mofogasm

Is anyone planning to put Synthetic Oil in their IS250/IS350? I read somewhere that the car takes mineral oil??? Is putting synthetic oil into this car a good idea?

cooney

Yes, it is a good idea.

muzzman1

At 3k I have already done my 1st oil change at the dealer and I brought them Mobil 1 5/20....It is always a good idea to use synthetic (after break in period)

Dabigman

The car doesn't take mineral oil. Mineral oil is typically used in the lab by the engine manufacturer to get the best horsepower numbers but not in everyday use. Synthetic should be fine, I'll most likely use M1 5/30 as I'm Texas and it gets really hot.

Tony1

I think synthetic oil is a waste of money. No matter how good the oil is,
it still gets contaminated and should be changed at around 3-4k miles..
Why do you think the oil turns black after about 2k miles, wether
it's synthetic or regular oil..
I used to use mobile 1 in my cars in the late 80's and early 90's
since then i've read many reviews of synthetic oils and most
came to one conclusion... Synthetic oil is only worth putting in
your car if you live in a region where its constantly freezing, since
synthetic oil does flow better than regular oil. Other than that,
it's a waste of money if you ask me...

Penforhire

Opinions vary. "flows better?" I thought the viscosity number (e.g. 5-30 multiweight) is the actual indicator of flow?

I use sythetic oils in all my vehicles after the engine is broken in. The tricky part is knowing the engine is broken in (for a Nikasil cylinder lining this might be 10K miles!). Some vehicles, such as my Z06, come with Mobil 1 from the factory. I have no idea how they overcome traditional break-in issues that way but there's enough happy high-mileage owners to support that they do.

Nothing wrong with frequent oil changes but spectroscopic oil monitors should be making their way into passenger cars. These monitor oil breakdown and/or contaminants and tell you to change when you really need a change. The 'timer' systems in some cars counts the number of starts, distance travelled, and factors in RPM to get a calculated oil change duration, more efficient than blind changes based solely on distance but still not ideal.

Tony1

Yes, when regular oil and sythentic oil are both in extreme
cold, regular oil tends to get thicker while sythentic tends
to stay basically the same, hence its flows better, "at intial start up"
that is... I'm not sure if you can call it an opinion, it's just what most
experts seem to agree on, from what i've read over the years..

I once read this interesting test done using "NYC cab vehicles" over
a 2-3 year period& about 80k miles, where synthetic oil and regular oil were compared,
and they found that the sythentic oils didnt perform any better or worse
than regular oils,, i don't have the article anymore , this was 10+ years ago..

shaolin

iTrader: (2)

the first one or two oil change used regular non syn. after that better for syn.


one of the guy was saying that buying syn is waste of money?? maybe to you.

what kind of gas do you use?? 87 on your IS?? to you gas is gas right?? different grade of oil

and fuel means they are different.

why buy lexus when you can buy an accord, civic, corola??? it's just a car, right??

Tony1

We're talking about motor oil here, not gasoline or honda civic's...if
you have any points to make on how sythentic oil does not
get contamined after 3-4k miles, then please make them,
I'm all ears???

mofogasm

thanks for all the tips i am probably going to take my car in for the first service soon i am about to hit 4000k. After this free oil change i will definately switch to synthetic. Is there a process to switch or do i just need to drain the old oil and put in the synthetic. Do i need to flush the engine or anything

shaolin

iTrader: (2)

i did not say the syn oil doesn't get contamined after 3 to 4 k. in fact, the syn oil will look even darker compare to non syn.
You should break in your engine with conventional oil, then switch to a synthetic oil.
there are many good cars that come with standard syn oil like Viper, corvette, bentley, aston martin, Benz, Evo, porsches.. why do they use this oil?? it's made for better protection of the engine.
In general, fully synthetic motor oils contain non-conventional, high-performance fluids. Synthetic blends usually use some non-conventional, high-performance fluids in combination with conventional oil.
for me, i believe in break in my engine. a lot of people tell that engine now doesn't require break in. if my lexus require syn then i'll use syn for sure. if it doesn't then my firest oil change still non syn cuz i want my engine to break in. after that it's all about continuing protection the engine with better oil. if they sell 100 octane of fuel then i'll get 100. i race my s2k on track and i feel the different using good oil to protect my car. yes, if i never drive that aggressive i probably don't have to use syn, but it won't hurt if i do use it. better to do more oil change than not doing that much. at cosco it's only 24 bucks. almost half of one full tank of gas. why not use something better and not too much expensive??

i don't know if you understand what i'm trying to say.. sorry for the poor english..

honda doesn't use synthetic but i use it on my s2k. do you have to use it? no but it's better.

nois3504me

Hi,

well my suggestion is if you want to know more about your motor oil and then some... go here

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

Youll find there are 2 camps. pro synth and pro dino oil. i dont think it really matters which camp you belong to. main thing is you change your oil at the time required by manufacturer. Lots of really good info in that site though.

Tony1

If you want to use that logic , then i still win, because Toyota, honda and infiniti do not use
synthetic oils in their cars, and they are all consistently rated the #1 trouble free
engines in the world..

shaolin

iTrader: (2)

not trying to win or loose here... just expressing my thought and my experience.

YOU WIN