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I have been using Mobil 1 since I got the car a little over a year ago. I change it every 5K and have had no problems what so ever.
I don't notice a difference when driving, except right after I change it when it seems to run a lot smoother.
I change every 3k or 3 mths, whichever comes first.
I've been using conventional oil and thinking of switching to synthetic. My 97 camry has 84k miles on it already and i'm not sure if switching is a good idea. Someone said that switching at high mileages would damage the engine (removing seals). I'm thinking if I should switch to synthetic. If so, should I use 5w30 or 10w30. People say that 10 is for the summer and 5 for winter, but the mechanics in pepboys say I should stick with 10 because the car has high miles. Any suggestions?
High mileage...that's not high mileage! You can't say anything about high mileage until you break 200K miles!
Anyway, if you know your engine has a tendancy to leak oil, don't go to synthetic. "Dino" oil doesn't usually have some of the addatives that synthetics do...if you use the new stuff, it'll clean out anywhere the old oil has built up. While this sounds good at first, it also cleans out any gaskets the oil formed...thus making the engine leak like a sive.
With 222K miles on my car, I just use 10W-30. There's a really good site about this stuff...it was in the hardcore forum, I think. The actual link delt with oil filters, but if you look though the site, he has some pretty good information on oil weights and natural vs synthetic
well this was my first oil change @ 5K. i did a previous oil change @ the dealer. one thing that drove me crazy was that the old oil was almost black!~ crazy huh? i also used a FRAM oil filter. ( what's ur opinion on FRAM?) anyways i feel a smoother ride and acceleration is a little better. Does anyone know what oil dealers use? synthetic or not?
__________________
Mart~
Camry Gen 5 SE
2.4L I4 DOHC
Stock 16's
Totally stock
97Camry/blue if your car sits outside during the winter or is in colder elements then it is recommended that you use 5w-30 for winter because of the temp. but in the summer use 10w-30. Actually i talked to a mechanic and i tryed 10w-40 one summer. This is because i explained to the guy that i would take my car to the drag and was pretty hard on it during the summer, so he recommended it to me, i dont know if it did anything diff. or helped with keeping friction down when i was hard on her but it didnt hurt, well from what i can tell now anyway.
I love synthetic oil posts...Change interval changes with the synthetic oil. Most recommend 3k to 5k but amsoil (no I'm not a dealer) recomends 25k with , if memory serves, 3 changes of the oil filter. How is this possible? Well, the simple answer has to do with the consistency of the molecule size of the synthetic oil. The consistency allows the oil to not 'gum up' like dino oil. As already mentioned, the gumming up clogs voids in gaskets that would otherwise be leaks. If you're listening to a pep boys mechanic then I would recomend you stick with dino oil. I use dino oil in my Camry becasue it already leaks like sieve. In my Volvo which has 2x the mileaqe, I use amsoil and change my filter every 5k and oil every 25k. After 3k on the Camry, the oil looks worse, and I've had to add 2 quarts, then the oil in the Volvo after 25k. If you're confident with your engine, switch to amsoil, avoid Castrol Synthetic, and chage Mobil 1 every 5k. After playing with this on multiple cars and talking to multiple people this seems to be the consensus.
Originally posted by FlaK High mileage...that's not high mileage! You can't say anything about high mileage until you break 200K miles!
Anyway, if you know your engine has a tendancy to leak oil, don't go to synthetic. "Dino" oil doesn't usually have some of the addatives that synthetics do...if you use the new stuff, it'll clean out anywhere the old oil has built up. While this sounds good at first, it also cleans out any gaskets the oil formed...thus making the engine leak like a sive.
Yeah thats what happened to my Camry. That suuuuuuuuuuuucks. Now I have the mysterious oil leak that can't be found D'oh. I switched at about 165k Miles
I agree with rcj93cam. If your car is outside in the winter definitely use 5W30. I did it for the first time this past winter, and there definitely was a difference. I use Mobil 1.
Originally posted by FlaK High mileage...that's not high mileage! You can't say anything about high mileage until you break 200K miles!
Anyway, if you know your engine has a tendancy to leak oil, don't go to synthetic. "Dino" oil doesn't usually have some of the addatives that synthetics do...if you use the new stuff, it'll clean out anywhere the old oil has built up. While this sounds good at first, it also cleans out any gaskets the oil formed...thus making the engine leak like a sive.
With 222K miles on my car, I just use 10W-30. There's a really good site about this stuff...it was in the hardcore forum, I think. The actual link delt with oil filters, but if you look though the site, he has some pretty good information on oil weights and natural vs synthetic
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