9-3: Mineral oil vs. synthetic

There's no question about it.

Use synthetic ( or even semi-synthetic ). It's perfectly compatible with traces of the old mineral oil btw - don't fret. At that mileage it would probably pay to run a flushing oil through it too or use a flushing additive when draining the old oil if it's still fairly clean.

Graham

The downside to switching to synthetic is that it cleans out a lot of stuff that is in your engine. An engine that has higher miles and has run dino oil most of its life will have a lot of gunk in the engine seals - some of which is helping them seal now. Cleaning it out sometimes results in oil leaks.

I think you'd be OK as long as it spent a fair amount of it's life on synthetic. Synthetic is much, much better for the turbo itself. Dino, changed frequently, is probably just as good in NA cars.

Maybe but the engine will last longer on synthetic.

It's a turbo though.

Graham

I'm sure this exact question was asked almost word for word about a year ago.

And everyon told him to switch back, find the former mechanic and shoot them etc.

Maybe a trolling attempt again?

Not at all - just a basic query to learn about something I know little about, and to help me make a decision that would be good for my car in the long run.

Thanks for the advice so far - sounds like I should be restoring to synthetic.

Rgds, Njord

Ideally yes. Synthetic would be the best oil for a modern Saab engine. It sounds like a non Saab garage may have maintained the engine. Do you have reciepts for the non synthetic oil or a record in the service book for what was used?

I just wondered how you know it was non synthetic?