greetings viewers eric the car guy here
let's talk about it
i i get all kinds of questions i'm
inundated with questions about synthetic
oil should i run synthetic oil or i'm
running synthetic oil or i have engine
noise or i have oil leaks that kind of
thing
so let's just talk about it now
um
i'm not being brent sorry i'm not being
brand specific or anything like that
these are just the examples that i had
this is mobil1 synthetic oil
and this is just regular standard
conventional oil now
there's the first thing i want to say is
90 of synthetics that are out there are
not full synthetics they are blends in
other words they have regular oil mixed
with synthetic oil and
that makes them special okay so most of
the synthetic oil that you're getting
out there is not fully synthetic this
mobil one is fully synthetic but a lot
of them that are out there
are only partial synthetics as far as
high mileage engines as far as like you
just bought that 92 camera you're really
proud of it you want it to last forever
so you start running synthetic oil in it
well what happens
well maybe one of two things number one
you might start to notice that the
engine gets noisy
and you're wondering why because you're
using the correct viscosity both of
these are the the same viscosity you're
using the correct viscosity but you know
for some reason your engine starts to
get noisy another thing you might notice
is oil leaks where you didn't have oil
leaks before the reason for this is is
synthetic although it'd be the same
viscosity has a different flow flow
characteristics than conventional oil
and as a result it tends to slip through
smaller spaces so those oil leaks that
you didn't have before you have now
because this stuff will slip right
through that smaller crack whereas
conventional oil will not
same thing with the engine noise
i'm going to put a link in the
description to the oil pressure video so
that you know you have a basic idea of
how oil pressure works and oil pressure
is not created by the pump it's actually
created by the clearances between all
the moving parts of the engine so if you
use a different flow characteristic oil
in an older engine
those clearances might seem a little
more sloppy because this stuff just
flows through there more so your engine
might get noisy
so i'm trying to give you this is a
cautionary tale i'm just i'm trying to i
have like i said all kinds of things on
the forum where people are trying to do
good by their engines by using synthetic
oil
now what are the benefits of synthetic
oil i would say the number one benefit
is you can extend your oil changes
so instead of doing them at like say
four or five thousand miles you can do
them at seven ten thousand miles some
engines call for synthetic oil right out
of the gate i can think of like corvette
the the um
ls1 engines things like that i i can't
remember it's like back in the 90s they
started saying that mobile one was what
they wanted you to run it and that's
what it was i also think the acura rdx
the turbo charged honda engine they also
want you to run fully synthetic oil
there is a time to place for synthetic
oil but let's face it it's more
expensive than conventional oil and for
some reason there's the
there's the mentality that if you're
spending more money on your oil it's
actually better well in this case it's
not and this is what i'm trying to save
you from as far as oil is concerned the
only thing you really need to concern
yourself with is this right here this is
the api service donut
as it's as it's sometimes called and
this has a service rating of sn that's
the latest now i mean they they go all
the way back and they come out with a
new formulation every once in a while
like that used to be sj and now it's up
to sn but basically it doesn't matter if
it's cheap oil like this
as long as it's got this service rating
on it the api is the american petroleum
institute they put their stamp on this
and they say well somebody put stamp on
the sticker and put it on here and they
say that this oil is good enough and as
far as the engineers that design engines
they go by this too they talk to the
american petroleum institute and they
say or depending upon where you are in
the world
there's some sort of standards and they
put this on the oil bottles in fact
even on this guy here you've also got it
here so smcf so these these uh
synthetics have different ratings
than conventional oil
but my point in all this is
personally i don't spend a lot of money
on oil i mean that there are to the to
the more expensive oils they they do
have more additives they do have more
detergents they do have more wonderful
things that they put in there to justify
the expense over what you'd find in a
cheap bottle of oil like this however
i'm of the opinion that if you change
your oil on a regular basis
conventional oil on a regular basis
you're just fine you don't really have
to worry about it you don't have to you
don't have to run synthetic oil you're
only doing that because that makes you
feel better in most cases
now unless you check your owner's manual
if your vehicle calls for synthetic oil
by all means use synthetic oil if it
doesn't cause call for synthetic oil and
it's older you might want to save
yourself some trouble and not use it
that's i i look forward to your comments
in fact i'm gonna put a link in the
description to a forum discussion about
this very thing but i'm making this
video to address something that this has
come up over and over and over again and
i'm trying to save you i'm trying to
save you from spending more money to
possibly create oil leaks in a noisy
engine
that's where i'm at anyway i'm eric the
car guy you can always find me eric
carguide.com
link in the description uh also google
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and i close with be safe have fun and of
course stay dirty see you later