I was wondering if anyone else has heard this. Synthetic oils breakdown with age. If you get an oil change, even if you don't drive, the oil breaks down causing another oil change during the year with only 1000 miles on the oil. Any truth to this or can I get 5 years out of an oil change if I don't drive much? Ron

 

I just did a search on "Oil breakdown" and came up with numerous posts that answer your question.

 

Me too. ^

Me? I simply follow what the FSS tells me to do.

 

Shelf Life of Unopened Mobil 1 Quarts

 

If you do it yourself oil changes are relativley cheap so why risk an expensive engine?

Personally I would not go more than a year without an oil change regardless of mileage.

 

The Harley gets a once a yr oil change, and the cars every 6K...the lawn mower gets a once yr change as well...the International 9400I gets his every 10k...oil is important to any engine, and shouldn't been skimped on... you can never change your oil too much...I don't do the Harley or the truck myself anymore...I use too, but don't have the time...now the cars I do, because that is my down time....I have a grt young Harley mechanic, so oil changes is a chance for him to look at everything...the truck is just a lot of work, because you change fuel filters, oil filter, air filter, grease...it's just easier to get her done at the shop...but, I do the lawn mower, because it is my toy like the cars...she's fast....lol...

 

Maybe its me but it seems as you all are telling me to stop posts and search for answers. Good luck with your Xfires and I be out of here. Sorry I wasted your time. Ron

 

Darticus, I have read numerous posts that you have started where many different members have asked you to kindly do a search prior to asking a question. There are several reasons for this.

1. While searching, you will be amazed at what you will learn about your car.

2. This is the most important, and many people have tried to explain this to you in the past. When others do a search for something they need an answer to, it becomes cluttered with posts like yours that have been answered over and over. Imagine that you actually used the search feature like you have been asked over and over to do. When you do a search, you find that a simple question has been answered 50 times, because 50 people have asked the same question. Wouldn't you get frustrated by having so many posts to read to get to the answer you are looking for.

Just like in this case. Think about it. In 6 months from now, someone is going to see if they can find an answer to oil breakdown. When they do a search, they are going to have this post returned in their search results. The are going to waste their time reading through this post hoping to find an answer. What they are going to find is another case of where someone was too damn lazy to do a search, thus frustrating them in the pursuit of the answer.

People are not picking on you or trying to not help you. They are trying to get you to understand that you are clogging up the forum and making it harder for others to perform useful searches. I personally feel like people have been more than gracious trying to get you to understand this. I have personally bit my tongue on many occasions when you have posted because I noticed your age and thought that because of your age, you may not be computer savvy. I have taken the time on several occasions to search, find the answer, and present you with what I found. I know others have done the same.

Look at the topics of your posts:

Want To Detail Car And Ask For Help On What To Buy
Can you put a supercharger on a crossfire?
License Plate frame suggestions needed
Do you like your light up door guards?
Wind restrictor wiring
Is the XFire worth the money

Every one of these topics have been discussed ad nauseum in this forum.

If you decide to leave this forum, you would be missed as a member, and you would be cheating yourself out of a wealth of information about your car.

If you decide to stay, let me give you a piece of advice. If you have a question,, search first. Then if you are confused about what you find, asked a question based on what you found. Or, once you have searched and can not find an answer. Ask the question, and state that you searched and could not find the answer. You will find that people here will bend over backwards to help you out, but be willing to help yourself first.

Clogging up this forum with repetitive questions is not only rude, but is inconsiderate of other members.

I would ask that you take this as a learning experience, and stay with us and become a productive and valued member. Ultimately, the choice is yours.

 

Doh!.......

 

Personally I would rather see ANY post regarding ANY car question rather than the inane politial crap bombarding this board.

You just keep posting any question you have!

If all someone has to say is "do a search" why even bother replying. - Not like this is a huge board with a lot of users repeating that many questions.
Is it really that annoying? Quit making people feel not welcome.

