Synthetic oil?

[francophile1947]

Not just Renaults My neighbour had a Picasso 2.0 HDI, as a company car, which had it's engine disintegrate in just under 80,000 miles of mainly motorway driving. When it was recovered to the agent for a new engine, he was told "Blimey, that one did well, they don't normally last that long" There's a lot to be said for the older, less complicated lumps

[brorabongo]

I like my Magnetec Oil, It's not the cheapest, (unless you have a Costco account?) but it means I do not have to change oil every three months. I must of been near 8000 miles at my last change, and the oil's Viscosity seemed the same as when it was at around 2000 miles. I could not tell a difference in colour either... it seems to get dirty looking fairly quickly.

[dandywarhol]

Dirty lookings ok brora - it's doing its job..........................the detergents in the oil take the carbon etc. off the engine and suspend it in the oil to be filtered. Mineral oil will become black in around 100 miles

[brorabongo]

Cheers Dandy, It's good to know that it's not possibly due to a fault of my engine.

[helen&tony]

Hi
I tend to agree on the 6000 miles...ours tends to go 6000- 6500 miles on semi-synthetic.
Not a scientific evaluation, I know, but when the oil is fresh, there is little noise or clatter on start-up until the oil light goes out, but at somewhere just over 5000 miles it starts to rattle a bit when starting from warm if the engine has been left standing 15 minutes or more. As soon as the oil is changed it is back to normal.
I use Elf turbo diesel 10-40 semi synthetic...and always use a new filter
Cheers
Helen

[karlos]

I will add my take -

Synthetic oil is great and has all sorts of magical ingrediants in.

I am informed by the man at sil*%$3ne "who provides oil to a lot of major teams" that depending on the manufacturer whats in the oil varies,- cheaper fully syth would not match up to strictest testing" again probably not that relevant as these motors dont get thrashed.

fully syn is a better oil obviously- the grades can vary with mineral based oils

Anyway my take - oil is was so important with what we used it for - we would do a service, not change the oil - extract an oil sample which would get analised- Oil picks up particles. Our 8000hr oil always used to be part contaminated after 4 to 6000hrs.

If cost would allow "the bongo was the pride and joy" id run fully and change it regular - that said I run semi in the bongo and change it as normal.