Is it better to use Synthetic oil for this car or conventional? My other car requires that I use synthetic oil in it. We just purchased this on 05-23-08 as a Recommendation from our son.
Modified by bignessversa at 6:50 PM 5/26/2008
Modified by bignessversa at 6:50 PM 5/26/2008
Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil
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bignessversa
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Mon May 26, 2008 12:32 pm
- Car: 2008 Nissan Versa 1.8S
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Shad0wXCalibur
- Posts: 622
- Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:02 am
- Car: Nissan Versa SL Sedan
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (bignessversa)
Synthetic is better for any car wether it requires it or not. Better cold starts and resistance to heat. I use XL 5w-30 from Amsoil and change it every 5,000 miles. Conventional will work just fine but I would recommend changing it every 3,000 miles unless most of your miles are highway. Synthetic can go longer and at at the same time still have better protection.
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Onyxblue
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- Car: 1990 300zx n/a, 08 Versa SL, 07 Pathfinder SE, 08 Sentra
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (bignessversa)
I am using 5w30 Mobil 1 full synth and I am changing it every 7500 miles
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bignessversa
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- Joined: Mon May 26, 2008 12:32 pm
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Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (Shad0wXCalibur)
Thank you for your answers, i will go for the synthetic oil for my first change at the dealer.
biggnessversa
biggnessversa
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (bignessversa)
In reality, dino oil will do the same thing as syn and you wont have any break downs till the engine is over 200-300k. The only reason you would really want to use syn is for really cold weather or if you were running a racing/turbo set up which with a Versa is kinda unnecessary. I hear though that most Nissan dealerships use Syn/Dino blends so your versa at the start should already have syn/dino blend in it. Personally, I change my oil religiously so I don't see the need to use synthetic.
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Neo Xian Wu
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- Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:45 am
- Car: 08 Nissan Versa S Hatchback 6spd
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (aleckz)
Syn oil really is engineered to have smaller molecules than conventional. This means it'll lubricate better (get inot more cracks and such) and last longer as well. It is overall better by design. The only issues is using it on an older engine that has leaky seals. Being smaller in design, it will leak more from seals. New engines are now being built to be seal-less, so the issue may not occur even around 200k or so.aleckz wrote:In reality, dino oil will do the same thing as syn and you wont have any break downs till the engine is over 200-300k. The only reason you would really want to use syn is for really cold weather or if you were running a racing/turbo set up which with a Versa is kinda unnecessary. I hear though that most Nissan dealerships use Syn/Dino blends so your versa at the start should already have syn/dino blend in it. Personally, I change my oil religiously so I don't see the need to use synthetic.
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blockmachining
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- Car: 08 Versa, 02 Quest, 1997 Ford F250 Supercab 4x4 Powerstroke Diesel, 1948 Dodge Pickup, 1987 Honda Su
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (bignessversa)
I posted this a little bit ago. It covers the use of synthetic oil.
OK....I'm some 13 months late, but I guess this is one of those better late than never sort of things. I worked for Nissan North America for 13 years. During that time, I was responsible for the machining and assembly of approximately 6.6 million engines and 3.2 million transaxles. I spent 42 weeks in Japan training, 18 weeks in Mexico, and 12 weeks in England. Now, getting to the points.....Nissan does not perform a 500 hour bench test on every engine. Each engine is hot tested for approximately 2.5 minutes during which time the timing is set, oil pressures are checked, and the engine is checked for unusual noises. That is it. Nissan is one of the last auto companies to perform a "hot test"...actually running the engine. Almost all other companies perform a cold test.....they turn the engine over using an electric motor. The cost of fuel and manpower to perform a hot test is almost 4 times the cost of a cold test. Nissan does take one engine manufactured off of each engine assembly line each day and performs a dyno test. These engines are then torn down and inspected for any unusual wear patterns, or even failures. Once per week, an engine is ran to simulate a 110,000 mile trip. These engines are ran at 200 rpm over redline and then torn down and checked for damage and unusual wear. Nissan really trys to build an outstanding engine! As far as the break in period is concerned, you need to observe and follow what the manual says. The reason for this pertains mostly to the seating of the valves. Engine life is greatly impacted on where the valve seals against the valve seats. If you run an engine too hard at the beginning of its life, then the valves will have a tendency to seat too deep into the valve seat which allows very little room for future valve and valve seat wear before you start having compression leaks around these two engine components. When we performed our quality checks during the engine assembly process, we would perform a die check to actually see the point at which the valve was sealing against the valve seat. If this point was too deep, then the machining process for the seats had to be adjusted. If it was too shallow, again, an adjustment had to be made. If the contact point was too shallow, you would have a compression leak just the same as if it were too deep. As far as oil changes for a new engine....no matter how hard we tried, especially when machining the engine blocks, we never got 100% of the shavings out of an engine block. There are just way too many small little cavities in the oil and water galleys for little slivers to hide. As part of our quality control procedures, every two hours, we would perform contamination checks on our blocks, heads and crankshafts. If we found an unusally high amount of contamination, then more than likely we had a washer nozzle clogged or even out of