Recommended oil

[bonnie_99]

99 Bonneville, non-super charged, 110k miles. What kind of oil do you recommend? Is high mileage or synthetic a good idea or just stick with regular oil?

[SSEiMan01]

Do a search on here, this has been discussed many times before, to not too much of a conclusion. There are a lot of people who run Wal-Mart brand synthetic or conventional and have the same results as people who run Royal Purple. lol Oil filters make the difference, get a good quality one. HM depends on the condition of the motor in my opinion. IIRC that has come up in the past too.

[MattStrike]

Use what you prefer, change it when it's dirty, use a good filter, keep on driving

[murderedout]

Bob is oil guy google him

[Mad Myche]

No one has yet said "Don't use Fram Filters"

Anyways.... I really don't buy into the high-mileage stuff. All of my 305/350s and even the 20R in my celica used normal oil year round and were well into the 250 - 300 range when they were terminated from non-engine causes

[deano55]

I have driven our cars to 255k with walmart oil and filters, and they went to the junk yard rusty not broke or sold them with 200k. I'm not a die hard brand oil person because I have seen enough friends use cheaper brands and get great miles on their cars, but changing oil and filters when they or I should. Clean oil is a must. I wouldnt go recycled oil though myself.

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

I have driven our cars to 255k with walmart oil and filters, and they went to the junk yard rusty not broke or sold them with 200k. I'm not a die hard brand oil person because I have seen enough friends use cheaper brands and get great miles on their cars, but changing oil and filters when they or I should. Clean oil is a must. I wouldnt go recycled oil though myself.

Nothing wrong with "recycled" motor oil. It's more like re-refined motor oil. I've heard it's actually cleaner than other regular oils since it has to meet higher standards before it can get onto the shelf.

These engines really don't care about dino or synthetic. The only reason to go synthetic in these cars is to extend the change time out a bit longer. If you're putting on 2500 miles a month, changing at 7500-10k miles compared to 5000 miles saves a good chunk of time and money over a year. If you're putting on 500 miles a month, then changing at 5000 miles makes a ton of sense.

[nos4blood70]

Nothing wrong with "recycled" motor oil. It's more like re-refined motor oil. I've heard it's actually cleaner than other regular oils since it has to meet higher standards before it can get onto the shelf.

I've been running recycled motor oil for my last 4 or 5 oil changes. Penny doesn't complain whatsoever.

[deano55]

I have driven our cars to 255k with walmart oil and filters, and they went to the junk yard rusty not broke or sold them with 200k. I'm not a die hard brand oil person because I have seen enough friends use cheaper brands and get great miles on their cars, but changing oil and filters when they or I should. Clean oil is a must. I wouldnt go recycled oil though myself.

Nothing wrong with "recycled" motor oil. It's more like re-refined motor oil. I've heard it's actually cleaner than other regular oils since it has to meet higher standards before it can get onto the shelf.

These engines really don't care about dino or synthetic. The only reason to go synthetic in these cars is to extend the change time out a bit longer. If you're putting on 2500 miles a month, changing at 7500-10k miles compared to 5000 miles saves a good chunk of time and money over a year. If you're putting on 500 miles a month, then changing at 5000 miles makes a ton of sense.

dont see why it would have higher standards to get on the shelf, maybe a explaination?

[1oldman]

Agreed on everything posted:
1) don't use Fram filters: NAPA Gold, Wix, PureOne, AC Delco and many others a fine. Change the filter when you change the oil.
2) Oil, follow the owner's manual. I prefer to use Walmart Synthetic. As long as it's GF5, it'll work great, even conventional oil, as long as it's GF5.

We have almost 285K miles on our '92 and having the valves ground is the only thing done to the engine. It actually runs better after the valves were ground than when it was new.

- BC

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

I have driven our cars to 255k with walmart oil and filters, and they went to the junk yard rusty not broke or sold them with 200k. I'm not a die hard brand oil person because I have seen enough friends use cheaper brands and get great miles on their cars, but changing oil and filters when they or I should. Clean oil is a must. I wouldnt go recycled oil though myself.

Nothing wrong with "recycled" motor oil. It's more like re-refined motor oil. I've heard it's actually cleaner than other regular oils since it has to meet higher standards before it can get onto the shelf.

These engines really don't care about dino or synthetic. The only reason to go synthetic in these cars is to extend the change time out a bit longer. If you're putting on 2500 miles a month, changing at 7500-10k miles compared to 5000 miles saves a good chunk of time and money over a year. If you're putting on 500 miles a month, then changing at 5000 miles makes a ton of sense.

dont see why it would have higher standards to get on the shelf, maybe a explaination?

The re-refiner doesn't know what's in the feedstock, so they have to really filter and refine the oil to make the final product. Also, all sorts of petroleum products such as ATF and gear oil get mixed in with "used motor oil", so they need to filter out all the additives and wear metals in those to get a usable product. Then, they need to further "crack" the filtered oil to get the right grades of oil needed for engine oil. The oil made from the stuff that comes from the ground isn't filtered as thoroughly since it's more uniform to begin with.

[deano55]

well, all this talk about green usually cost more in the end somewhere just like hybrids, cost more and take years to make any differance if at all. I would think that the used oil has been cooked and recooked over and over with engines running hot. Valvoline can make the "green" oil but I dont see new cars rolling off the assembly line with recycled oil yet so I will stick to new oil. By the way, what does it cost for a quart of "green" oil.

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

well, all this talk about green usually cost more in the end somewhere just like hybrids, cost more and take years to make any differance if at all. I would think that the used oil has been cooked and recooked over and over with engines running hot. Valvoline can make the "green" oil but I dont see new cars rolling off the assembly line with recycled oil yet so I will stick to new oil. By the way, what does it cost for a quart of "green" oil.

Same as a quart of regular oil, at least AFAIK. The "green" G-Oil is right in line with other synthetic oils at $5 and change a quart.

Compared to my old LeSabre, I'm spending $25 less every fillup with my Cruze. My driving has stayed the same, but I'm spending $25 less per tank. It's not a hybrid, either. Going from about 25 mpg average to 43 mpg average will do that. It's doing better than Honda's hybrids, that's for sure!

[deano55]

To me thats too much then, just like when they came out with 50/50 premixed antifreeze, not all that much cheaper than non mixed. Marketing is decieving these days and alot of money and time goes into it to sell the consumer on the product.

[jedwards83]

The re-refiner doesn't know what's in the feedstock, so they have to really filter and refine the oil to make the final product. Also, all sorts of petroleum products such as ATF and gear oil get mixed in with "used motor oil", so they need to filter out all the additives and wear metals in those to get a usable product. Then, they need to further "crack" the filtered oil to get the right grades of oil needed for engine oil. The oil made from the stuff that comes from the ground isn't filtered as thoroughly since it's more uniform to begin with.

I don't think it's fair to say it has to meet higher standards to get on the shelf. Just because the processes are different in making it, and perhaps it is subject to a greater degree of filtering and refining, that doesn't mean the end product meets a higher standard. Synthetic oils go through more rigorous refining and other processes, but in the end you end up with synthetic oil, not a higher standard. You can argue that one product is better than another, but unless there's a specific higher standard you're referring to, it's still just conventional oil, recycled, or synthetic.

To answer the question at hand, I think you should buy whatever modern API spec'd oil (SM/SN) is on sale, run it till the oil change reminder comes on, and repeat. I've had those used oil analyses done on the cheapest oil I could find after 7,000-9,000 mile intervals, and they suggested I run them longer. Sure those analyses are highly subjective, but that's proof enough for me. 10w-30 is good year round unless you live in colder climate, in which I'd use 5w-30 in the winter.