you have got to be delusional. i could pull countless threads where many of the long time members who know their stuff recommend oci's longer than 6 months. hell look at patman, he ran a 2 year oci in a relatives car. its fairly common to recommend a 1yr long oci in cars which are not driven frequently. where do you ever see people say 6 months is the longest oci you should do? by the idiots who just joined the board a month ago and think they know everything?