I swear I think I've seen this topic before on BS....anyhoo.... Within the next month or two I'll finally be tooling around in a new Ford Escape...gawd I hope .... Because of my long ass commute I end up changing the oil every 3,000 miles which usually happens every 1.5 to 2 months. I'm expecting to be putting 25,000+ miles per year on this lil' rig. What are the advantages/disadvantages to using synthetic oil over regular?
Only disadvantage in a NEW car is that it's uber expensive... Otherwise synthetic is superior on all counts, except in an older car that has been running regualr oil all its life, in which case sythetic can cause oil leaks. Its kind of a toss up for you...is the added expense worth the extra life it will give your vehicle? If you don't plan on keeping the car as a primary vehicle for 10+ years, I'd use regular just to keep the costs down, if you really do change that often. If I bought a car I expected to last my lifetime, or be a collectors item, or something I wasnt going to put a lot of miles on, then I'd use synthetic.
If I ever end up getting a new SUV...freaking neighbor is taking way too long to buy my Pathfinder so I can have some $$ for a down payment....should I immediately drain the regular oil out and throw in synthetic? I am planning on keeping this thing for a damn long time.
I have never used anything in my vehicle except synthetic. It is very good, however when you get higher milage on the vehicle, switch to conventional. Synthetic will cause leaks even if you began with it. It is too clean. When your seals get older they usually need some gunk to help them, which conventional oil provides. On all of my vehicles, I have used synthetic up to about 100,000 miles and when I drain the oil it is still very clean, but on all of my vehicles and others I have seen, it does cause leaks after a while. It really doesn't matter now anyhow. Conventional oil is still real good and as long as you stay on top of it, you will be fine. Also look into the money factor. If you change every 1-2 months, then maybe go with conventional. On another note, I don't recommend a Ford Escape. My wife just had a very serious accident with hers. All she did was make a corrective move back into her lane and it rolled numerous times before finally being stopped by a tree. When we were at the hospital, the head nurse said that they have seen a lot of Escape roll-overs. Or more so than other SUV's.
my WRX gets nothing but the best. usually thats mobil 1 synthetic. im on pace for 60k miles per year. well. sort of, thats MY driving. i had it from November through the new year, then my dad drove it and put 3k miles on it. i got it back in june and have had it since then. the ODO is at like, 32k right now, so ive put on 29k miles in 5 months.