ARTICLE: Synthetic oil vs Mineral oil

[Akshay1234]

hey guys. the guy from my dads company who normally handles our cars services told us about this engine oil by schaeffers or something. its an american brand. he claims itll last 25000 kms. i think its bs and i wouldnt want to keep it longer than 10000kms in indian conditions. what do you think? its for the innova btw. its synthetic.

[akshay4587]

Originally Posted by pulsarmaniac

do you guys think one should go for these costly synthetic oils or the regular castrol shell or gulf oils for indian bikes.do you need synthetica oil for our pulsars and zmas which mostly run in reserved oil in the tank.doesnt look like an idea which will influence the masses

Motul 300V and OWS are two widely used synthetic oils in indian mobikes.

Havent used OWS,but can vouch for Motul 300V 15W50 since I am using it since 35K kms now.
Bike runs like a charm,engine is very smooth even after 57K kms.

Does not require decarb becuase of esters in the Motul.

PS:Motul in pulsars is a big no no,as it causes oil leakages.

[gpa]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

Hi GPA
Sorry that I was away for a few days and didn't see your questions. Mobil 1 is available only in 5w50 in India. 5w50 is a kind of all encompassing grade and sort of one size fits all approach by Mobil. It is way superior to 20w40 in terms of ability to retain its viscosity at high and low temperatures.

Thanks a lot for your inputs Sudipto!!

I am definitely going to shift to Mobil 1 at my Alto's 10,000 kms oil change interval.

I have a Santro Xing XG (Feb 2005) model that has covered about 47,700 kms as of date and is nearing a full service and oil change. I plan to go in for Mobil 1 for my Santro as well. Would this change to Mobil 1 5W 50 work for the Santro?

Also, will the engine have to go thru a process called "engine flushing" after the old mineral oil is drained out and before the synthetic oil is added to both the Santro & Alto??

I have heard of this term, but am not sure on what this process comprises of and if it is mandatory to do the engine flush prior to switching to the synthetic oil.

Would greatly appreciate if you gave me your inputs on this.

Thanks,

gpa

[akshay4587]

If a vehicle is running on fully synthetic oil,what would be the negative effects if one switches back to mineral oil?

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Go for a higher spec oil for example Castrol GTX diesel API-CI4, much higher grade than the API-CF4 required by indica, and change every 6K kms or so, your engine will last 1.5L kms easily.

Thanks tsk, I read at some point you were planning to try out mobil Delvac MX. How did that go?

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Hi GPA
Engine flush means cleaning the engine (with an additive). It should be done at regular intervals by your service guys. I am sure they do it without your knowing about it. Just ask them when they did it last.
I didn't do it while changing over from mineral to synthetic because A. they had done it about 5000 km before. B. Mobil website says it's not absolutely necessary (meaning, it's fine if you do and fine if you don't).

Just ensure two things A. Drain out the existing oil when the engine is hot or warm (the engine will be automatically warm if you drive to your workshop for the oil change) B. ensure that the existing oil is drained out completely to the last drop.

This is basically to ensure that there is minimal mixing of mineral oil with synthetic oil inside your engine.

By the way, both your Alto and Santro would benefit from synthetic oil.

Lastly, I am not an oil guru. I have just changed from mineral to synthetic at 40k recently and I cannot scientifically prove one is better than the other. And also day before yesterday I changed over to synthetic brake oil.
All the best

[Raccoon]

Originally Posted by gpa

Thanks a lot for your inputs Sudipto!!

I am definitely going to shift to Mobil 1 at my Alto's 10,000 kms oil change interval.

I have a Santro Xing XG (Feb 2005) model that has covered about 47,700 kms as of date and is nearing a full service and oil change. I plan to go in for Mobil 1 for my Santro as well. Would this change to Mobil 1 5W 50 work for the Santro?

Also, will the engine have to go thru a process called "engine flushing" after the old mineral oil is drained out and before the synthetic oil is added to both the Santro & Alto??

