This question has (probably) been asked a number of times in different contexts but... we can end the debate now. If you're going to change your own oil (every 5000 miles) what should you use? Standard oil or Synthetic? I asked some people and I got varying responses. Some said Synthetic, and some said to use standard oil. The people who said to use standard oil said that Synthetic was a waste of money (comparatively) and was no better than standard oil. WHAT DO YOU THINK??
Synthetic oil is demonstrably better than conventional oil in some applications. Older vehicles would probably benefit from a synthetic blend as opposed to full synthetic for which they were never designed. Since I change my oil every 3000 miles max, I use the correct weight for the temperature and use synthetic blend.
@Doc Would you please specify what you mean by "older vehicles". Thanks
Over 30 years, 1990 and earlier.
Since you don't state how old or how many miles your car has it's a little more difficult to determine. But generally I would agree with @Doc too...
I own 3 Hondas from new. A 93 Accord, a 00 Accord V6 & an 04 TSX (a Honda masquerading as an Acura).
In the TSX I started with Mobil 1 at the first oil change. In the 00 Accord I switched to the same oil at about 30k miles and in the 93 Accord I've stayed with Castrol GTX since new.
In the case of the 93 I spent way too much time trying to decide which oil to use and in the end I felt it wasn't worth risking any potential leaks in a car that old. It's now a "garage queen" and only see about 500 miles a year. I still change the oil as I've always done which is every 3 months since the low miles between changes are irrelevant. The bottom line is if it ain't broke why fix it?
IMO the best thing you can do is change the oil with a high quality oil and do it frequently.
Oil is cheap and engine is expensive; so I would never say spending more on synthetic oil is a waste of money; it's the cheapest maintenance one can do. Exactly what @Doc said, and adding to it that newer cars you have to use synthetic oil.
Please do a search on our forum: this has been asked numerous times before. Here is one excerpt:
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/conventional-or-synthetic-oil/#post-226509
