I swore by synthetic oil until my neighbor's old truck proved me wrong

I always went for full synthetic at $40 a pop, every 5,000 miles like clockwork. Last month my neighbor Dave brought over his 1992 F-150 with 220,000 miles on conventional oil, never once used synthetic. That engine purred like a kitten and he showed me the oil change receipts going back 10 years, $15 a jug from Walmart. I thought I was saving my engine but maybe I was just wasting money all along. I decided to switch my old beater Corolla to conventional for the next change and see what happens. Anyone else made the switch from synthetic back to regular and noticed a difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

emmajackson18d ago

My neighbor's old Civic with 180k on basic dino oil still starts every winter without fail, so I feel you. I switched my daily driver to conventional after two years of full synthetic and honestly noticed zero difference in mileage or how it ran. Maybe on a high performance V8 or a turbo engine it matters, but for a commuter car? I'd say save the $25 per change and buy a nice dinner instead.

the_abby16d ago

Right, @emmajackson it's wild how marketing makes us think we NEED the expensive stuff for everything when half the time basic works fine. Reminds me of people buying premium gas for a car that doesn't need it or spending crazy money on name brand painkillers when the store brand has the exact same ingredients. It's all just a bigger pattern of convincing us to spend more for zero real benefit in our daily lives.

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