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: Switching to Full synthetic oil…bad idea?


Kasino
08-31-2016, 08:43 AM
I was told that if the car has been using regular oil for most of its life, its a bad idea to switch to full synthetic. is that true?
car is a honda prelude with 200K KMS.
I am looking to switch to Mobil1 5w30.

any input will be great.

320icar
08-31-2016, 09:17 AM
Just my opinion. Nothing wrong with switching to synthetic. Your engine won't magically start leaking gallons of oil or whatever. But really, as long as you're doing oil changes in proper intervals there's nothing wrong in sticking with conventional oil.

An engine with 200,000+km is going to have a lot of sludge, oil and dirt deposits no matter how well you've kept up with oil changes. So not like synthetic will make it run clean all of a sudden. And if it's under low stress driving like a daily car, I wouldn't be too concerned.

Buy what's on sale :p just my opinion though

Reeyal
08-31-2016, 09:29 AM
Pretty good video on engine oil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYkg0oDUXs8

fliptuner
08-31-2016, 09:37 AM
Conventional oil's been working fine for the last 200k. I'd stick with it and stay on top of your oil changes.

Traum
08-31-2016, 09:58 AM
When I bought a beater Civic a few years ago, the own had racked up 170k-ish km on the odo and doing little more than the regular 8k oil change with regular 5W20 dino oil. After driving it around for a week or two, I took it in for an oil change and replaced the dino oil with 5W20 synthetic. The engine ran smoother, quieter, and was more happy to rev. No new leaks happened. No catastrophic oil-related failures. The engine just kept ticking along as it had been for the last 170k km.

Obviously, YMMV.

Indy
08-31-2016, 10:13 AM
I don't even think it's a dino vs syn oil issue that 'causes' leaks. I think it has more to do with the aggressiveness of the detergents/additives that may clear out more crap keeping seals from leaking.

Speed2K
08-31-2016, 05:04 PM
I don't even think it's a dino vs syn oil issue that 'causes' leaks. I think it has more to do with the aggressiveness of the detergents/additives that may clear out more crap keeping seals from leaking.

They have high mileage Synthetics that are supposed to help with this.

bokch0y
09-21-2016, 09:28 PM
Conventional oil nowadays is pretty good, and with 200k kms on your car I'd just stick with conventional rather than switch to synthetic.

Is there any particular reason you're considering switching to synthetic?

Timpo
10-02-2016, 11:05 PM
synthetic is better

E-SPEC
10-04-2016, 07:10 PM
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120307190042AAPVSxQ

I curiously googled this.

Mr.JDM
10-08-2016, 04:00 PM
Whats a good brand for synthetic oil? Drive a rdx that requires synthetic oil been getting oil change done at the dealer and im thinking of doing my own oil change soon. Tia !

Bender Unit
10-08-2016, 04:31 PM
Whats a good brand for synthetic oil? Drive a rdx that requires synthetic oil been getting oil change done at the dealer and im thinking of doing my own oil change soon. Tia !

Don't know which generation RDX you own.
I uses Mobil 1 synthetic in my Gen 1 RDX.
Honda approved engine oil.
Check the sticker on the bottle.

Bought all my oil from Canadian Tire during Sales.

On Sales now at CT
5w20 & 5w30
Mobil 4.4L 5W20 Motor Oil Jug plus 1L Bottle | Canadian Tire (http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/1991101P.html)

Traum
10-08-2016, 04:40 PM
Any synthetic oil of the right viscosity will be good enough for general street use purposes. Just get the cheapest one that is currently on sale.

If you do it right, you can probably get a 5L jug for $21 - $23 before tax and env fees. The cheapest time I managed to get was $18 a jug, and that was the Crappy Tire house brand, which was actually made by Shell.

Mr.JDM
10-08-2016, 07:30 PM
Don't know which generation RDX you own.
I uses Mobil 1 synthetic in my Gen 1 RDX.
Honda approved engine oil.
Check the sticker on the bottle.

Bought all my oil from Canadian Tire during Sales.

On Sales now at CT
5w20 & 5w30
Mobil 4.4L 5W20 Motor Oil Jug plus 1L Bottle | Canadian Tire (http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/1991101P.html)


Thanks. Its the same as yours turbo rdx

marksport
10-08-2016, 09:33 PM
About 5 years ago, Walmart had a sale on castrol 5w-20 and 10w-30 synthetic on sale for $12 a jug. It may have been a pricing mistake but none of the employees did anything. In the end I had 80 gallons of oil at less than 1/3 of normal price.

hk20000
10-09-2016, 04:22 PM
If you are somehow confident about the front and rear seal of the crank I wouldn't.