What type of oil? (1 Viewer)

[SethH]

I am the owner of a 2000 Dodge Intrepid with 73,000 miles on it. I love my car, but realized tonight that that it will cross over 100,000 miles right about the time I will leave graduate school (roughly 2 years). Unless I get a job paying much higher than I expect this car will have to last me WELL OVER 100,000 miles mostly because my fiance will have to get a new car first (her's is a '88 Camry with 123,000).

So here's my question: I was thinking of moving to synthetic oil to prolong engine life. I thought about this and did a little research. I came across a page dedicated to Dodge Intrepids from '97-'00. Apparently they have a tendency to crap out around 100,000 partially due to "sludge" created by the oil. I have been dedicated in getting my oil changed (but I don't know about the guy who owned it for the first 25,000 miles).

So, I was thinking of switching to RedLine 10W30. Is this a good idea? Is synthetic for my car a good idea at all? Is RedLine the best choice for my car? Will synthetic improve the life of my car?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-Seth

 

[Henry Gale]

I'm also interested in the answer to this question. It seems that some opinions are you need to make this decision early in an engines life.

 

[SethH]

Yeah, I was wondering if I should keep using conventional oil since I've been using it for so long. I noticed that Mobil1 has a synthetic oil for high mileage vehicles . . . would it be OK to use something like that to make the switch over to synthetic? Also, you guys who buy oil online, where do you buy it from?

 

[Jonathan Burk]

I would recommend perusal and participation in the forums at:

http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php

You'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about oil.

But I am of the opinion that in most cases, you don't need to out-do the manufacturer's recommendations for oil type. For an Intrepid, I'm sure dino is fine, with changes every 4-6k.

There are a lot of good arguments for synthetic, but I don't think the benefits outweigh the 4-5x cost in most cases. And the oil still gets dirty and needs to be changed, no matter how good it is.

If you do go synthetic, check out Shell Rotella at Wal Mart; it's about $13/gallon.

 

[Michael Varacin]

I don't see a big advantage to switching over to synthetic oil at this point. It is important, however, to change the oil more often in higher milage cars.

As the clearances get larger in all the bearings and piston rings from wear, the oil tends to get contaminated quicker...so more frequent oil changes are needed.

I've got a 1991 Chevy Berhetta that I keep for a daily beater. For the first 100,000 miles, the oil was changed every 20,000 miles or so. Now I do it every 4-5, and it's got 267,000 miles on it now with no problems or blow-by.

All non-synthetic oil.

Nothing but Mobil One synthetic gets used in the race cars though...but mainly becuase of the need to keep the oil pressure up at extreme temps.

 

[john harshman]

i had a 2000 intrepid up until 3 weeks ago it got stolen. lol
i changed my oil every 4k and always used mobil 1
never had any problems with my car and it had over 100k

 

[MarkHastings]

I had a '96 Avenger (basically a sporty version of the Intrepid) and after 6 years, I had over 133,000 miles on it. I traveled 100 miles a day and had the oil changed every 3 months (with regular Mobil oil). Since I did so much driving, every 3 months was like 6,000 miles and I never had any problems with the car.

The big question is what kind of engine do you have. I'm not a gear-head, but I do know that with the Avengers, they had 2 different engines...the 4 cylinders had a Chrysler engine, which was quite noisy and was recommended that I avoid it. The 6 cylinder had a Mitsubishi engine and was said to be better overall for the mileage I was going to put on the car. I guess the Chrysler engines aren't as reliable when they get older.

 

[Trey Fletcher]

I don't have a specific oil recommendation for you Seth. I will tell you that a good friend of mine owns a 1999 Dodge Intrepid. It recently hit 103,000 miles and then promptly died. The motor is toast, and unfortunately for him, he's still owes $5,000 on what now is a dead car. I don't know how he treated this car maintenance wise, but it does seem to be a common occurence similar to what has been discussed on the Intrepid board.

