My wife and I bought a 2008 Accord EX-L V6. It had appx 24k miles. Just changed the oil for the second time since we've owned it. Wanting to get some opinions about synthetic's. I'm very good about changing the oil every 3-4k miles along w/ the filter. I've used pensoil 10w-30 in my Tacoma w/ Fram oil filter all the way up to 277k miles and running strong. Just found out Fram sucks, changed brands. Now for my wife's accord, I plan on using Purolaror filters along w/ regular 5W-20. Question is would it be worth the extra for sythetic? Being that I change it frequently, I've convienced myself that regular is just as good as synthetic? Am I crazy? Thanks for any help!

 

I personally prefer synthetic over conventional oil. I have a '98 Accord and have been using synthetic basically from the beginning and it's going strong. I don't change the synthetic as often as the regular oil. So instead of changing it every like 3-4k miles for regular oil, go with the synthetic and change it less often, like at 6k mile interval or something.

If you plan on switching over to synthetic, make sure you stick with it and not go back and forth between synthetic and regular oil.

I use Mobil 1 fully synthetic oil with a Mobil 1 oil filter. I used to use the "regular" 5w-20 Mobil 1 full synthetic and change it every 6k miles, but now I have switched over to the Mobile 1 Extended Performance along with Mobil 1 oil filter and change it every 9 months or so (under normal driving conditions).

Just do some research and you can draw your own conclusions as to what you think is best for you and your car. You will get many opinions.

 

I say do it ONLY if you seriously plan on keeping the car for long enough to actually see the benefit, which would probably mean keeping it well over a hundred thousand miles maybe even two hundred thousand.

 

What did you learn that made you change your mind about Fram filters? (I have been using them "forever.")

 

There have been reports of the filter membrane breaking apart, resulting in little pieces of filter floating around the engine, not to mention the filter doesn't work very well at that point. It may have very well been a QC issue with a few batches of filters though. I don't use them much anymore but I used to use them all the time and I never had a problem.

With synthetic, yes, there are a ton of opinions. I've always just used dino personally. In general it seems synthetic will decrease wear over the life of the engine, but most modern engines last well over 200K if taken care of with just the standard maintainance/oil/etc. Since I usually get rid of my cars before then, I haven't been able to justify the use of synthetic. If it got me significanly better mileage or performance I might be able to, but both mileage and performance is only marginally increased if at all, and prolonging the life of the engine for the next person that buys my old car isn't a good enough reason. If you're planning on running your cars into the ground I'd say go for it. But even then, you're likely to face expendatures past 200K such as tranny issues, timing belts, brakes, etc. that will make repairs non-cost efficient (more expensive than the car is worth) long before the engine goes out due to using dino oil over synthetic. That's more of a practical financial view of it. Just my 2 cents.