Few questions about oil...

I bought my car with 92k miles on it, previous owner said he always ran Mobile 1 Synthetic. Well now the car has 103k on it and I've taken it to about 3 different shops (all used different oil). I'm gonna start changing it myself and use Mobil 1 Synthetic, but is that a bad thing to switch? I read somewhere that going from conventiol to synthetic is bad, but I only used conventional three or four times since I've bought the car. What oil should I go with?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by VeeTech Lude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Few questions about oil...

I bought my car with 92k miles on it, previous owner said he always ran Mobile 1 Synthetic. Well now the car has 103k on it and I've taken it to about 3 different shops (all used different oil). I'm gonna start changing it myself and use Mobil 1 Synthetic, but is that a bad thing to switch? I read somewhere that going from conventiol to synthetic is bad, but I only used conventional three or four times since I've bought the car. What oil should I go with?</TD></TR></TABLE>

total myth, doesnt matter if you switch back and forth every 5 miles 800 times in a row, be a total waste of money, but you can switch back and forth as you please, if you drive your car pretty conservatively, a higher quality dino oil would be just fine, if you like to push it or drive it in harsh conditions often (stop and go traffic, mountain driving, etc.) then a synthetic may be better, more important than the oil though is using a good filter

switching back to synthetic you could notice 2 things, 1) you may burn more oil as synthetic is thinner, just make sure you check it at least once a week and top off as necessary, 2) if you notice a leak, its not because of the oil, since synthetic is thinner, it will expose areas where the gaskets are starting to fail, the synthetic however is not the reason the gaskets are failing...

 

I could be very wrong, but isn't ok to switch from conventional oil to synthetic but NOT ok to go from synthetic to conventional??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BB6Driver &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I could be very wrong, but isn't ok to switch from conventional oil to synthetic but NOT ok to go from synthetic to conventional??</TD></TR></TABLE>

your incorrect , ive done both multiple times hehe

 

^the reason why the "rumor" has been around is conventional oil will "seal" up small leaks in your engine. (take this sentence very vaguely)

now if you have been driving around for 60k miles or whatever, you might have some "sealed" up "leaks"

now when you change to synthetic, this oil will break down all those "seals" and thats why ppl say this is bad. because now you supposedly have "leaks" inside your engine.

none of this has every really been proven though, just a "wifes tale"

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by petern101 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">^the reason why the "rumor" has been around is conventional oil will "seal" up small leaks in your engine. (take this sentence very vaguely)

now if you have been driving around for 60k miles or whatever, you might have some "sealed" up "leaks"

now when you change to synthetic, this oil will break down all those "seals" and thats why ppl say this is bad. because now you supposedly have "leaks" inside your engine.</TD></TR></TABLE>

this is how i look at it but nothing is proven

 

According to Quaker State, there is no evidence to support the theory that it is harmful to switch back and forth between conventional and synthetic motor oils, nor is there any evidence to suggest that it is harmful to use fully-synthetic oil during an engine's break-in period.