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Oil Question

2K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  rcy 
#1 ·
Own a 2009 TSX with about 170,000 km / 106,000 mi. Manufacturers recommendation for oil change is premium 5/20, conventional or synthetic, but synthetic not necessary. I have changed the oil faithfully every 5,000 km / 3,100 mi with conventional, premium 5/20. Last time I took it to the oil change, one of the technicians told me this car should be using synthetic. I kept with the conventional.

Question to the forum is basically the pros / cons or benefit if any, to switching to synthetic at this point.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
#3 ·
Although I agree that synthetic is superior than conventional, our engines do not require it. Our owner's manual confirms it, and also states:

"You may use a synthetic motor oil if it meets the same requirements given for a conventional motor oil: it displays the API Certification Seal and it is the proper weight. You must follow the oil and filter change intervals shown on the multi-information display."

Basically, you would still need to replace the synthetic oil in the same interval as conventional. As long as you choose a good conventional oil and change it at the specified intervals, you should be fine. The service rep was trying to up-sell you to synthetic. I would trust the owner's manual over anything the service rep recommends.
 
#5 ·
I just did some reading on this and these guys are mostly right, for a common car, synthetic vs conventional won't make too much of a difference. If you live in Siberia or really north Canada where temps can get to -50F, then you'll be wanting synthetic. Conventional oil is very heterogeneous and synth is very homogenous. Synthetic is made in a lab so every batch will be nearly identical and every quart from a specific batch will be identical, that's not the case with conventional where it is refined from the raw product and some additives are added, things settle, it's not mixed 100% completely, etc, so there's just irregularities in general in conventional oil. Synthetic is also a blend of different weights because on a cold startup, you want a lighter weight (thinner) oil to be able to be pumped into the engine quicker (think of sucking water through a straw vs sucking syrup through a straw, that's what your oil pump is trying to do at startup) and a heavier oil when it's warmed up because at a higher temperature the heavier oil will flow like the lighter oil at startup (now try and suck that same syrup through the straw again, just at 200F, it's gonna flow almost like water). So synthetics blend different weights for the purpose of prolonging engine life by having the proper weight mixed in for different engine temperatures to reduce wear as much as possible. Now unless you live in Siberia or really north Canada where conventional can bind up and nearly freeze because of it's irregularities, conventional oil will probably flow fine at all engine temps, if it didn't it would never have been used in the first place. I posted the article where I got this info below, and after reading it, I'm going to continue to use synthetic. The examples they used are extreme weights used in racing, but the same basic principle applies to us. Synthetic is designed to work a little better than conventional and help keep the engine running longer. That doesn't mean an engine running synth can't blow up at 100k miles and a conventional engine can't run to 300k miles, but synthetic has a higher chance of preserving engine life.

Something I learned in engineering school relating to manufacturing processes and lubing gears or whatever friction components are involved, we talked a little about oils in one class and our professor told us that synths are actually cheaper to manufacture than conventional, like significantly cheaper. However, since synthetic is only a little bit better, it's better nonetheless, so oil companies naturally strive to make a profit off of it and in all the years of synthetic motor oil, it's still more expensive so it's probably gonna stay that way even though crude oil prices will always rise and synthetic will only get easier to make with more research in the field.


Works Cited: Synthetic Versus Conventional Oil - Hot Rod Network
 
#7 ·
The linked article is from 2000. In the almost 2 decades since, the improvement in oils has been tremendous. For more information than you can possible want about oils check out www.bobistheoilguy.com

To the original poster;

To meet the current SAE oil spec of SN, today's conventional oil is almost as good as a synthetic. If you've been using conventional 5w20 and it's been working, no need to change. However, a synthetic oil will flow better in cold temps and withstand hot temps better than a conventional oil. When you see Castrol Edge or Pennzoil Platinum / Ultra or Mobil 1 for sale at Walmart or Canadian Tire for $25-30 dollars, you might as well grab it and use it.
 
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