My buddy told me I was wasting money on synthetic oil for my old truck

He said conventional oil changed every 3,000 miles is better for high-mileage engines than expensive synthetic that sits in there for 5,000. I switched to conventional last oil change and now I'm hearing more engine noise at startup - has anyone else gone back to conventional and noticed a difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

elizabethhart14d ago

Have you checked what weight oil you're running now versus what you had before? In my experience, that startup noise after switching back is usually because conventional oil is thinner when it's cold, or the old engine might be used to the better film strength of synthetic. I've seen plenty of high mileage trucks that run quieter on synthetic because it doesn't break down as fast and leaves less sludge. Your buddy means well but every engine is different, especially after 100k miles. I'd say go back to synthetic for one change and see if the noise stops, your engine will tell you what it likes.

faith_torres8314d ago

Wait, did you check if the oil filter is the right one for your truck? I had a buddy years ago who switched back to conventional and his engine started knocking like crazy. Turned out the filter he grabbed was for a different model and it was starving the engine for oil on startup. He spent weeks blaming the oil before someone finally looked at the filter. Just saying, sometimes the simplest thing gets overlooked when we're all focused on the fancy oil debate.

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