synthetic vs regular?

[timmack]

ok ive got too many opinions on this to make a decision. got a 2002 pathfinder with the vq35 in it with 69k miles, just got it a few months ago and now its time for the 1st oil change. no clue if its got synthetic in it but i need to know if its ok to just drop synthetic in it at that mileage or not. most ppl say its fine, just wanted to know if anyone had encountered a problem. the guy at the dealership said that if it has been running regular oil all its life, then i should dump 2 quarts synthetic in it and fill it up the rest of the way with regular for the 1st oil change and next time, use 100% synthetic. i was like wtf?

[Buzzman]

I think the guy at the dealership (was he a tech?) had the basic idea correct, but his method is unfortunately wrong.No matter how well you do an oil change, there will always be a little "old" oil left in the engine. The idea is to gradually switch over to synthetic, as opposed to just going cold turkey...especially with an older engine like yours.What I suggest you do is switch to a semi-synthetic on your next oil change, and then go full synthetic after that. This will flush out most of the old oil and give you a smooth transition.I run synthetic on all my cars by the way, and I would never switch back to petroleum based oil. The big difference for me is in the winter. Synthetic oil doesn't thicken up like regular oil, so starting my engine when it's freezing outside is much less traumatic.Good luck.

[timmack]

yea he was a service tech. sounds like good info, ill try it. he suggested mobil 1. any other suggestions as to which brand?

[2.240s]

Synthetic all the way ,

[pathfinder_se_black]

royal purple is a good synthetic oil; it may be a few dollars more. that is all i use.

[Buzzman]

Never heard of royal purple. Sounds like a joke.Anyway, I run Mobil1.

[pathfinder_se_black]

Never heard of royal purple. Sounds like a joke.Anyway, I run Mobil1.

to bad its not a joke, go to a dealership and they have royal purple too, its a synthetic, high performance oil. do your research

[voolover]

Redline is also a very good product too..Mobile 1 from what I have heard is not the oil it used to be.....the true synth are $7/9 per qt. Synth might be better for the Cat's then dino juice. Dino oil reacts adversly to heat more so than synth do making them better suited to climates with temperature extremes. the hotter and longer you run dino, the darker it gets...some people think it gets "dirty". Where's all this dirt coming from? Every opening to the atmosphere has some sort of filter. Synth oil is subject to the same conditions yet will look "cleaner" longer ....I'm talking about engines that have had regular oil changes and not some sludged up smoker

Also. you can run an oil filt for a Maxima on these vq's ...they are a bit bigger and fit right up............that can't hurt!

[timmack]

i also heard k&n oil filters are good, they also have a nut welded on the end for easy removal, or at least they used to. had a 95 hardbody p/u about 8-9 years ago and used the k&n, never had a problem with it.

[Buzzman]

to bad its not a joke, go to a dealership and they have royal purple too, its a synthetic, high performance oil. do your research

Sorry if I came across like a jerk. Anyway, as you can probably tell, I'm in the Great White North, and I honestly haven't seen or heard of Royal Purple, and I've been around a long time.Maybe it's an American only brand?????Regardless, I'll check next time I visit my dealership or a parts store.

[AlabamaDan]

What's wrong with just going cold turkey and making the switch?

[pathfinder_se_black]

Sorry if I came across like a jerk. Anyway, as you can probably tell, I'm in the Great White North, and I honestly haven't seen or heard of Royal Purple, and I've been around a long time.Maybe it's an American only brand?????Regardless, I'll check next time I visit my dealership or a parts store.

haha didnt mean to sound hostile. but yea its great stuff. well thats what my friend at nissan told me.

[pathfinder_se_black]

What's wrong with just going cold turkey and making the switch?

i once did that mistake on my old 4runner and it started leaking oil from the gasket were it connects to the motor. expencive fix if you dont want to do it yourself.

[timmack]

man the oil filter on the vq35 has got to be the smallest filter ive ever seen. the guy handed it to me and i was like wtf? made him double check the part #. thought he gave me one for a geo metro or something. yea i know its a pointless post but i had to comment, lol. i had a 1.5 crx that used a bigger filter than that.

[bundy26]

Royal Purple 10W40, you won`t regret it. Put this oil in my brother`s 84 BMW 635 CSi and you can feel the difference.

[fueler]

Royal Purple is like drag racing oil, lol I prefer regular... it's much cheaper and doesnt cause all the seals to leak... I made th mistake of switching to synthetic on my B16A2 in a honda Civic and I started experiencing oil blow-by and leaking

[bundy26]

I had no problems with it and I`ve been using it for over 2 1/2 years.Works for me. Maybe Honda engines can`t take the pressure, kidding.

[fueler]

Hey you're probably right. I believe Corvettes come standard with synthetic oil. The B-series of Honda engines is phenomenal... makes more HP per liter than almost anything on the road (besides RX7 which is a 1.3L rotary) and at 9000 RPM, synthetic just ain't what it needs....

[pyrophilus]

synthetic oil causes rubber rings and gaskets to expand. This is the reason why most people tell you that once you switch to synhetic, you really can't go back to using regular petroleum based oil, the seals will contract back, and since they were worn while expanded, will causes leaks.

I guess the idea is that you should try to put little at a time (or go semi-syn) so that the seals will gradually expand, allowing them to seat?

