I have a 1992 Mazda Famila 1.3L. Have had it many years and change the oild fairly regularly, usually with whatever is the cheapest 10W-30 on sale at Repco. Car has done 250,000kms. Would there be any issues with putting in Amsoil 0W-30 full synthetic oil in this car! it has not had syntehtic oil in it before. It is just that I have bought a lot of Amsoil in bulk for my other car, an Evo, and I would like to make use of it.
purple666,
Nov 3, 9:12am
1992 is old! Damn now you have made me feel really old.
a.woodrow,
Nov 3, 9:15am
Run oil that thin and you'll burn through it in short order
morrisman1,
Nov 3, 9:19am
oil wont go off, especially synthetic. Just save it for your good stuff worthy of it. Something like GTX modern engine or equivalent for your mazda will be far more suitable
trade4us2,
Nov 3, 9:21am
The oil I get from Repco is just fine for an old Mazda. 10 litres for $23 is cheap.
00quattro00,
Nov 3, 9:25am
There will be a very good chance of it leaking with synthetic oil
trdbzr,
Nov 3, 9:51am
+1 its likely it will leak and you will chew through a lot of oil.
Just chuck in something like GTX/Magnatec/Mobil 1000 etc. What ever is cheap. Amsoil would be overkill for it and a complete waste. It would be like using premium quality mineral water for flushing your toilet.
trade4us2,
Nov 3, 10:19am
Why is that! Do the seals shrink!
n1smo_gtir,
Nov 3, 11:24am
BAhaha, love it!
mrfxit,
Nov 3, 9:08pm
As above = very possible problems
Older engines with high kms tend to build up a certain amount of hard gunk called Varnish that compensates a little for general wear & tear. Synthetic oils "clean" engine parts over time thus often removing that ":protective" varnish.
Some older engines survive fine, some don't
In short . DON'T run synthetic or semi synthetic oils in an engine older then 10 years.
you will be better off by running a std 20/40 mineral based oil or even a 20/50 mineral oil & simply keep up with the std oil change times. What I do with my vehicles at those sort of kms is to do oil AND filter each time, only partly depending on usage type.
unbeatabull,
Nov 3, 10:28pm
I'd be more concerned about the weight of the oil tbh. 0w30 would be too thin and leak past the seals, not to mention make it a bit rattly on startup.
bellky,
Nov 3, 11:31pm
Yep^, you want at least 15w 40 and mineral in there :)
esprit,
Nov 4, 12:44am
Nothing wrong at all with using a synthetic, so long as it's the right viscosity. typically though many off-the-shelf synthetics (and indeed modern mineral oils) are thinner than most older engines like.
A good synthetic in even the oldest engines is a good thing, so long as the viscosity range is right.
rsr72,
Nov 4, 1:02am
#13-- Completely agree.
charlie4561,
Nov 4, 1:41am
OK thanks. I have been reading that the problem older cars leaking when putting in synthetic is no longer a problem with modern synthetics. Anyway, I guess I won't risk it and will just use some cheap mineral oil.
les6,
Nov 4, 1:59am
we have an `old` 92 i.8 primera and its had mobilsemi synthetic all its life,done 245000 now and does not leak or burn a drop!
mrfxit,
Nov 4, 2:01am
LOL, yea whatever you synthetic promoters say . aye
Seena few older type high km engines fail directly after 1st starting to use synthetic oils. Smoking/ knocking/ leaking (take your pick of 1 or all 3)
Never seen any new faults show up after an oil change on the same km engines when done with a mineral oil
mrfxit,
Nov 4, 2:02am
Thats because it's ALWAYS had it from new. Talking here about engines that have been on mineral oils for 200,000 + kms THEN switch to synthetic.
mrfxit,
Nov 4, 2:06am
Easy, just do oil AND filter at each change, that way you can use cheapor cheap-ish mineral oils & cheaper oil filters to compensate fort eh price difference .
Anyway, a good mineral oil & filter would probably still be cheaper then just the 1bottle of the cheapest synthetic, (even semi synthetic)
unbeatabull,
Nov 4, 3:41am
If it's the engine I believe it is they should still be getting 10w30 in them.
If its Carburettor it should be 15w40, injected 10w30.
elect70,
Nov 4, 5:03am
Aowner offleet of xffairmontsstretch limos wasconned into putting mobil 1 into allthe cars , all started usingcopious amonts of oilsoreplaced i all back tonormalmultigrade.
lolzor123,
Nov 4, 6:37am
OP - I've got a 91 Familia (EFI) with 215XXXkms on it - from experience Castrol GTX 15w-40 is good (and cheap.)- apart from 5.30am cold starts in the depth of Dunedin winter - when it takes a bit long to get the oil moving (oil light always stays on slightly longer when you start it). So mostly use 10w-40 Magnetic now as it never seems to have this problem. As above, others have warned me off going to 0w-XX as I doubt it had that in its early life.
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