I recently bought a 1996 3.2 TL for use as a daily driver. The car currently has 115K miles on it. Is it a good idea to switch to synthetic oil? I always use Mobil1 synthetic on my other car. I'm just wondering if it is good to switch to synthetic oil at this kind of mileage.....

Another question, what is the oil capacity of the 3.2 engine? and what is the recommended oil weight? Thanks in advance....

 

Mobil 1 is fine.

I use 5w-30 usually.

Capacity is marked under your hood somewhere. I dont have the owners manual handy at the moment.

 

5 quarts exactly with oil filter changed.

 

Yes, but be very careful about using synthetic oil. It contains strong detergent so there may be a chance that the sludge built up in your engine that was supposed to keep your engine from leaking oil will be washed away. That means it would cause oil leaks.

 

My friend switched to royal purple synthetic on his legend when he had ~140k miles and he hasn't had any problems at all.

 

i have had royal purple in mine for a year and i love it. 97,345 miles on my 99TL

 

Good point. If you've had any previous oil leaks, i'd stick with what you have used in the past.

 

I don't have any oil leak right now (just had the car inspected by Acura dealer). Is it a good idea to switch to synthetic or should I just stick with regular oil??

 

What do you do with your car? If you ask a lot out of it: rev to the redline a lot, start up in the cold winter mornings after it's been parked outside, or drive in heavy traffic in the middle of summer then synthetic might be for you.

If you don't do any of the above, then you'd never get the full benefit out of synthetic anyway.

 

5w30 regular oil should be good, replace every 4 to 5 K miles, you're set to go. Synthetic was supposed to prolong the interval on the changes....but it is safer to replace regularly with regular oil. Do not waste money on synthetics. The new cars of today require 10,000 miles in between oil changes, if not more, using regular oil. Newer metals can now withstand a lot of the heat and friction and not fail. Spend the money on frequent oil changes than expensive non-value added synthetics.

 

I've heard the detergents in synthetics now are much gentler so it's less likely they would quickly clean out that sludge and start leaking. I put Mobil1 5W30 in my 96 3.2TL at about 70K miles and just changed it after 7500 miles. No problems.

 

5w30 Regular Oil, 5,000 miles interval should work fine.

 

I don't mind spending a little more on synthetic if it helps the car runs better and lasts longer. As I said before, the TL is my daily driver to go back and forth to work, no abuse whatsoever.

On my other car, I put Mobil1 synthetic oil and I change the oil every 3K miles. Based on the comments, it sounds like everyone thinks that regular oil is good enough for the TL?

 

hey has anyone seen the commercial for the new mobil oil??? says that theres one out that needs changing once every 10 000 miles.......load of bull or sci breakthru?

 

I've always used synthetic in my 3.2 since I got it with 40K (86K now). I've never had any problems. naba2002, I dont think thats BS. BMW used Castrol synthetic and they expect you to change oil every 12K-15K miles. I change it every 6K-7K though. I drive my car a little rough.