I have heard of this term, but am not sure on what this process comprises of and if it is mandatory to do the engine flush prior to switching to the synthetic oil.

Would greatly appreciate if you gave me your inputs on this.

Thanks,

gpa

There is no reliable literature that says that using a 'flush' is mandatory before switching to synthetic oil. In my opionion, I dont trust these flushes. Suggest you avoid them. If you really want to use them, then they are likely only useful when you have a lot of sludge and gunk in your engine. If you have followed oil + filter change schedules and have not driven the car only at low speeds/RPMs and have used a good oil, you shouldnt have a lot of gunk anyway. Whats more, the synth oil should anyway clean your engine up as you use it... its supposed to do it much better than mineral oil.

And for a car thats done just 10,000 km, I dont see any reason to even think about flushing.

I dont think service centres carry out engine flushing jobs as a routine! Not sure if A.S.Ss even recommend it.

Switching back to mineral after synth shouldnt be catastrophic. You'll just not get the benifits of a synth oil. That said, I dont think is a good idea to keep changing oils... you never know what wierd cocktail you are going to have inside your engine!

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

I dont think service centres carry out engine flushing jobs as a routine! Not sure if A.S.Ss even recommend it.

Racoon is right. I had made a mistake in my post and said they flush your engine as a routine process when I actually meant decarbonisation (which they do after 20k km or so - it's mentioned in the book that came with the car).
Sorry about creating the confusion.
Racoon is also absolutely corrrect that at 10,000 km you shouldn't bother about cleaning your engine. Just drain all the old oil out and pour in the new oil. Ensure that they don't overfill. Don't drive right away. Keep it in idle for some time and then go ......

[aka_iitd]

I was searching for Mobil 1 5w50 for my Getz petrol. One of the shop owner recommended to use Castrol Magnetec 10W40
Is this advisable help

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

Thanks tsk, I read at some point you were planning to try out mobil Delvac MX. How did that go?

Castrol GTX diesel is doing fine till now, plan to stick with it as the Delvac MX is not easily available

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Originally Posted by aka_iitd

I was searching for Mobil 1 5w50 for my Getz petrol. One of the shop owner recommended to use Castrol Magnetec 10W40
Is this advisable help

Castrol Magnatec is not a fully synthetic oil as Mobil 1 is. But I suppose it's a good oil in its own category.
Since Mobil 1 is frightfully expensive (it's entirely imported) it's very difficult to find it with ordinary retailers. Most people source Mobil 1 directly from the distributor. Best of luck with finding him in your city

[aka_iitd]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

Castrol Magnatec is not a fully synthetic oil as Mobil 1 is. But I suppose it's a good oil in its own category.
Since Mobil 1 is frightfully expensive (it's entirely imported) it's very difficult to find it with ordinary retailers. Most people source Mobil 1 directly from the distributor. Best of luck with finding him in your city

Thanks Sudip. Is it OK to go ahead with Castrol Magnatec for Getz Petrol.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Originally Posted by aka_iitd

I was searching for Mobil 1 5w50 for my Getz petrol. One of the shop owner recommended to use Castrol Magnetec 10W40
Is this advisable help

I have been using Mobil1 5w50 on my Alto 1.1 and its really smooth i felt,however not sure about Castrol Magnatec and as Sudipto pointed put you can go ahead and try.

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Since you have a Santro and an Alto you are in an ideal position to experiment with both - Magnatec in one and Mobil 1 in the other and then give us a comparative analysis.

[pmbabu]

Thought will update you guys. I took my NHC for regular service today (at Bangalore) and I was told the oil change would cost 2K - to my puzzled look, the service advisor told me that Honda authorized service centers have been asked to use Honda's in-house synthetic oil from all cars (mine is NHC-iDSI) and also showed me the pamphlet/advt. that said their synthetic oil can be used on all their cars equipped w/ i-VTEC, VTEC and i-DSI engines.

OT: Honda seems to have effected a hike in almost all types of labour charges.