Synthetic Oil

    My 03 Rubi has had only standard grade oil used in it. I have 75K miles on it. Would you recommend changing to synthetic and if so what benefit could I expect.

    My personal feeling is the advantages generally don't generally outweigh the added costs over the life of your Jeep, say 175-200k miles, that would be an added cost of about $2000-2500 just for changes.. Pretty sure you could rebuild an engine for less than that. Synth is great stuff and certainly better than Dino oil, but if you do your oil changes and take care of your ride, either will do the job for the typical lifetime of ownership.

    Nobody belongs anywhere, nobody exists on purpose, everybody's going to die. Have a beer.


    Jeeps Owned... 89YJ, 81CJ-8, 99XJ, 93XJ, 00WJ, 05LJ, 22Bronco Badlands !

    You've averaged 6250 miles each year. If you change the oil once a year, you break even. I change mine at the change of seasons, so I use regular oil. I also use zddp additive.

    I certainly agree the synthetic oil change is pricier, but maybe not by the margin you list. My Mobil 1 oil change is a total of $32 when the supplies are purchased at Walmart - been that price for quite a while. Factor that cost each 5000 miles and it's still only $1280 in oil changes over a 200,000 mile span. Bump that out to 7500 between changes (as recommended by Mobil 1) then you are down to $853 total over 200,000 miles. If you want to then start factoring in the convenience of not changing every 3000 miles then it becomes a little better of a deal. Personally I keep it at the 5000 mile mark but only to make it easier to remember when to change the oil.


    I have no proof to back this up, but have heard on the internet (yeah, yeah) that switching from dino oil to synthetic oil on an older engine can sometimes bring about leaks that weren't present before. Something about the sludge that dino oil leaves behind fills some of the nooks and crannies on the seals and the synthetic oil can make it through that sludge and start leaking. They do make blends that are specific for higher mileage engines...maybe one of those would be better?

    Quote from skeets682


    You've averaged 6250 miles each year. If you change the oil once a year, you break even. I change mine at the change of seasons, so I use regular oil. I also use zddp additive.

    I change mine every 6 months. I think I will stay with regular oil. What is zddp. Thanks for all of the advice guys.

    So if the synthetic oil lasts longer, do they make a synthetic filter to last longer too? :mrgreen:


    I typically just go by what the owner's manual says (for type and interval). Pretty confident that the builders of the motor know more about the oil to put in it than I do.



    I'm obsessed with using blackstone labs now, only foreseeable problem is that you're susceptible to just choosing the same intervals that everyone else is using, since their averages are from their customers.

    Quote from Solomi


    I'm obsessed with using blackstone labs now, only foreseeable problem is that you're susceptible to just choosing the same intervals that everyone else is using, since their averages are from their customers.



    I too am a fan of Blackstone. When I had my Titan I was playing with high OCIs and I ended up taking it to 15,000 with a filter change at 7,500 and I have their pump to pull the oil out without having to drop all of it. I was using Amsoil 0W-30 but now in my old Dodge I just use Dino 5W-30 whatever name brand is the cheapest at Auto Zone.

    I know amsoil makes a filter that is supposed to go for 25,000 miles. I would never go longer than recomended on a jeep though because most of our engines burn some oil so you would end up low. I just change mine every 4,000 on the synthetic. I did get a Mobil extended filter last change because it was included in the bundle. I believe it says it's good for 7,500 but I'm not gonna test it.

    I blame Amsoil for blowing up one of my 4.0s.
    They refused to pay anything in damage because
    I couldnt prove it was the only oil id ever used
    (which it was at the time.)


    As such i wouldnt use Amsoil on my lawnmower
    now let alone something important...


    I use Mobil in all my cars now. The Ram is only
    running on 8 cylinders now, but it still runs and
    no slug at all. You need to use good filters though,
    a friend who builds race boat engines told me if
    given the choice hed rather replace good filters
    than oil...

    I drive WAY too fast to be worried about cholesterol...

    Edited once, last by Bonkers ().

    I run full synthetic in my TJ because it tends to bounce off the rev limiter a few times while wheeling and is in generally poor conditions a lot. It also doesn't burn any oil and doesn't get many miles so it's well worth it to me.


    The JK burns a good bit of oil so I can't justify the 8-9 quarts of synthetic per oil change. (I used synthetic early on.)

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