I had a 1999 Toyota Avalon - w/ 310,000 miles - always changed oil/filter @ 5,000-mile interval w/ regular oil - not synthetic - at 310K - had poor cylinder compression - rings - would more oil changes extended the engine life some? - or synthetic oil? - just wondering.
if synthetic was used from beginning, yes a bit. But it's too late now.
Hard to say, really. I usually develop anxiety symptoms if my vehicles go past 3000 miles without an oil change. But then, when it comes to engines, I'm like a racoon with OCD.
Raccoons are generally BAD for engines 😛
Thanks Joe, I was hoping somebody got it.
I just explained the joke, didn't I? 😳
Using synthetic the whole time would have extended it some, but hindsight is 20/20.
Hard to say, but 310K is very respectable for an engine lifespan. For my 2008 Camry, I do a 3K change with synthetic. But my vehicle has 150K, less than half of your Avalon.
Oil isn’t the only factor. Depends on what kind of miles those are. If they’re all city stop and go miles you did awesome. 300k highway miles is equal to about 75-100k city miles. Most engine wear happens on startup and starting and stopping. That’s why if I’m taking a 15-20 min trip, I’ll let my car warm up for 10-15 mins before hand, let it get up to temp, burn any condensation out etc...I also like having a separate keyfob, so i can leave my car running but lock it when I go into a convenience store etc....
As others have said there are many variables. Would synthetic oil have helped a bit? Possibly, but it's hard to say.
As an example, I have a 1986 Saab 900S (non-turbo) I've owned about 20 years that is just ready to hit the 300K mile mark. Driving has been mixed local and highway. (It used to be my daily driver.) Engine has never been opened up and still runs practically like new, smooth, responsive, no bad noises and doesn't burn oil. When I take it out I can wind the engine out to over 5000 rpm and it sounds great, no issues at all. Admittedly I have not checked compression but there doesn't really seem to be a need to. The point is that all I've ever used in it is conventional oil changed about every 4K miles or so (a bit more often than yours but not an extreme difference) and this engine shows no sign of giving up any time soon. It's hard to imagine a much better result had synthetic oil been used instead.
So really hard to say if synthetic would have made any difference for you. Same for changing oil a little more frequently. By any measure though, getting 310K miles out of an engine is nothing to be disappointed in.
