Change to Synthetic or stick to conventional oil? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

njwrestler07 · 10-15-2009, 10:28 PM

I have a 99 Camry LE 4 cylinder with 29,000 miles on it. I got it back in June from a family member with 23,000 miles. I am thinking about changing to synthetic oil because I've been driving a lot lately and i would like the car to run a little stronger. Does anyone have an opinion on this?

bigbird · 10-15-2009, 11:07 PM

at that low millage you should be fine switching over. but check if your head gasket and valve cover gasket "sweat". if they do it will only be worse with synthetic...but its still not a big problem.

touringcamry · 10-15-2009, 11:22 PM

You can use synthetic, regular, or mix them to your hearts content without any issues.

360glitch · 10-15-2009, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by njwrestler07

I have a 99 Camry LE 4 cylinder with 29,000 miles on it. I got it back in June from a family member with 23,000 miles. I am thinking about changing to synthetic oil because I've been driving a lot lately and i would like the car to run a little stronger. Does anyone have an opinion on this?

I just have to say that is a crazy low amount of miles for a ten year old Camry. Nice.

njwrestler07 · 10-15-2009, 11:37 PM

what do you mean sweat?

the94camryman · 10-16-2009, 09:58 AM

synthetics usually allow you to go a little longer without changing your oil, or so ive always been told.

mkulina · 10-16-2009, 10:51 AM

If you are considering switching, look into Wal Mart's house brand synthetic. It is relatively cheap and it's Quaker State/Penzoil's synthetic. Be good to your car and your wallet.

Congrats on your Camry. I just got a '94 with 41k miles. They are out there.

Regards,
Mike

the_professional · 10-16-2009, 11:00 AM

Nice!

& I thought my Camry was low miles with 67,000.

20,000 of those miles are from Florida-New York Yearly car trips.
Camry is a beast running 21 Hours straight.
I HEART MY CAMRY.

twinjetguy · 10-16-2009, 02:35 PM

My 2001 only has 25,500 on it right now

As for oils to use, you can't beat Wal Marts prices. They sell a 5 qt jug of Castrol full synthetic for something like $20. I either use that or Royal Purple. That stuff is just awesome.

If you are having a hard time deciding on what brand to use, Castrol and Mobil 1 full synthetic are both excellent oils. If for some reason you want to stay on the cheap and use regular oil, I would go with Castrol GTX. We would use that stuff to break in motors at the motorcycle shop I used to work at. Excellent oil.

Just remember, life is too short for crappy oil. Treat your car right.

Lightning Blue · 10-16-2009, 03:23 PM

I switched to synthetic on my Camry the last oil change, it seemed to like it a bit better! Been running synthetic in my Neon since I got it as well.

smilecow · 10-17-2009, 02:14 AM

I switched to synthetic on my 1999 camry over 120k and no leak no problem. no I got 152k on it

Dick Tuck · 10-19-2009, 04:22 PM

BJ's Club has Shell 5-20 and 5-30 on sale this month. Been a "One" user for years but for 20 bucks for six quarts the Shell looked good. The 99 Gen 4 with 220k burns almost NO Shell where as it burned about a half a pint of "One" in 3K in the warm months. Shell is a huge company with a big R&d department. They make a lot of the standard aircraft turbine lubes.