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Synthetic Oil

The 10k oil synthetic oil changes wouldn't have caused that engine to lock up unless someone forgot to replace the oil plug. Something else failed for the engine to die that prematurely.

I ran into a guy years ago who had a Nissan Sentra with 450,000 miles on the odometer. It ran like a top and didn't smoke at all. I remarked that he must keep his oil changed very regularly. His reply? "I used to change it every 5,000 miles. At 175,000 miles, I realized I could replace the engine with a junkyard motor for less than I was spending on oil changes. So since then, it's been changed every 15,000 miles with conventional oil. Of course, I'm on my 4th junkyard transmission...". It was an eye-opening discussion.

One thing's for sure, changing your oil every 3k won't hurt anything other than your wallet....


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His engine locked up because the dirty oil caused scarring and the oil journals were clogged enough to cause insufficient oil flow. Doesn't take much grit / dirt in the tighter tolerances in newer modern engines. The dealership and the rep from G M are the ones who diagnosed it. Dealership did every oil change from day one. $30.00 every 3 or 4 months doesn't hurt my wallet too much. Like I said. The peace of mind makes it more than worth it. I do all my own maintenance and repairs and I enjoy doing it.
 
Thanks for all the input, stories and suggestions.....
I think I'm gonna stick with every 5000 miles and since I change my own oil I could stretch it out to 7500 miles if I had to.
Thanks again !

One of our vans has 340,000 miles, one has 310,000 and the last has around 175,000 miles. All three get 10,000 mile changes with Mobil1. My new truck will be getting 7,500 mile changes with full synthetic.
 
His engine locked up because the dirty oil caused scarring and the oil journals were clogged enough to cause insufficient oil flow. Doesn't take much grit / dirt in the tighter tolerances in newer modern engines. The dealership and the rep from G M are the ones who diagnosed it. Dealership did every oil change from day one. $30.00 every 3 or 4 months doesn't hurt my wallet too much. Like I said. The peace of mind makes it more than worth it. I do all my own maintenance and repairs and I enjoy doing it.
Dealership oil change means nothing. Putting wrong oil in an engine is not unusual (my dealership put 10-40 in my truck, when I asked them for 5-40 HDEO, like Rotella T6).
Filtered oil does not carry enough particulates to "scar" the engine". If anything, it sounds like either
A. oil bypass on the engine failed (was it a motor with a cartridge canless design, by any chance? ) and oil was not filtered at all. Cannot blame oil for that.
B. More likely your friend ran too low on oil. Apparently exessive oil consumption is a known problem with 2010 Silverados. I can see where one is tempted not to check oil if it is a newer vehicle and synthetic oil is used.
http://www.carcomplaints.com/Chevrolet/Silverado/2010/engine/excessive_oil_consumption.shtml
 
Dealership oil change means nothing. Putting wrong oil in an engine is not unusual (my dealership put 10-40 in my truck, when I asked them for 5-40 HDEO, like Rotella T6).
Filtered oil does not carry enough particulates to "scar" the engine". If anything, it sounds like either
A. oil bypass on the engine failed (was it a motor with a cartridge canless design, by any chance? ) and oil was not filtered at all. Cannot blame oil for that.
B. More likely your friend ran too low on oil. Apparently exessive oil consumption is a known problem with 2010 Silverados. I can see where one is tempted not to check oil if it is a newer vehicle and synthetic oil is used.
http://www.carcomplaints.com/Chevrolet/Silverado/2010/engine/excessive_oil_consumption.shtml

I can see where that could very well be what actually happened and of course the dealership and G M would not actually admit they had a known problem.
 
The Europeans have been using extended oil drain intervals for years. Most synthetic oils increase your drain intervals due to reducing the friction of the components in the engine. I have been using AMSOIL in my vehicles for years and have had excellent results. My present truck is changed every 15,000 miles due to being classed as severe service due to the turbos. The main benefit of using synthetics is an increase in fuel mileage.
 
December clearance is the only time I buy oil in AZ. I have 20 qrts of Mobil1 0-30 AFE that I paid $2 a quart. Great sythetic oil, with a very robust addative package.
 
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