[TexasMustang]

For a daily driver car what oil do you recommend and how often do you change it?

I was recently talking to a older man who is a commercial fleet manager; he only uses Amsoil on the fleet vehicles and only changes it every 30,000 miles.

Is synthetic worth the price premium in a DD car? Is 'premium' synthetic (amsoil, red line, royal purple) any better then the less expensive ones (mobil one, valvoline, etc)? When using synthetic how often do you change the oil? Do you change filters more often?

I've long been a believer in dinosaur oil and 3,000 mile oil changes. I do have Royal Purple in the mustang, but it is more of a toy then a DD. I'm wondering if I should switch my wife's van and my pickup over?

 

[travisp11]

My two cents worth.

O.K., honestly, in my Kia Spectra with 103,000 miles (which we purchased new) we have run nothing but 5W-30 Quaker State. The car does not burn any oil, it is a daily driver racking up 10,000-12,000 miles per year and by following proper break-in and factory recommended maintenance, we have never had a problem.

On our 2001 Jeep Cherokee we run 10W-30 Quaker State, again at 130,000 we have no problems and are driving this vehicle around 5,000-6,000 miles per year.

In my 1991 Mustang GT, I only run Mobil 1 Synthetic and since I only drive this vehicle on the weekends it is getting only a few thousand miles per year, and I change the oil in December and June (twice per year). I wouldn't say that the car runs any better with this oil but I like the peace of mind that the 'stang might be getting just a bit more protection for its' engine than with regular non-synthetic motor oil.

My Mustang has over 150,000 on it on the original block and it doesn't burn any oil.

My opinion is if you get your oil changed every 3,000 miles or 3 months, depending on which occurs first, you should be o.k. Since you don't have a timing belt to worry about snapping and the Mustang V-8s tend to be a pretty durable engine I would say, if you can, buy your Mobil 1 Synthetic at Wal-Mart. Ours sells for $27 for a 5qt. bottle and obviously don't forget a new filter. A synthetic change at Wal-Mart runs around $45-50 so if you can, just do your own changes. A regular economy oil change at WM runs around $27. I know that I should just run synthetic in all of my vehicles and do my own changes but I don't like to deal with the mess so for the Kia and the Jeep, Wal-Mart works fine for me.

Also, many people that I talk to tend to have a negative opinion about the Wal-Mart Oil and Lube department but a few of the employees at our WM oil and lube were former students of mine and I trust them and in 7 years of going there, I have never had a problem but do ask around, or just do your own.

Sorry to be so long winded but I just wanna help you make the best decision.

 

[cindys_sn95]

you will get a ton of opinions here. i like synthetic, i run it in everything. even my lawn mower. i have a 2000 chevy 2500 deliver truck, always had mobile1 in it. it is rolling up on 340xxx miles. we change the filter and add a qt. at 10,000 miles and oil and filter at 20,000. just my 2 cents.

 

[Smurf stang]

I run synthetic in my honda accord DD and I put a tough 23k a year on her with plenty of traffic. I change oil and filter ever 6 or 7k and all is great so far.

But like Mark said you will get a ton of opinions here.