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A friend of mine swears by synthetic oil for all his cars. I'm a little more skeptical. I'm sure there's a purpose for it but don't know if synthetic is really for me. I drive about 2k/month, 95% highway 60mph, and I don't really run the engine above 4krpm. I don't like to change oil frequently so don't know if synthetic would do it for me. The friend of mine changes his oil at 5k interval which I didn't see the benefit for the added $ in synthetic oil versus conventional. I have a '02 si with about 80k mi. I change the oil at 10k interval and the filter at 20k per the manufacturer's recommendation.

 
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Regular oil is fine under normal driving conditions and changed regularly. Using synthetic oil supposedly gives better protection and the oil lasts longer.

 
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its not a waste of money in my opinion. maybe i get the placebo effect, but i swear when i run fully synthetic, i can almost tell my car runs smoother.

 
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I can tell it runs smoother for longer but I seriously can't tell the difference in how the car feels from a fresh change of dino vs a fresh change in synthetic. To each their own. Change your oil regularly and the little honda will run forever.

 
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imo its waste. i would never run it in any car i own, even if it already comes with synthetic

 
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i dont think so... i believe honda recommends synthetic oil for s2000's. which means there must be some difference between the 2 oils...

and at 10000mi your oil must be sooo black.. remember black oil is no good thats why you change it!!!

 
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oil color has no bearing on how well it protects the engine. ive seen tests where dark black oil performs the same as brand new. oil starts to turn black in maybe 200 miles. you gonna change your oil that soon cause it turned black?

 
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i was always under the assumption that synthetics last longer, so i can stretch up to 6,000 miles in between oil changes.

 
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conventional oil WITHOUT any additives is good at least 5k miles.

 
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I agree with this statement, but 10k is a long time to wait I think anything over 6k is pushing it I try for 5kish or less using synthetic

 
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synthetic oil is PROVEN over and over to produce considerable power gains over conventional. even hot rod magazine dyno tested to weed out this myth. im sure you can find a link to their test somewhere on google. i believe the gain was near 20 hp at the wheels though!

 
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i have just read a little more. car craft found 10 hp and 15 lb ft, hot rods results where more around 10 hp, i believe it was muscle mustang and fast ford mag that gained close to twenty hp on chassis dyno. aroun d 16-17 if i recall correctly

 
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how much does that translate on a civic, 1whp?

 
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the oil is fine upto 10k no problem with lc20 added, but you still need to change the filter every 5k. amsoil claims to have the top of the line filters supposedly lasts 25k miles, so maybe it would be safe to go 10k with that filter only. it has quite a few improvements over any other filter ive seen even K&N doesnt come close.

 
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any conventional oil with lc20 can last 10k? How does synthetic and this lc20 stuff play out?

 
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yeah any oil + lc20 lasts 10k, so long as you add the extra 1oz every 1k miles. you can also use the lc20 with synthetic no problem.

 
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HAHA I would like to see you put conventional in a VW TDI or 1.8T and see howlong that motor would last. Yea synthetic doesnt do anything. Seriously you need to do some research buddy. Thats why ALL Volkswagon and Audi is now mandatory to use Synthetic oil in there engines to keep the warranty valid on there cars. Your right it would probably be about 2 or 3 whp difference for a civic, but synthetic oil protects an engine SO MUCH more then what conventional can. I run Mobil 1 in my car and change it every 5k km's even though the car recomends 8k. You know why? Because engines dont last forever. Stuff wears out and breaks over time, so it cant keep that oil clean for that long.

ALSO. Do you know what dirty oil is?? If you have black oil that means your motor is full of carbon and sludge. So dont say crap like black oil protects better then clean oil because thats bull crap.

 
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Oh and to answer your question. No synthetic oil is not a waste of money. Reality is when it comes to maintaining a vehicle, you get what you pay for. I know most members here stand by sythentic here.

 
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my engine looks like brand new inside actually, no carbon i just checked a few weeks ago, and my oil is dark black. so whats up with all these older motors lasting over 500k miles with just conventional oil? i thought it doesnt protect the motor hmm... or maybe only the new crappy built motors need synthetic to make up for poor engineering.

 
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Do you have one of these?

 
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probably not, otherwise he would know that diesel oil turns black almost immediately from the soot that is pumped in. and that VW only recommends synthetic, not requires it (and even then only in the winter climates). conventional is perfectly fine during the summer. and in fact, many VW dealerships do not even use a real CG-4 rated full synthetic for their oil changes. why? because they dont have to. good thing he really doesnt have a tdi, because the mobil1 synthetic he seems to like so much does NOT meet the VW recommended oil criteria. it even says this right on the bottle.

 
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Haha, I just wanted to see if he had one in order for me to put conventional oil in it.

 
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Thanks, I know that mobil 1 doesnt meat vw standards. If i owned one I would use MOTUL 5W40. And I dont drive a TDI or 1.8T. Your right thought the old ball car will go 500,000km on conventional but a TDI will last 500,000km minimal. And actually yes it is mandatory for any Turbo Volkswagon motor and New volkswagons from 06 I believe to use Synthetic oil or void the warranty on there motor. I work in an oil shop, so im used to working with oil day in and out.

About diesel oil, my boss owns a 3500, chevy pickup 6.6L Turbo diesel and his oil is cleaner comming out of his engine after an oil change then what yours would look like. I have seen many diesel engines with clean oil. But your right the majority of diesel engines oil goes black. I know im not an idiot.

 
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Thanks for all the input. I just want the car to last say 200k+. If conventional oil can get me there, I'm good. If I'm still driving the same car after that, there are some serious issues with me. The maintenance cost and ammenities would just be too much to bare. For me the cost vs benefits isn't just worth switching to synthetic. I suspected this initially, and many has confirmed it. For those of you who really likes their car and am willing to shell out the $, so be it.

 
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Conventional will get you to 200k go for it.

 
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Just check out the UOA on Mobil 1 with regard to the wear metals. You can do this on the site Bob is the oil guy . com If then this does not bother you go right ahead and put it in the VW turbo. Wait and see what your UOA says re. lead, iron and cooper.

 
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i use honda oil on my 02 ex now. when i first got it i would use castrol synthetic and i noticed the temp gauge would be right in the middle contrary to my brothers 01 lx who used honda oil and the temp gauge would not reach the half way mark. since heat is what kills engines i changed and it runs smooth as hell.

 
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I thought I clicked on the Honda forums not the VW forums haha

 
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Syntetic oil is required in some engines.. U should be using that oil in the engine that has a turbo or a vtec.. New Si's are required and also like stated above the new s2k is required systetic oil.. Please change ur oil every 3k miles not 5-6k. I hate seeing these lil babies run out of oil just because they wait till they pass 5k-6k miles...

 
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For you folks stuck in the dark ages about synthetic vs Dino juice and how using synthetic oil can save you some $$$$, visit this web site. http://www.autoeducation.com/autosho...l-change-1.htm