Piston Slap: Vintage Swedish Meatball, Synthetic Oil?
TTAC Commentator shores4now writes:
I have 111,000 miles on my 2000 Volvo S40 and it does not leak any oil. Have always changed the oil around 5000 miles. have never used synthetic on it before. I have heard I have too many miles to change over to synthetic. That it could cause my seals to leak if I switch over at this point. Have heard the opposite that if I don’t have any leaks that it will be fine. What do you think, should I switch over to a synthetic or a synthetic blend, or stick with what I have been using?
My advice: do your homework before committing to synthetic. Is there a common fail point that will need addressing on your Volvo? I suspect not, but a quick query (or the search feature) on VolvoForums.com might be in order.
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I changed my Explorer over to synthetic at 120,000 miles and 7 years old with nary a leak, until it had 230,000 miles on it. I didn't dream of switching the Chevelle over to it until now as the 30 year old seals had no hope of actually sealing anything, now that its got new gaskets on the engine I might do it.
I believe there is some truth to the increased leaking from synthetics. A while back I changed an older Toro lawnmower over to Mobil1 because I thought it would be better for the Briggs & Stratton engine when I used it to mow a steep hillside that might reduce the effectiveness of the crude oil distribution system. Net result was significant leakage from numerous gaskets. As with other examples, only anecdotal evidence but it all seems to point toward synthetics finding (or increasing) leakage at weak seals and gaskets. On the turbo front, my experience with Ford Probe/Mazda 626 turbo and aftermarket 260Z turbo indicates that the primary issue with oil "coaking" is caused by people who don't know enough to let the turbo cool down at idle for a minute or two before shutdown. Pulling in to a rest stop after running for hours at 70+ mph and immediately shutting down the engine allows heat to soak from the exhaust side of the turbo into the bearing and cook the oil. Synthetic may help some but I'm not sure it will totally prevent this issue.
On my own turbo car (now six years old) I switched to synthetic and oil just started to vanish. There were no puddles in the garage so I suspect it was getting by the rings and burning up in the cylinders. I switched back to regular oil three years ago and have had no more disappearing oil. After 93,000 miles (somewhere over 95 by next week) and with no oil loss or clouding I have to put myself in the 'not broke, don't fix it' category.
My '99 Volvo S70 runs synthetic. It has 213k on the odo. I purchased it at 200 k and I didn't own it when it switched from conventional to synthetic oil. That said, it doesn't leak a drop, and I've been through two oil changes since I owned it. It does burn some, and I top it off with a quart mid-cycle. My mechanic tells me it's normal with these cars, and it's a bit of pain to burn the expensive stuff, but overall it's worth it. We have a real winter where I live and I didn't use a block heater... the car cranked just fine every time. Around here they call synthetic "liquid block heater." Basically, my engine is the 5-cyl version of the 4-cyl that goes in your S40, so I imagine the seals are similar, but there may be some serious decontenting and beancounting on the S40 so do your research.