alignment. Yes, the oil filter will pick this up after this sliver hits the oil pan and is picked up by the oil pickup tube and pumped from the oil pump into the oil filter, but there is absolutley no one who can guarantee that before this sliver makes it back down to the oil pan that it will not cause some damage on its way there. Bore or bearing scratches also reduce engine life. I do want to say this.....we were very good at not having abnormal levels of contamination. Not only did we check for total contaminatin weight, but also the size of the contamination pieces. The very best thing you can do for engine life is to get the dinosaur oil (regular oil) out of the engine at about the 500 mile point and change it over to a fully synthetic oil. Why? Because dinosaur oil has to have polymers added to make it multi-viscous (spelled wrong) ie...5W-30. When oil comes out of the ground, it is 30 weight or 50 weight or whatever it happens to be. When the polymers are added to the dinosaur oil, you now have multi-viscous oil. Polymers stick together making the oil thicker. It's this sticking together that causes the problem. If you take two engines with 100,000 miles each on them....one ran with the polymers and the other using fully synthetic oil, the synthetic oil engine on the inside will look practically brand new. The dinosaur oil engine will have this black jelly looking substance sticking all over the inside of the engine. This black jelly is the polymers that are stuck together. These polymers reduce the diameter of the oil galleys running throughout the engine and after a while, they can block oil passageways. Not all the time, but it does happen. Spun bearings and piston skirt wear are commom issues. Why does synthetic oil not have this problem? No polymers are added. From the very beginning, the engineers know what weight oil they are shooting for and add just the right amount of different chemicals to get the weights they need. Hope this helps some.
OK....I'm some 13 months late, but I guess this is one of those better late than never sort of things. I worked for Nissan North America for 13 years. During that time, I was responsible for the machining and assembly of approximately 6.6 million engines and 3.2 million transaxles. I spent 42 weeks in Japan training, 18 weeks in Mexico, and 12 weeks in England. Now, getting to the points.....Nissan does not perform a 500 hour bench test on every engine. Each engine is hot tested for approximately 2.5 minutes during which time the timing is set, oil pressures are checked, and the engine is checked for unusual noises. That is it. Nissan is one of the last auto companies to perform a "hot test"...actually running the engine. Almost all other companies perform a cold test.....they turn the engine over using an electric motor. The cost of fuel and manpower to perform a hot test is almost 4 times the cost of a cold test. Nissan does take one engine manufactured off of each engine assembly line each day and performs a dyno test. These engines are then torn down and inspected for any unusual wear patterns, or even failures. Once per week, an engine is ran to simulate a 110,000 mile trip. These engines are ran at 200 rpm over redline and then torn down and checked for damage and unusual wear. Nissan really trys to build an outstanding engine! As far as the break in period is concerned, you need to observe and follow what the manual says. The reason for this pertains mostly to the seating of the valves. Engine life is greatly impacted on where the valve seals against the valve seats. If you run an engine too hard at the beginning of its life, then the valves will have a tendency to seat too deep into the valve seat which allows very little room for future valve and valve seat wear before you start having compression leaks around these two engine components. When we performed our quality checks during the engine assembly process, we would perform a die check to actually see the point at which the valve was sealing against the valve seat. If this point was too deep, then the machining process for the seats had to be adjusted. If it was too shallow, again, an adjustment had to be made. If the contact point was too shallow, you would have a compression leak just the same as if it were too deep. As far as oil changes for a new engine....no matter how hard we tried, especially when machining the engine blocks, we never got 100% of the shavings out of an engine block. There are just way too many small little cavities in the oil and water galleys for little slivers to hide. As part of our quality control procedures, every two hours, we would perform contamination checks on our blocks, heads and crankshafts. If we found an unusally high amount of contamination, then more than likely we had a washer nozzle clogged or even out of alignment. Yes, the oil filter will pick this up after this sliver hits the oil pan and is picked up by the oil pickup tube and pumped from the oil pump into the oil filter, but there is absolutley no one who can guarantee that before this sliver makes it back down to the oil pan that it will not cause some damage on its way there. Bore or bearing scratches also reduce engine life. I do want to say this.....we were very good at not having abnormal levels of contamination. Not only did we check for total contaminatin weight, but also the size of the contamination pieces. The very best thing you can do for engine life is to get the dinosaur oil (regular oil) out of the engine at about the 500 mile point and change it over to a fully synthetic oil. Why? Because dinosaur oil has to have polymers added to make it multi-viscous (spelled wrong) ie...5W-30. When oil comes out of the ground, it is 30 weight or 50 weight or whatever it happens to be. When the polymers are added to the dinosaur oil, you now have multi-viscous oil. Polymers stick together making the oil thicker. It's this sticking together that causes the problem. If you take two engines with 100,000 miles each on them....one ran with the polymers and the other using fully synthetic oil, the synthetic oil engine on the inside will look practically brand new. The dinosaur oil engine will have this black jelly looking substance sticking all over the inside of the engine. This black jelly is the polymers that are stuck together. These polymers reduce the diameter of the oil galleys running throughout the engine and after a while, they can block oil passageways. Not all the time, but it does happen. Spun bearings and piston skirt wear are commom issues. Why does synthetic oil not have this problem? No polymers are added. From the very beginning, the engineers know what weight oil they are shooting for and add just the right amount of different chemicals to get the weights they need. Hope this helps some.
