Re: synthetic oil
Bill,
I agree with all your points and your wonder at the various reports from the manufacturers. I don't have a lab in my garage to validate the claims -vs- results but awhile back there was a rather good video example of how good synth motor oil is -vs- the dino-juice. The video was put out by Mobil and while I don't recall all of the specifics it went something along this line...
- Take 100 Las Vegas, NV taxi cabs...
- Put dino-juice in 50...put regular Mobil-1 in 50
- Run them some number of miles that the operating company can justify for their routine service interval
- Disassemble the engines of 5 random cars from each set of tests
- Examine the results...
MAN was there a clear and obvious difference!
I agree that most residential drivers will NEVER push their cars to the limits that either a race or professional driver will...so it's basically "insurance" against oil related failures.
As far as the synth trans fluid is concerned...my service writer at the dealer indicated to me that the current WS fluid that they are using is a synth blend. Combine that with the sealed system and advanced wear sensors that they are using and the life goes WAY up on the usable life of the fluid.
My 07 Camry is not too far away from the 50K mark and I was planning on changing the fluid anyway (keep in mind that the trans was changed at 12K so it's more of a math kind of thing than actual mileage on the car). Now I'll certainly look into the WS synth fluid as a repalcement...it really is a PITA to change / check the fluid level.
BYW...just back from a 500+ mile weekend trip...
- 80% highway
- average speed well in excess of posted legal limits (can I say again that I love the 3.5L V6?)
- fair amount of hill-climbing (one goes from 150' to 4144')
- AC on almost all the time
- average mileage: 27+ MPG
OK...back to work for me...
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