Lets do the math. Conventional oil change at 3 to 5 thousand miles and oil change on Mobil 1 at 10 to 15 thousand miles.

Conventional oil
Filters 3 x $9 = $27
oil @ $1.50 x 5 = $7.50 x 3 = $22.50
Total $49.50 for 15,000 miles

Synthetic Oil
filter $9
oil $5 x 5 = $25
Total $34 for 15,000 miles

Looks to me like it cost almost twice as much to use convential oil then it does to use synthetic oil.

Been using the Mobil 1 since summer of '77, never had a oil burner, oil leak, in any of the cars, trucks or motorcycles. All of the 4 wheel units went 125,000 to 175,000 miles before being sold, 2 wheeler's 35,000 to 57,000 miles. The 57,000 mile bike was a Beemer R600, it was much like my 240D. Slow, but rock steady.

Plus the value of your time and the enviromental impact of all that oil saved from going into the enviroment.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

Oldnavy,

I like your math. But you forgot one thing: the increased fuel efficiency of Synthetic oil.

P E H

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

Liet,

Another old wives tale, Synthetic oil drains down into the pan overnight.

Synthetic oil has superior film strength. We did oil experiments when I worked for IBM and an almost invisable film of oil is just as good as a puddle of oil. So even though it seems that Synthetic oil drains back to the pan, the film of oil is still there.

Because one person had premature valve wear does not prove synthetic oil is NG. If you have data that thousands of engines had valve wear with Synthetic oil and thousands of engines didn't have valve wear with non synthetic oil, then you might have some proof.

P E H

"I wonder what would 240Joe's take on synth oil would be?"

My take is....go for it! I believe synthetic oil is superior. It saves $ and time.

In addition to the reasons given above, don't forget the ease of starting in cold weather.

Mobil 1 changed every 10kmiles is a safe change interval for our diesels. I'd sample the oil before you try to push it any further using this oil. Soot will be the limiting factor.

I might switch to delvac 1 and push out the change interval to 15 or 20kmiles.

240Joe

Surely the time between oil changes matters too. Mercedes recommends an oil change at least once a year. If I changed oil once every 10K miles, I'd be changing it about once every 3 years.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

The reason for the yearly thing has to do with acid build up in the non synthetic oil, synthetic oil doesn't suffer much from that problem. I would do the yearly oil change if for no other reason then to refresh my memory on how an oil change is done.

Some of the guys over at the TDI club are going anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 on an oil change with only a filter change at 10,000 and a top-up of oil. I did a oil sample at 40,000 on my old '00 NB with 10,xxx miles on the oil change and the sample came back good to go for another 10,000 miles. But for lack of something to do on one borring afternoon I changed oil in the car anyway, it had been about 14 months since last change. I am sure I will be doing the same now on the old MB, because what else has an old retired fart got to do anyway. :p TDI Club

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

I'm coming up on a scheduled oil change soon so I guess I'll the synth a try. Which one should I try? I wonder how it holds up if you have normal oil consumption. Will it decrease while using synth? I tend to be near needing to add oil by the time I have to change it.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

The only use car I ever bought besides the MB was a 72 Ford with 62,000 miles and I made the switch to Mobil 1 with no problems. I sold the car 3 years later at 97,000 miles and it used no oil and had no leaks.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

A friend told me that Walmart has their own brand of full synthetic (supertech) that they are selling for $11/gallon. If so I think I will go bank to 3000 mile oil changes vs. twice a year (6000) now using Mobil one.

Yes it's a good price, but does it have the special additive package for handeling the soot in the oil??? I doubt that it does.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

Costco had it yesterday by hte case, for about 3.75 a quart.

I paid 4.50 for it at discount auto parts. Silly me.

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Enough about me, how are you doing?

Oil change interval of 15K to 20K?!

Whatever.

Have a great day,

Yep they are getting an easy 15 to 20 thousand miles from their oil, with a filter change and top up of oil. These miles are being done after having oil samples checked. Something most people don't understand is the synthetic oil does not wear out, just the additive package is depleted. This is then replenished by the topping up at filter change.

Oil sampling is what the big trucking company's do, change oil only after oil samples tell it's time, they also use it to tell when and engine needs repair work done before the engine has a major failure on the road.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

Larry,

I have not done much looking into, but I had no idea that the synthetics lasted this long.

It seems unreal to take a 330,000 mile car and not change oil until appox 350,000.

Thanks

__________________
Enough about me, how are you doing?