Synthetic oil in my new Tundra?

Pretty soon it will be time for the first oil change in my new Tundra. I'm inclined to use Mobil One; any reason not to, other than the added expense? I spend 2 weeks a year elk hunting in an area that typically gets down to

-15 F at night, so if I understand it correctly the synthetic will help protect the engine better at startup at very low temps. And isn't it a little better than dino oil in general?

Thanks!

-jeff

Reply to
Jeff Olsen
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We only use synthetic oil in our cars and trucks. In my opinion it is the best choice. We always go the first 5000 on the oil that comes in the engine , then change to Mobil 1 5w30. Then we change the oil every 5 or 6 thousand there after. We have never had a problem with an engine. These trucks will last a long time on regular oil and even at 2 1/2 or three times the price for Mobil 1 I will never use anything else. Scott

Reply to
zonie

I'm in the same situation, about to pass on 3K miles on a 2005 Tundra. I called out of curiosity about the dealer oil change and they use the synthetic blend by default and will use 100% synthetic if you ask for it (xtra charge of course).

I'm staying with the regular oil. I've been using Castrol GTX Brand oil since I can remember and have never had an oil related problem on a vehicle. While living in Germany I had a couple of European cars and routinely drove them at high speeds on the Autobahn. Did it for years with never a problem. Still have one of them and it's a '92. That's not to say Castrol's any better or worse than another brand, but back in the day their claim was it was specially formulated for smaller engines and that's what I was driving and ended up sticking with it.

Most would probably agree that synthetic is a better choice especially if going long times between changes, but I just can't see any big advantage in my situation. Garaged cars, not extreme environments etc. Old logic was synthetics could go longer between changes without breakdown etc, but wisdom of late is they carry particulates around just as easily as regular oil so should be changed just as frequently. When considering this I have even less reason to use synthetic.

In the end it's likely whatever choice you feel most comfortable with.

Nate

Reply to
N Williamson

in article snipped-for-privacy@news.newsguy.com, N Williamson at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 1/30/06 2:07 PM:

Maybe what I'll do is run dino oil in the summer and sythetic in the early winter, when we head up to elk camp...

-jeff

Reply to
Jeff Olsen

N Williamson wrote: snip

snip

Not arguing against your logic for your situation and agree about the particulates, although they would be very small as the filter should take most of them from the oil (assuming you are using a quality filter and not a cheap one). Synthetic oils' molecules are all the same size so it alledgedly lubricates better than dino, since it's molecules are irregular in size. Syn. isn't supposed to break down as quickly as dino (this is the longer change interval you mentioned). Syn. also dissipates heat better than dino which helps keep the engine at a cooler temp (very good benefit in air-cooled engines like motorcycles which don't have any means to move air across cooling fins when not moving) and resists oil coking. Syn. is more resistant to water or moisture absorbtion so it helps resist sludge better than dino. If you consider the extra cost and factor in the longer change interval then dino is still slightly cheaper. The other benefits of syn. are worth the slightly higher cost for me. YMMV davidj92

Reply to
davidj92

IMHO syn oil is hard to justify unless your vehicle operates in extreme conditions. Used to live in Mpls - winter there approaches extreme. I really doubt if most people would get much benefit from going with syn. A couple of my old hondas are still running and not burning oil and they both have over 250K on them - one over 300K. Have 193K on my current honda - won't be the engine that goes - use dino and change at

4 to 5K intervals.

Do the math on how much you will spend on syn vs dino for 100K. change oil every 4K = 25 x 5 quarts ( I assume) or 125 X 2 = 250. not a big financial decision I guess.

Reply to
spacetrax

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