Break in period... oops.

[urbanachiever]

1. Don't change to synthetic until ~4000/6000 miles, yes it takes that long to break in an engine fully. Synthetic is not good for breakin.

2. Once you changed to synthetic you can't go to regular AFAIK.

[deneb]

I was running M1 synthetic, switched at 6k. After a few oil changes of M1, I switched back, now running a blend of Havoline dino/Havoline synthetic. No issues to report, engine has somehow held together, and oil isn't spewing everywhere. Only difference is that my consumption seems to have diminished. This thread has some good info re: oil http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22184 also check the forums on bobistheoilguy.com, lots of good info over there.

[moviemadness]

this and that this and that.

PEOPLE! MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!

synth is good or bad? stay with dino before breakin??

then if I started with synthetic should I go back to dino??

I'm roughly over 3k miles.. what should I do????

you people are confusing me!

[jc51373]

this and that this and that.

PEOPLE! MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!

synth is good or bad? stay with dino before breakin??

then if I started with synthetic should I go back to dino??

I'm roughly over 3k miles.. what should I do????

you people are confusing me!

 

Two things to learn from this, particularly on message boards:

 

1) Don't believe everything you read

 

2) Opinions are like a**holes, everybody has em, and most of em stink.

[moviemadness]

how about we get some facts straight then??

 

if there are even any to begine with... jeez.

[emorphien]

this and that this and that.

PEOPLE! MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!

synth is good or bad? stay with dino before breakin??

then if I started with synthetic should I go back to dino??

I'm roughly over 3k miles.. what should I do????

you people are confusing me!

I don't know what your problem is... before I got mine I sifted through all the this and that and resolvef a fairly clear general consensus. Run dino first, and leave it in for at least a few oil changes (some like to keep running it until 10K). Do an oil change by the end of the first 1000 miles and use dino again for maybe another change after that at least.

[moviemadness]

ok then what if I already switched to synthetic at 100 + miles and I'm at 3k+?

should I get an oil change soon?

 

should I go back to dino or stick with synthetic?

 

NO ONE answered that question.

[emorphien]

dunno if it matters now, I'm no expert but someone will probably tell you the initial wear in doesn't work as well on synth as on dino and they might say you should go back to dino for a cycle to help wear in that which hasn't been.

 

But me personally, what's done is probably done. Maybe. Who knows?

[moviemadness]

should get an oil change ASAP then?

[OhBe1]

mm, I think the best you can hope for on this or any board is that someone points you to a source that you feel you can trust. Same as any other source of amatures. Look at the links, read them & see what makes sense to you . Build a plan on that, & stick to it. Chances are, you'll get well over 100000 miles of trouble-free operation, and then you can post your advice with the certainty that anyone would be a fool to do otherwise.

 

In youre case, I'd change oil at 3000, switch back to dino, and change at 3000 intervals. At 15000, I might go to synth.

[KayGT]

its a fact that the first 1, 2, 3....10 miles of a new car...or however much they got when they got to the dealer...were the harshest in its life....all the loading guys at the transportation companies beat the hell outta all new cars.

[TSiWRX]

mm, I think the best you can hope for on this or any board is that someone points you to a source that you feel you can trust. Same as any other source of amatures. Look at the links, read them & see what makes sense to you . Build a plan on that, & stick to it.

 

My sentiments exactly.

 

Look on ANY car-enthusiast Forum, moviemadness, and you'll see the same heated discussions on which oil to use, what viscosity, and how often to change it. Same thing goes for just about any consumable in the vehicle, including filters and other fluids.

 

Sure, it's confusing, and I can definitely understand your frustration, but honestly, the best you can do for yourself is to thoroughly read through the posts - all of them, no matter how time-consuming it can be - and then formulate your own plan-of-attack based on whose posts you think are the most reasonable and technically sound.

 

[deneb]

TSI is right, it's very confusing.

 

There seems to be TONS of OMT's and anecdotal evidence to support various do's and don't regarding oil, some of which is highly contradictory. IMO, unless you can find scientific studies to support one theory over the other, and/or official manufacturer statements either from the oil co. or the auto co., there just isn't anything out there to substantiate the plethora of urban legends around oil, both synth and dino. Here's the conclusions I've come to:

 

1) Synth is in fact great oil. If you beat the crap out of your car (AutoX, race), or go for long oil change intervals, or if the manufacturer states as such, using synth is probably a good idea. It does have greater heat resistance, and generally lasts longer than dino. Turbos in general can possibly benefit from synth as well.

 

2) Dino oil (esp. the latest SM oils) are also pretty damn good. If you have a non-turbo car and are using the manufacturer's maintenance schedule, pretty much any dino oil will do a fine job protecting your engine for 200k + miles, use it with confidence.

 

3) As for me, since I experienced some usage with M1 (and MANY other subie owners have this issue as well, though not all, there are threads here and on other Subie forums talking about this) I decided that I was going to switch back and try something else. I can find no substantiated evidence whatsoever that doing this is bad, will cause severe engine failure, leaks, etc. So, I'm using Havoline, 2 qts. dino and 2.5 qts. synth for a blend that should serve me well for a 5k interval. If you have any doubts about Havoline, check bobistheoilguy UOA's and forums, Havoline/Chevron is highly regarded over there.

 

4) I will even go so far as to say using regular dino oil in our cars is just fine, otherwise, why doesn't Subaru tell us we need to use synth? I'm planning on using a blend more biased to dino on my next oil change and do a UOA just to see how it performs. I'm betting it does as good as synth over a 5k interval. It'll be interesting to see the results.

 

Overall, I'm just having a hard time buying into all the urban legends around synth, IMO it probably doesn't matter when you switch.