I have heard that putting Synthetic oil in a high milage car can be bad. Can anyone give me some info about this? The car has 98k miles on it. What can be some problems, and what are some of my options? I would use the search option, but it is disabled. Thanks for any help!

 

The only thing "bad" has nothing to do with the oil at all...but rather what type of maintenance you did in the past.

If you did your oil changes at least every 5k to 7k in the past...you should have no problems going to synthetic.

If, however, the car was neglected it could have spots where the dino oil formed sludge which dried out your seals. Switching to synthetic will clean out the sludge, thus opening up your dry/cracking seals and causing a leak. Hope that helps.

 

how expensive can it get to repair these leaks? (give me a guess) thanks.

 

This is simple: Seals can wear out over time and synthetic oil can creep by where conventional oil could not. DO the switch to synthetic - you won't hurt anything. If you find any leaks simply decide to replace the seals if you're handy (or don't mind paying to fix them) OR just switch back to regular oil.

 

I've been running regular oil and changing religously overy 3k. I have 40k on my car now. Thinking about going to synthetic as I push 50k. Is it worth it? I've been told that if I change every 3k its not really worth it. I was also told when I bought the car to run it to 30 or 40k with regular oil and then switch to synthetic. Others say, run regular oil till first oil change and then switch, otherwise you have to flush the engine blah blah blah. Any sites or info on full ACTUAL benefit of synthetic.....I know its better, but enough to justify for the normal car owner (im not into all the mods etc....just like to take care of my car). Thanks.

 

download bill99gxe's oil report collection and you be the judge.


It wont hurt to use better oil. it is only 3 dollars more per bottle and you can push your oil changing interval to around 5k miles.