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blockmachining
- Posts: 47
- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:01 pm
- Car: 08 Versa, 02 Quest, 1997 Ford F250 Supercab 4x4 Powerstroke Diesel, 1948 Dodge Pickup, 1987 Honda Su
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (bignessversa)
A little more information on dino oil vs. synthetic oil. Hope this helps.
Yes, it will be very happy. I used that oil in my 90 Nissan 300ZX twin turbo. No problems whatsoever, even with the two very hot operating turbos.Something I want to mention; also, and I see it discussed in several different forums on the net.....How often should you change your oil. I worked for Nissan's powertrain division in Tennessee. We had several dynos running at any given time testing our engines for assembly or design defects. We would run these engines to an estimated 110,000 miles at 200 rpms past the red line. The engines, especially around the exhaust manifolds and exhaust pipe would be glowing red hot. We would not change the oil until somewhere around approximately 55,000 miles. This is the point at which the oil would start to break down and the pressure would drop. There is absolutely no reason to change your oil any sooner than the recommended 7,500 mile mark unless you are racing your engine, your engine is beginning to come apart (bearing or other material is being found in your filter and or oil pan, the car is going to sit for 6 or more months without being driven, or running in constant dirt or blowing sand environments. The reason the time factor is important is because some of the by products of a combustion engine gets into the oil. The oil can become a little bit on the acidic side and eat into your engine parts, especially the bearings and cylinder walls.
As far as cost goes......Consumers using dino oil who change their oil every 3,000 miles end up spending more money than the consumer who uses the synthetic oil and changes their oil every 7,500 miles. Lets say dino oil cost $2.39 per quart, a quart of synthetic oil $5.00, and a good name brand filter $4.00. So for a car that uses 5 quarts of oil, it would cost the dino oil consumer to drive 7,500 miles and change the oil 2.5 times more money than the synthetic oil consumer....Lets see..... [(5 X $2.39 quarts of oil) + $4.00 filter] X 2.5 changes = $39.87. Now the consumer who uses the synthetic oil would pay [(5 X $5.00 quarts of synthetic oil) + $4.00 filter] X 1 change = $29.00.....a savings of $10.87 for the good stuff! And this is if you do the oil change yourself. If you are paying someone else to change your oil, then the savings are even greater.
Yes, it will be very happy. I used that oil in my 90 Nissan 300ZX twin turbo. No problems whatsoever, even with the two very hot operating turbos.Something I want to mention; also, and I see it discussed in several different forums on the net.....How often should you change your oil. I worked for Nissan's powertrain division in Tennessee. We had several dynos running at any given time testing our engines for assembly or design defects. We would run these engines to an estimated 110,000 miles at 200 rpms past the red line. The engines, especially around the exhaust manifolds and exhaust pipe would be glowing red hot. We would not change the oil until somewhere around approximately 55,000 miles. This is the point at which the oil would start to break down and the pressure would drop. There is absolutely no reason to change your oil any sooner than the recommended 7,500 mile mark unless you are racing your engine, your engine is beginning to come apart (bearing or other material is being found in your filter and or oil pan, the car is going to sit for 6 or more months without being driven, or running in constant dirt or blowing sand environments. The reason the time factor is important is because some of the by products of a combustion engine gets into the oil. The oil can become a little bit on the acidic side and eat into your engine parts, especially the bearings and cylinder walls.
As far as cost goes......Consumers using dino oil who change their oil every 3,000 miles end up spending more money than the consumer who uses the synthetic oil and changes their oil every 7,500 miles. Lets say dino oil cost $2.39 per quart, a quart of synthetic oil $5.00, and a good name brand filter $4.00. So for a car that uses 5 quarts of oil, it would cost the dino oil consumer to drive 7,500 miles and change the oil 2.5 times more money than the synthetic oil consumer....Lets see..... [(5 X $2.39 quarts of oil) + $4.00 filter] X 2.5 changes = $39.87. Now the consumer who uses the synthetic oil would pay [(5 X $5.00 quarts of synthetic oil) + $4.00 filter] X 1 change = $29.00.....a savings of $10.87 for the good stuff! And this is if you do the oil change yourself. If you are paying someone else to change your oil, then the savings are even greater.
