To synthetic or not synthetic

[kahequ]

Hi all,

 

I have heard mixed reviews in regards to swapping out OEM liquids in Subaru models to synthetic (engine oil, gear oil and transmission fluid). Some dealership encourage the switch to synthetic and some would discouarge it, saying that OEM liquids are far better protectin than any synthetic fluids. Who do I believe?

 

Any professional wisdom is greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

Kahequ

[idosubaru]

i'm not a professional.....

this really becomes an anecdotal debate, it's good to ask yourself this questions first: do you have a particular reason for wanting to use synthetic? unless you really want to, there's not much need for it, because even though synthetics are very good, conventional oil has proven quite capable of doing it's job as well. just make sure you change it when you're supposed to.

 

that being said i would change the diff and trans fluids to synthetics as they can improve the feel of the shifting in some vehicles. that's the feedback i've gotten, never noticed it personally. that could be due to the fact that the fluid just needed to be changed with anything...changing it with mountain dew might have been better than whatever old junk was in there, i don't know but synthetic gear/trans oil has gotten some good feedback it seems to me.

 

my best friend does nothing himself and just doesn't pay attention to anything so i told him to switch to synthetics in his toyota 4 runner thinking he'd never change his oil regularly. i now consider that a good decision, he's at 190,000 miles or so and the thing runs like it did when he first got it, doesn't leak or use a drop of oil and has only needed the power steering pump replaced in all that time. lucky @^&$*(*&~!!!.

 

if you don't plan on keeping the car for a very long time like 150,000-200,000 miles then i wouldn't switch. but if you don't like to change your oil often you can benefit from the less frequent change intervals of synthetics. if you're a purest and like the thought of using the perfect fluid then use sythetics. but conventional oil is very good stuff as well and won't let you down. if you plan on racing or towing or being otherwise more aggressive than average for your car then synthetics might not be a bad idea either.

[86subaru]

here is my opinion , i run amsoil in my 88 5sp d/r wagon 189,000mi , 5-10 lbs more oil pressure , + have only added 1 qt at 5,000mi , i am going to change the filter at 6,000mi and change the oil at 12,000mi , i am thinking about using royale purple in my 88 TURBO a/t full time 4wd wagon , you can go longer between oil changes