[Buzzman]

I'm beginning to think that switching to synthetic and then having problems has a lot to do with the mileage on the engine.If you're going to change to synthetic, then you should do it early in the life of the car.There is a car advice column that appears once a week in my newspaper, and this very question came up recently. The columnist advised against making the switch on older cars. I switched to synthetic as soon as I got my vehicles, and I've never had problems.

[timmack]

yea but what do ppl consider "older" cars? 50k miles? 100k? 150k? i put semi synthetic in this time, no clue what was in it before. 2800 miles since the oil was changed last according to the window cling that was on the car when i got it, and it looked blacker than night...im guessing it was el-cheapo oil.

[bundy26]

My brother`s 635 CSi has over 160K and still runs like a mofo with royal purple, so I don`t believe that bull**** about switching to synth.

[Buzzman]

My brother`s 635 CSi has over 160K and still runs like a mofo with royal purple, so I don`t believe that bull**** about switching to synth.

Ok, so now I'm really confused.I thought from reading the earlier posts that this Royal Purple stuff was a synthetic? Is it or isn't it?Maybe I'm reading you wrong too. Did your brother just switch recently or has he always run Royal Purple?As for the comment from the columnist about not switching over to synthetic on older cars, he was talking about cars with over 100,000KMS, which is about 60,000 miles. Maybe it is all B.S, who knows. Ultimately, it's about what you feel happy doing.

[pathfinder_se_black]

Hey you're probably right. I believe Corvettes come standard with synthetic oil. The B-series of Honda engines is phenomenal... makes more HP per liter than almost anything on the road (besides RX7 which is a 1.3L rotary) and at 9000 RPM, synthetic just ain't what it needs....

b-series = some amazing sounding engines as well. will beat a v6 mustang like a fat kid eating donuts

[Mistif]

Ok, so now I'm really confused.I thought from reading the earlier posts that this Royal Purple stuff was a synthetic? Is it or isn't it?Maybe I'm reading you wrong too. Did your brother just switch recently or has he always run Royal Purple?As for the comment from the columnist about not switching over to synthetic on older cars, he was talking about cars with over 100,000KMS, which is about 60,000 miles. Maybe it is all B.S, who knows. Ultimately, it's about what you feel happy doing.

Royal Purple is indeed Synthetic. It is normally used for high performance, high rpm applications. Things like racing and such. But, it is perfectly fine to use in any regular engine. But I would warn, it's more expensive, and it's thinner. If you have more milage and wear, I would definetly go with a cheaper synthetic. You'll most likely be blowing cash by your seals.

I have a 2001 QX4, 80k miles and I run Castrol Syntec 10/30. No leaks, no probles. A race mechanic friend of mine warns against the Royal Purple unless your using it for high rpm applications. Especially if you have a high milage engine.

Hope it helps.

Don

[pathfinder_se_black]

do you have to downgrade in oil once its at a certain mileage???? stupid question i know

[03Chillinkoot]

I don't think so, just use what has always been used. Or use oil for higher mileage vehicles. Companies like quaker state makes it.

[SnowSurfLax]

I got my 99 QX4 at just about 70K miles and immediately started using synthetic. I think it had just been given regular as carfax said it was some sort of fleet vehicle. But as far as I know i've never had any problems. No oil leaks or blow by.

For what it's worth, one time a new guy where I take it for changes put in regular oil once. Now I always specify, won't make that mistake again. But, I could feel the difference. The engine spins a LOT easier when I run synthetic.

[Pathfinder995]

My experience has been (and this has applied to 4 cars now, most recently my 99.5 Pathfinder) that making a switch to synthetic has always caused oil leaks, even in lower mileage situations (I had a 2001 Camry that had only 37k miles on it when I switched and it started to leak). Now, this could be because I only use 5w30 and that's a pretty thin oil.

For me it's not a big deal because I'll just change out the valve cover gasket and seals with brand new ones so essentially you're reconditioning your engine back to new. For me it's part of the process. Once I've done that it's been smooth sailing ever since - absolutely no leaks, no burning of extra oil and I know the engine is running cooler.

I can't explain the leaks -- no tech talk here, just telling you my observation. I also live in Florida and it's very hot and that probably doesn't help rubber to last very long!

I started using Mobil 1 but ended up meeting a guy who is an Amsoil distributor. He sells me everything I need at cost so I'm getting Amsoil quarts around $4.50 a pop and $15 for their high performance EA filters...personally I prefer Amsoil but the price is unbeatable - that's what sent me over the edge. If I had to pay retail it might be a different story!

-Jeff

ps: whoever commented on Royal Purple--it's not widely heard of I guess but from what I hear it's the top of the line synthetic oil...I think it just commands a very high price. There's only one auto parts store where I live that carries it (that I know of anyway). You can get Mobil 1 at Wal-Mart these days! ...along with all the other made in China junk car parts they sell.

[Chuck Tribolet]

'01 Pathfinder 156,000 miles. Castrol GTX dino oil. I was using 5W30 until the latestchange. I was having trouble with it throwing codes 1110 and 1135 (variablecam advance) pretty regularly. I'd clear the code and it would be back in aboutthree days. I decided to try a thicker oil to see if that would help, and used10W40, and between that, and keeping the RPMs up, it's thrown the code once in a month.

I live in California, don't ski, so don't need 5W.

Why GTX? I ran it in my 240Z. When we tore down the motor at 110,000,everything was in factory new motor specs except the broken valve stem tip.You could see all the hone marks in all the cylinders.