Auto Talk 101: Synthetic Vs. Regular Oil

Auto Talk 101: Synthetic Vs. Regular Oil - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Synthetic Vs. Regular Oil Well, the first question is the kind of car that you drive and what the manufacturer recommends. If the manufacturer recommends synthetic oil, then you should run synthetic oil. If the manufacturer recommends regular petroleum based oil, you should run regular petroleum based oil. Synthetic oil is quite a bit more expensive. Uh, the most important thing with any kind of oil is regular oil changes. And what happens a lot of times, people think, "if I convert to synthetic oil, I can stretch my oil change intervals out." And, that's not really true. Even with synthetic oil, you still want to change your oil regularly, but, it will cost you more to do it. So, I personally don't believe there's a big advantage to switching over to synthetic. If that is what your car comes with, original, and, that's what the manufacturer recommends, you should definitely stick with it. But, the most important thing about oil, whatever kind, is that you have enough of it that it's full. And, that it is the proper viscosity. When we talk about oil we talk about, for example 5W-30, that is the weight of the oil or the viscosity of the oil. It's very important to have the correct amount... , the correct viscosity... , and, that it's clean. Change your oil regularly, whatever kind of oil it is.