So your shop mechanic wants $25 EXTRA for a Synthetic oil change ? Should you ? Find out if you really need synthetic oil or not.

Synthetic oil has been around for a while. Its always been there for use in race cars. It has now slowly trickled its way into the "consumer" market. At a much higher price than regular oil. The benefits of synthetic are unquestionable but do they apply to you ?

Benefits of Synthetic oil:-

Two areas where synthetic oil beats regular oil big time is

1. the capacity to withstand heat and
2. the ability to flow freely at extremely low temperatures.

Besides this some synthetic oils have a better friction characteristics than regular oils.

Inside your engine, oil's greatest enemy is heat. Heat breaks down the oil and some point it looses its lubricating property and that is why you need an oil change. Synthetic oil can take a lot of heat, for a much longer time and still provide protection for your engine.

Because of this nature of synthetic oil it will also protect your engine against harsh driving conditions. If your engine sees a lot of high revs(rpms) or WOT (wide open throttle) runs then you definitely need synthetic oil!

Secondly, those first few seconds when you start the car are extremely important for the wear and tear of your engine. In extreme low temperatures, oil can freeze. Without oil the engine can get ruined right away. Its called damage due to oil starvation. Synthetic oil does not freeze and keep flowing even in very low temperatures and hence provide more protection to your engine.

So if you live an area with temperature extremes i.e. high heat or below freezing, or your driving conditions are "unique" (for the lack of a better word), then yes your engine will definitely benefit from the use of synthetic oil.

Synthetic oil also provides longer change intervals. "3000 miles" is old school now even with regular oil.

So if you want to save yourself the hassle of changing oil every 2-3 months - especially for people who put a lot of miles on their car pretty quickly - then you going with synthetic could save you that trouble too. You could extend your oil change so that it ties in with another "scheduled  maintenance" of your car and just change the oil then. That way you save yourself a trip (or two) to the shop just for an oil change. 

Lets also bust a couple of myths while we are at it. Two biggest myths surrounding the use of synthetic oil are -

1. you can't switch between regular and synthetic oil.

2. if your car has more than "xx thousand" miles you cant use synthetic or the engine seals will leak!

Bull...never mind. I mean if you get this from a shop or a mechanic its time to change them before they can lay their hands on your car.

Lastly, regular oil these days has improved a LOT since you left school. The performance margin between some good regular oils and cheap synthetic oil (typically "blends") is definitely very less. You could get decent performance and life out of regular oil too. So if you pick carefully you could get away with a smart move!