SC430fun

Got my Weapon R intake on last week, my exhaust done yesterday, and now today some fresh oil!

Which oil should I be using? It will be my first oil change on my SC. I wanted to do synthetic 5w30, probably Mobil, but I dont know whats currently in my car. I want to change the oil today, which route should I go?

My car is a salvage title and was in an accident and had a bit of a weird history with a long story, but over the past few months I have been through the car and found the damage was nowhere near as bad as the dealer thought, and the frame was not touched. I had the car up on a rack again yesterday at the exhaust shop, and looked it over very well, and just the bottom of the subframe got scratched up, and the oil pan has a tiny dent and some scratches. The remaining of the bottom of the car looks great. I got such an incredible deal on this car!!

I found my timing belt was changed, after locating the Mitsuboshi sticker, stating it was changed at 96k miles, and I now have 121k - I have put almost 6k miles on it since I bought in July. I dont know if the previous owner did a timing kit, or just the belt. Is there a way to check without pulling the front end of the engine off?

The car was serviced at Lexus almost its entire life, and on the history, the accident was recorded. The owner got into an accident and did not have insurance, and tried to have it fixed under warranty.. lol.. That is when it was fixed with wrecking yard parts, which got it the rebuilt title which is actually better than salvage because it was inspected by the state to get that status.

The tires, brakes, fluids were all new when I bought it. The shocks are shot to **** though, and need to be done along with ball joints and bushings, but it still holds alignment.

iolmaster

iTrader: (1)

If it was serviced at Lexus it definitely has conventional oil in it.

Coleroad

All the oil changes I had done at Lexus dealer I had synthetic oil put in. It even states it when I pull the service history. Most of my oil changes have been diy though.

SC430fun

When I checked, the Lexus dealer by default is using synthetic in the car, unless the owner states otherwise. The oil changes later in the cars life was done at smaller shops including EZ lube, or Valvoline.

If I have regular oil in my car, would it be a big deal to move to synthetic? I figured that as long as I dont move back and forth I should be good. I know its actually more important to keep the oil clean than anything else, but still wanted to do the right thing for this car.

Coleroad

No it's not a problem to use synthetic in a engine that has been using conventional oil. The talk about the seals shrinking is not true unless you want yo talk about synthetic oil in the 70's and early 80's. . I'm sure there will be some you will state otherwise. The fact is this isn't true with modern synthetic oils.

iolmaster

iTrader: (1)

All I can say is Flow Lexus in both Greensboro and Winston Salem NC refused synthetic. they said they will only put in what came in the car from Lexus. This was about 2 years ago. Things may have changed.

Bgw70

I had a 1995 Accord that I drove to 217k miles and throughout its life I switched from conventional to synthetic and back to conventional several times. When I sold The car, it had no issues and no leaks.

It's your call on what you want to use...

lugnuts

Have used synthetic oil in all our vehicles for over 30 years now - no engine problems. Case in point, synthetic oils are used exclusively in all jet engines. Fossil based oils will not tolerate the high temperatures of jet engines. Synthetics provide a high degree of cleaning the inside of your engine - minimizing the wear and tear due to friction in the engine.

SC43052

You are correct that all jet engines use synthetic oil for heat, but jet engine synthetic base stocks are ester derived, not hydrocarbon base stocks like automotive engine synthetics, and thus withstand far higher temperatures than automotive synthetics could.

Nonetheless synthetic automotive oil does withstand heat a little better than conventional motor oil, and because synthetic base stock does not contain parrafin wax and other impurities that dino oil does there is less tendency for synthetic oil to leave deposits when subjected to very high heat.

Synthetic base stocks are no better at cleaning an engine that dino oil as both have similar detergent additives. And if changed while the additives are still present either oil can do a good job protecting the engine.

But by far the biggest advantage to synthetic is cold temperature flow (due to the synthetic base stock viscosity index). It is estimated that 50-70% of all wear is on startup. The low temperature flow of synthetic is outstanding compared to dino oil. Some Group III heavily hydroprocessed oils with good additive packages are coming close to synthetics, but most additives are sacrificial and wear out over a number of hours of engine operation (which is why it is important to change your oil while the additives are still present doing their job).

I too have used synthetics exclusively for 30 years plus in my vehicles without a hint of engine problems.

kjcole

I've been using synthetics for 30 years also, mostly for low-temp flow at startup on those cold midwestern mornings.

Bgw70

I agree with all of you and I am sure we can all agree that the number one preventative maintenance option is changing the oil at regular intervals.

Remember that Accord I mentioned in my earlier post with 217k miles?
About 180k miles I had the timing belt replaced a second time and the mechanic came out when I picked up my car to tell me my engine was cleanest he had ever seen with that many miles and asked me about my maintenance routine. I told him I changed the oil every 3-4K miles...and I used both oil types over the years.

Another note about this car, it had solid lifters which means I had to adjust the valves...I would check them but never had to adjust them because there was hardly any wear on this engine...

You guys sound much smarter than me about oil technology, but like you, I have personal experience to back up what I am saying.

GmanSC

When I sold my 91 LS400 in 2011, it had over 300k miles, still running good on original engine and transmission. I changed oils every 3k and used Prolong every 60k for engine and transmission. It really worked.

sixonemale

Completely agree that the biggest advantage in using synthetic oils is when starting the engine up in cold weather. I lived in both cold and warm climates and the engine seems to start much easier in better with synthetic oil which I have used now for over 20 years without a hint of engine problems.