Good luck,

TF

 

[Joshua_JO]

Run Away Now!!!! Seriously, keeping that car is not a good idea. And for what you would spend for Redline oil, thats almost a car payment!!! Not really, but that stuff is expensive. I suggest dumping that car as soon as possible.

 

[SethH]

Joshua_JO:

May I ask why you feel this way? Is it based only on what's been said so far in the thread or do you have some personal experience you're drawing on? If you have some personal experience, please share . . .

 

[Chu Gai]

There was an article a number of years back in Consumer Reports where they tested a variety of engine oils, additives, and I believe synthetics. These various oils were used in NYC taxi cabs that first had their engines stripped down and various parts measured with accurate micrometers and calipers. I believe they ran the test for something like 70,000 miles, which doesn't take all that long if the cars are being driven all day. At the end of the test they ran addtional evaluations and measurements. The conclusion was no differences could be found to substantiate the use of performance oils or additives suggesting that the most important thing you can do for your automobile is to change your oil and filter on a regular basis.

 

[Sami Kallio]

I don't see any reason why not to run synthetic oil. In the end it will cost you less than mineral oil and give better protection for your engine. The first thing I do when I buy a used car is I change the oil to Mobil 1, no matter the mileage. If it starts to leak that is just exposing a problem that the engine has.

Better gas mileage and double the change interval, although I will change the oil on the GT-R every 2k miles or so. Everything else gets 6-8k miles before change and that is still conservative considering how long you could go if the oil filter is still doing its job.

The importance of synthetic oil just gets higher the colder the climate you live in is.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

"Unless I get a job paying much higher than I expect this car will have to last me WELL OVER 100,000 miles mostly because my fiance will have to get a new car first (her's is a '88 Camry with 123,000)."


Assuming little or no rust problem in your area, and both cars have had similar maintenance in the past as far as frequency of oil changes and such my strong recommendation would be to dump the Intrepid and keep the Camry.

Unless badly neglected an 88 Camry with 123k on it has a lot more miles left in it than an Intrepid with only 73k current miles.

These old Camrys regularly exceed 200-250k miles without major engine or transmission failures if given decent care, the same cannot be said for Chrysler products.

I work for a Toyota dealer service dept. and believe me the only way to kill an 88 Camry is to either grossly neglect it or run it into an 18 wheeler at 70 mph.

 

[Benny G]

For what it's worth, I'm driving a 1997 Intrepid with about 165,000 miles on it, and I've never had a problem with the engine (or any other major problems). The oil gets changed every 2000-3000 miles.

 

[SethH]

Hi Benny. It's good to hear that you've had a good experience. Could you possibly let me know if your Intrepid has a 2.7 liter engine? I know that for most of the years between 97 and '00 Dodge put two different engines in Intrepids. One was a 3.2 and the other a 2.7. There may have been other options also. Could you let me know which you have? Thanks!

 

[Tim Fennell]

I run Mobil 1 mostly because one of our cars stays outside and in New England that can cause the car to be hard to start. The synthetics generally don't get as viscous in the cold and the car cranks over easier. I do the changes myself and use the OEM filter.

Is the extra cost worth it? If I didn't have the car outside I probably wouldn't bother. SG grade oils should easily be fine for 5K miles

I change every 5K and my previous Saab had 195K on it before I popped the head gasket. The engine ran great until then. I think the problem was the APC (turbo boost limiter) stopped working and I was having too much fun driving with the extra boost...

 

[SethH]

I appreciate everyone's thoughts. I have made the switch to Mobil 1 Synthetic and I hope it will help me out. One thing I've heard a lot of is: "73,000 miles isn't that much, you should have plenty left in that car."

Well, that's true, unless you have an intrepid made between 97 and '00 with a 2.7 Liter engine in it. Please take a look at this page if you have doubts: http://intrepidhorrorstories.blogspot.com/

And this is not by any means the only page regarding this problem. Run a google search for intrepid sludge or intrepid oil or something like that and you'll find plenty of info. I'm starting to wish I could get rid of it, but the problem is so well known that the resale value is down the $4000 range which is obviously terrible for a 2000.