My Expedition has 80,000 miles and was told that I should switch to synthetic oil for my next oil change. How much better is synthetic oil compared to regular oil?

 

Welcome to FTE. There isn't that much of a benefit for synthetic. Personally, I would say to stick witht the cheaper dyno oil.

 

Hi Menselis,

A few years ago I faced with the choice of using regular oil vs. switching to synthetic. I tried the synthetic and honestly I notice the difference in the car as soon as I started driving. Synthetic oils provide a higher level of protection than regular motor oils. Conventional oils breakdown a lot faster than synthetics leaving build up on your engines. Synthetics oils are cleaner plus they provide better start up protection in cold weather climates!

From what I can tell most people on this board (including myself) prefer Mobil 1 for Synthetic Oils. I use the 5W30 however a lot members used 0W30 from Mobil 1.

Here's a link to the Mobil 1 website that will give you more information about Synthetic Oil!

http://www.mobil1.com/index.jsp

Also, I would also recommend using Synthetic products for ATF and power steering! You want to provide the highest level of protection you can for your Truck. It doesn't matter if you have 100 miles or 100,000 miles! Synthetic is the way to go....just my .02

 

Meneslis - welcome to the forum

Synthetics provide much better protection than regular oils - they resist oxidation better, handle heat better, lubricate better, and flow better at really low temps.

IMO, synthetic motor oil isn't worth it. Motor gets changed too often. It's not worth the premium you pay for it unless you run extended drain intervals (in that case, the cost evens out - you pay 2x as much for oil but run it 2x as long) Even then, though, the cost efficiency isn't all there - I run Valvoline Maxlife for 5,000 miles and my oil analysis shows that I could run it for 6,000 or 7,000 miles easily. The only reason I don't is that I like to count by 5's (easier to remember when to change the oil).

Some people are happier knowing that they've got the best oil for their car and that their engine is going to last forever. I don't buy it because unless I can preserve the rest of my car as well as the engine, it's not going to matter when rust sets in.

Another thing to consider - in older engines, synthetic has a tendency to leak a bit because synthetic is both very detergent and the molecules are designed to be very small (less friction, but they can slide out of even the smallest leak). I ran Mobil 1 for 2 oil changes, and I got tired of topping it off all the time (the syn just slides right past the rings and out the tailpipe).

I've got 80,000 miles on my engine and I've been using Valvoline Maxlife and I couldn't be happier. Stopped my leaks, starts right up when it's cold, and goes for 5,000 miles no problem. Can't ask for much else.

However, I am a huge advocate of using synthetics in extended drain applications (transfer case, transmission, differentials, power steering, etc.) and I do. I just don't use it in my engine oil because the dino does fine and I don't need the synthetic.

Hope this helps a bit.

XXL

 

thx guys for your quick responses, info helped out tremendously.

 

anybody know how many quarts i need for the transmission?

 

Here is what I call the definitive results for ordinary street use. Any oil will do and do well.

Here is a quote from an interiview by failure magazine with Consumer Reports staff about a $300,000 test of motor oils.

Failure Magazine: "What's the most expensive product you've ever covered?
Consumer Reports: Motor oil. To evaluate motor oil and we went down to New York City, commandeered 75 taxis, changed their engines, and put oil in religiously every 3,000-6,000 miles. Then we took the engines out of the taxis, looked at the engine parts to see how much wear there was on the pistons and how much carbon buildup there was and concluded that they all did fine for 60,000 miles. There was no sign of wear on any of them. So our advice was you can change your oil every 6,000 miles rather than 3,000. And we said you can buy the cheapest oil you can find. You don't have to worry about the $2-a-quart whiz-bang oil, because that's what we tested and it wasn't any different.

Now it's very simple to say in a paragraph, but when we did the test it was very scary because we entered into something that cost us well over $300,000. Suppose the experiment failed? I was very pleased about that motor oil project because it answered a burning question. All the ads about the best oil—you don't need to spend that money and you don't need to change it as often because our experience with these taxis demonstrated fairly conclusively that it's not necessary.

 

Frizzle, what tranny do you have?

 

? 98 EB 5.4

 

If it's the 4R100 (5.4L 4wd), it holds approx. 16 qts. I just drained my transmission and transfer case, then refilled it w/ 15 1/2 qts of Mobil 1 ATF.

 

You didn't say what kind of tranny you have but here is info on all combos direct from Ford manual:

Automatic transmission fluid
capacity-4R70W2
13.1L (13.9 quarts). Use
Motorcraft MERCONt V ATF.

Automatic transmission fluid
capacity-4R100 (4x2)2
15.0L (15.9 quarts). Use
Motorcraft MERCONt ATF.

Automatic transmission fluid
capacity-4R100 (4x4)2
15.5L (16.4 quarts). Use
Motorcraft MERCONt ATF.