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keanucosmo
- Posts: 151
- Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:07 am
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (blockmachining)
After seeing several LS1 Corvette engines with more than 80,000 miles look like new when the heads were pulled, I became a believer in the merits of synthetic oil. I am sending my oil in for analysis and increasing mileage intervals according to their recommendations to maximize miles on each oil change.blockmachining wrote:I If you take two engines with 100,000 miles each on them....one ran with the polymers and the other using fully synthetic oil, the synthetic oil engine on the inside will look practically brand new.
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (keanucosmo)
Hey guys, up here in Canada we got this Grad Rebate program where our first 4 oil changes are free. Do you know what kind oil dealerships put into it by default? Thanks.
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feloniousmonk
- Posts: 490
- Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:51 pm
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (bignessversa)
Now that I don't work on oil advertsing any more, the gag order is off. Here's the low-down without naming names (just to make sure my *** is covered legally).
In general, synthetic is better than conventional.
HOWEVER, if you change the oil religiously at regular intervals (every 3k - 5k miles, depending on the way you drive) the differences are almost nil.
While I worked on ads for a major brand, I've seen and used the shiney vs. brown engine tear down comparison between the two oils. These comparisons (more like dramatizations) are very misleading — which is exactly why oil companies love to use them to show you that you have to spend more $$ for synthetic.
There are three things that can cause oil deposits to form:1. Inferior detergent additive package/formulation in the brand of oil used2. Extreme heat cycling or "cooking"; super high operating temperature and very cold when the engine is not in operation.3. Intervals between oil changes are too long for the climate you drive in and your driving style (think AZ heat and/or burying the throttle all the time)
Synthetic oil is a personal/financial choice. It is not a necessity if you follow the general guidelines below:1. Always change oil at regular intervals (every 3k, if the car sees extreme environmental conditions or you drive it very hard... otherwise every 5k is a good rule of thumb)2. Always use manufacturer recommended grades; don't think you know better than the factory engineers by using an unspecified grade3. Always change the oil filter when you change the oil; pointless to have fresh oil if you have a dirty or clogged filter, oil starvation is more harmful than having dirty oil.
In general, synthetic is better than conventional.
HOWEVER, if you change the oil religiously at regular intervals (every 3k - 5k miles, depending on the way you drive) the differences are almost nil.
While I worked on ads for a major brand, I've seen and used the shiney vs. brown engine tear down comparison between the two oils. These comparisons (more like dramatizations) are very misleading — which is exactly why oil companies love to use them to show you that you have to spend more $$ for synthetic.
There are three things that can cause oil deposits to form:1. Inferior detergent additive package/formulation in the brand of oil used2. Extreme heat cycling or "cooking"; super high operating temperature and very cold when the engine is not in operation.3. Intervals between oil changes are too long for the climate you drive in and your driving style (think AZ heat and/or burying the throttle all the time)
Synthetic oil is a personal/financial choice. It is not a necessity if you follow the general guidelines below:1. Always change oil at regular intervals (every 3k, if the car sees extreme environmental conditions or you drive it very hard... otherwise every 5k is a good rule of thumb)2. Always use manufacturer recommended grades; don't think you know better than the factory engineers by using an unspecified grade3. Always change the oil filter when you change the oil; pointless to have fresh oil if you have a dirty or clogged filter, oil starvation is more harmful than having dirty oil.
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Scuba Steve
- Posts: 124
- Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:14 pm
- Car: 2007 Nissa Versa 1.8SL Technology Pakage 6 Speed, Black
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (Xtrykr)
My Nissan dealership uses Mobil1 Winnipeg, Canada You have to pay the difference from Syth to reg oil (4L) which equals about $30.00 plus the free coupon.
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (Scuba Steve)
my dealer uses AGIP. I only paid 160$ once and I get lifetime oil change.Scuba Steve wrote:My Nissan dealership uses Mobil1 Winnipeg, Canada You have to pay the difference from Syth to reg oil (4L) which equals about $30.00 plus the free coupon.
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VersaMG08
- Posts: 2059
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'14 Nissan 370z - Location: Prescott Valley, AZ
Re: Synthetic oil VS Conventional oil (Vahagn23)
I normally get my oil changed every 3-4k miles. Using the more expensive synthetic oil and not changing every recommended miles defeats the purpose of it. I haven't noticed any difference between the two.