im about to change the oil my self on my car and im going to use mobile 1Synthetics. it says you have to cgange the oil every 7500 miles but should i keep changing it every 3500 or should i do 5000? also anything i need to know about changing the oil?

 

dont know if is true, but i heard that you can easily go from 5000 to 7500 miles and even more if you use Mobile 1 Full Synthetic Oil.

 

i here that also. i want to change it every 5k miles but i want to know if thats a good idea or should i do every 3500 still..

 

As you can use regular Dino oil up to 7500 when the MID calls for a change, the extended change intervals for synthetic is not a problem.
Having said that, you can change it whenever you like, whether it be 2,000, 3,000, or 5,000 miles, but it's a waste of money.

 

Going from 3k to 5k is fine. I do 7.5K myself with Mobile 1.

 

Replace the aluminum washer.
Use a torque wrench for the drain plug (29 ft/lbs or 360 in/lbs).
Use a 1-gallon heavy duty ZipLock bag to wrap around the old filter as you remove it to catch residual oil and keep if from getting all over things.
Make sure you follow your manual's recommendations (should call for 4.5 U.S. quarts).
Once again, use a torque wrench.

 

Give Amsoil a consideration. Even under severe driving they guarantee 15,000 miles or one year wihich ever comes first between oil changes. I have used it for years.

 

Also check the filter, see how many miles the filter is rated for. Its great if oil is rated for 15k miles, but if the filter is only rated for 5k, its a waste

 

In order to get the Amsoil guarantee you must use their filters. Do some research and you will see that nothing is better then Amsoil.

 

i just follow the mid...since i do a lot of highway driving, i would imagine that it would be higher than the traditional 5k.

new oil filter, new oil and a new crusher is all you need - along with the other essentials

 

Follow the MID (I change when it hits 20%-30%), get the right filter and replace the washer.

 

why do you have to replace the washer?

 

What kind of oil do you guys recommend? Which brand?

 

i here every one always talkin about mobile 1 Synthetics

 

Guys, sorry to disappoint you all but all of the name brand oils are equally good, there is no "best" brand of oil, just like the gas at one gasoline station is not any better than at another.

 

All of the name brands are good enough but not necessarily equal.

I would like to think my choice is better than 99% of the oils out there. I spent half a year researching it before making the decision and I found one oil that met every one of my needs.

1.High ZDDP for valvetrain protection.

2.Straight weight so it contains no VIIs

3.Flows well when cold. It has a 66cSt@40C and flows better than most 10w-30 oils when cold.

4. HTHS>3.2. It has a 3.5.

5. A TRUE synthetic with only grp IV and V base oils.

This was hard to find as it's hard to find a straight weight that flows well when cold. Plus high ZDDP levels are not allowed in the new SM rated oil. HTHS is as high as some of the lower 40wts. On top of all of this it has a decent amount of detergents and dispersants as well as a high TBN of 12.

 

All oils are NOT equal.
http://www.motoroilbible.com/

http://www.trustmymechanic.com/wethankyou1.html

 

And how much of a difference will using this oil make to your engine's longevity, increase it by 0.0000001%? Any advantages will not be discernible.

 

LOL! I am sure the guys SELLING those ebooks have no agenda.

 

It depends. If you plan on getting rid of it by 100,000 use anything. If you plan on it going 300,000 with good compression and no oil usage, use the good stuff.

If you're in extreme cold or hot, use synthetics.

If you track it, use synthetics.

FWIW, I run dino in the GN. I don't have an explanation for it but after several teardowns the synthetics allowed for more wear.

 

Because the oil pan threads are weak & easy to strip out. A fresh washer makes it easier to get the correct torque on the plug when you put it back in.


Despite all the voodoo claims about the best oil pretty much the only damage, not cheep to repair, you can do in an oil change is strip the oil pan threads.

5 cents for a fresh washer is much better insurance against engine damage then $12 a quart oil.

 

The washer doesn't have much of anything to do with stripping the threads, at least directly.
The washer is a soft piece, meant to crush slightly, and conform to the irregularities of the sealing surface around the drain plug hole. In other words, it is also a gasket.
The thought is that an old/reused washer won't seal correctly, so you'll be inclined to over-torque it to get it to seal.

Having said all that, I haven't yet put a new washer on the '06 TL (3 oil changes thus far since new). I've only ever replaced the '02 TL-S once (88k miles, probably 14-15 oil changes in total). And the kicker- I have a 1980 Z28 with the stock pan on it, and it has the original washer (that's 30 years this October). None of these have to be overtorqued (I torque by feel with a 3/8" ratchet), none of them leak so much as a single drop.

It's cheap, so there's no point in not replacing it. I always forget to buy one, that's why I don't. If you forget it a time or two, there are no worries.

 

Oh, and-

Regarding the change frequency- I use synthetic (Mobil 1 5W-20) and let the MID tell me when to change. Based on my driving habits, that's about every 6000 or so, I think.

 

My car has 9500 miles on it, and I already did 1 oil change of the 'generic' oil at acura, is it too late to switch to synthetic?

 

Nope! You can switch any time........

 

aaazzooooo... I thought synthetic was 'thinner' and if your rings erroded to accomodate regular oil you'd burn a little oil if you switched.

