I just purchased a 1995 BMW 318i with approximately 76K miles. My mechanic is asking me to consider going with a synthetic oil. He is a very sound mechanic, and I trust his opinion highly, but I have no experiences with synthetic oils.
I am looking for second opinions here. How will the use of synthetic oil impact 1) engine wear and 2) gas mileage? He recommends changing the synthetic at 8,000 miles. Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide...
I use synthetic in all of my cars (4and 12 cylinder), I change oil once a year and filter every 5,000 miles. I have 130,000 on my 1988 750 and she use no oil between changes.
Two of the guys in our club here in Vancouver Canada went to synthetic and had to overhaul their engines. Our club here does NOT recommend synthetic here.
I will not put it in my car.
alot depends on mileage and condition of the engine. Yours is till young enough to switch, but switch now. Monitor the oil level, and if there is any burnoff or leak, go back to mineral.
If your car leaks with synthetic but not with regular, it's because the dirt/sediment has settled into the leaks of your engine. When you switch all that dirt/sediment will be flushed out over the next few oil changes. Your engine will run better. But if its old it's going to start leaking. Sumarily I wouldn't reccomend switching back if you've switched to synthetic and have changed your oil a couple times. Also you don't have to change your oil as often with synthetic. Amsoil you can actually go 15,000 or 25,000 miles (can't remember which too early) on an oil change before the oil even starts to go do a worse job. Switching doesn't hurt your engine. Any damage to your engine has already been done by you or because you've used nonsynthetic for so long.
jimwww Posted on Jul 14 2004, 01:41 AM
Two of the guys in our club here in Vancouver Canada went to synthetic and had to overhaul their engines. Our club here does NOT recommend synthetic here.
I will not put it in my car.
Thats like the guy that was here about a month or two ago saying that he put feul injector clenaer in his car and then blamed it when his car wouldn't start two days later. Go back and look at the post and see what we told him. We'd basically tell your friends the samething but put synthetic oil where you see fuel injector cleaner.
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