 

Nope, you could do every other change dino and ever other synthetic and it wouldn't make a difference.

 

Which oil are you talking about? Mobil 1?

 

LOL. Mobil 1 would be lucky to meet half those requirements. Amsoil ACD 30/10w-30.

They don't have a straight weight.
They don't have one with high ZDDP.
Most, not all of them are a grpIII and IV blend.
The HTHS is *usually* on the low side for the viscosity.

The only Mobil 1 that I would put in my TL would be the 0w-40. This is probably the best M1 out there.

 

Got to ask once again with all this ridiculous hype on motor oil, how many engines have had a problem that was directly related to poor motor oil? Geez, I've spun bearings, put pistons/rods, etc through the block and none were caused by the motor oil.

I've seen engines with 300+K on Dino oil and no problems. Let's be realistic here as the engines are going to last at lot longer than 100K as stated in one of the posts above.

It's absurd!

 

I didn't say they would automatically wear out at 100K. But if you plan to keep it for the long haul, a synthetic will keep it healthier in it's old age. There's a difference in an engine that goes 300,000 but smokes and has low compression vs one that is healthy at that mileage. Not to mention the insides will be much cleaner on synthetic.

One of my big reasons for going with a straight weight is the crap you see in the ring lands is from the VIIs shearing down. Without VIIs, the ring lands should stay extremely clean. A straight weight dino wont flow well enough in the winter so a synthetic is a must to get the cold flow.

And again, one of the most important yet overlooked, misunderstood values is the HTHS. There are tests performed by GM on a 3.8L with oils of different HTHS values, the bearings were weighed and then installed in the engine. After running for the specified time at the specified load, the bearings were reweighed for weight loss due to wear and the oil with a 3.6 HTHS showed 1/5 the wear over the oil with the 2.7 HTHS. I don't care if this is the difference in 300,000 vs 1,500,000 miles, 1/5 the wear is 1/5 the wear. The car may only last 300,000 but if I can get there consuming less oil with better mileage and power, I'm going to do it.

 

ehh, my car says 5W20 for the oil... so what should I put in there? Also, do you guys recommend a place to buy some oil from? My apt is next Wed.

I Hate Cars: dude, no wonder your engine pings, putting crappy fluids like that in it

 

My car doesn't ping....

 

I would like to see someone try out Redline 5w-20 in the TL. I may have to if no one else does since I truly believe it's the best (for hard use) 5w-20 out there.

 

You’re assuming that the engine smoked at 300K, but it didn’t, and you could eat off the heads.

OK, I’ll bite, what was the duration of the test to wear away 1/5 of the bearing babbitt?

 

I'll dig it up. I lost all of my favorites recently where I had it marked. Give me a few.

 

GHHAAA 12bux a quart,

where do you people buy your oil from? and for the love of god, show me where i can get something that isn't that expensive.

btw, i know the TL takes 4.5q, but i figured to save money and weight i'll buy 4q only, plus with the lower weight it'll be real fast.

 

This isn't the exact one but it's another good one. I'll keep searching for the other one. Of particular interest besides the drastic wear reduction is the higher startup film thickness.

1. The temperature for an HTHS measurement is done at 150C or 302 F, which is the average peak temperature likely to be encountered in a bearing.

2. The oil is mechanically sheared at a rate of 1 x10^6 shearing operations/second.

3. Minimum Oil Film Thickness measurements (MOFT) of operating engines did not correleate well with actual wear in service. A method was devised by which the oil temperature would be elevated to worst case and sheared to determine the optimum viscosity which better correlated with wear.

Three Exxon Researchers found that a minimum HTHS of about 2.8 mPA.s was the MINIMUM HTHS viscosity needed for normal wear, with the higher the HTHS being better for minimum wear. IN general, the higher the viscosity, the greater the HTHS.

For example, in a fleet of taxicabs using a GM 4.3L V6 engine, if the HTHS was 2.35, the startup film was 0.097um and 2.56 um at running; if the HTHS was 2.98, cP, the Startup oil film thickness was 1.231 um while the running film thickness was 3.22 um.

In Dynomometer wear tests using four GM 3.8L engines, the wear mass of a connecting rod bearing was as follows:

HTHS 2.1
mass loss (gm.) - 190

HTHS 3.2
mass loss (gm.) - 28

For "mains" bearings:


HTHS 2.1
mass loss (gm.) - 150

HTHS 3.2
mass loss (gm.) - 40

A jump in HTHS by about +1.5 results in approximately 1/5 the wear. Now this relationship is not linear and flattens as one nears a 40+ weight oil.

I should also mention that this test showed little differences in wear between a high quality 5W20 and a 10W30 for oils of close HTHS. For example, The average wear of one of the 3.8L V6's showed a total wear of the Connecting Rod bearings as 48.4 grams for the 5W20 verses 44.3 grams for the 10W30. For a 10W40 oil, the wear was 39 grams!!!


Summary: It was found that HTHS correlates better with wear values found in actual oil analysis and actual tear-down measurements than does measuring the oil film thickness in situ.

 

But it doesn't state the mileage, or time frame of the test.

 

That's why I stated I would keep looking for the other test that showed hours run.

Either way, give the numbers some credit. That's a HUGE wear reduction.