IMO

 

I am not into the political threads as well, but it is a part of this forum. If a topic catches my eye, I might read it, but rarely reply to a political thread. Otherwise, I just ignore them. Like I stated before, Ron(Darticus) has been kindly asked by numerous members to please search prior to posting questions. Bear in mind they are mostly questions that every new member has about these cars. At the same time, these members have been kind enough to answer every question that he has posted. If you look back through his posts, you will find that I have provided answers to many of his questions without even mentioning a search function. Darticus has stated in the past that he will search before posting in the future, and then asks another newby question without searching. He was the one that finally got frustrated and said he is leaving. I am simply trying to get him to understand the reasoning behind why so many people have asked him to search for answers. If you do not agree with this, that is fine. We are all entitled to our opinions. Personally, I will continue to try to help members where and when I can, just as I am trying to do with Darticus now. On the other hand, you telling him to continue with posting questions that have been answered over and over, is not doing any service to this community.

 

Really Rude! My age, color, sex, nor anything else has any reason for someone to bust someone. Don't think I'm not computer savvy as I'm retired with a degree in all sciences and ran computer classes for years and your just RUDE. I think someone should give you a break from this forum maybe a TIME OUT 2 months. How do you know a search wasn't done? I was sick of reading oil on my dog posts when I searched for oil change and changing my tire posts so I asked the question. Now everyone has to be careful of what they ask or post as you are patrolling the site. Hope you are an equal opportunity patroller on your watch.
Why don't you just remove all the posting options and only let us read what you want us to. Sounds like our new changed government. This ain't right!

 

just a quick post, but for those thatdon't understand synthetic ol, the fact is it NEVER breaks down, in fact it just gets dirty, which is why we recycle oil and don't throw it away.

Now with non-synthetic oils it too will not break down, but new engines run hotter thus causing non/synth oil to coke up inside your engine, this is why you only run synthetic in new cars.


so to review;

oils never break down, they just get dirty, also the additive package within the oil becomes consume after 5-10k miles depending on how many quarts the engine takes.

 

Wow.... I certainly did not think I was being rude. I was trying to be helpful. Ron, I have answered your questions in many previous posts. If you don't get it by now, no more explanation will suffice. I guess it is easy to blame me and not the numerous other people that have tried to explain things to you. I guess we are all wrong, and you are right. I will no longer correspond with you on this matter as nothing positive can come of it. Good day sir.

P.S. I have never heard of a degree in all sciences, but if that means that you have degrees in Environmental, Forensic, Astrophysics, Computer, Health, Earth etc. sciences, then I am most certainly impressed.

 

I have been on this forum since last spring and I visit it at some point on most days. It is an excellent source on information about the Crossfire. I have posted very few questions as I always “try” to find an existing answer to my query – which I usually manage to do. I also know that I will probably get shot down in flames if I ask something that has been previously covered.

However, there are two points to bear in mind re: not posting previously asked questions. Firstly, when looking for information, unless you hit exactly the right key words you will miss any appropriate answer – even if it is there. Secondly, a previously answered question, if asked again, may get a new and valuable input from a knowledgeable individual who did not respond to the past question, or who was not on the forum at that time. Surely this new and additional input is of benefit to all.

As ever, the draw back with this and any forum is not the misinterpretation of the content, but the perceived intentions behind the writer. Sometimes it is easy to draw offence when it was not intended and sometimes is easy to create offence when that was never the intention.

I for my part certainly hope that Darticus does not leave this forum and the fact that I clicked on his thread shows that it (and the answer) was of interest to me.

 

Darticus.... I sometimes ask questions that have been asked before simply to get a new perpective. I don't want to read what was written 5 years ago. But I also do searches. All I can say is ignore the bad responses.... there are bad apples in every bunch. Someone will come along and answer your questions without a hassle.

If they didn't have the time to give you a real answer then why bother giving a half-A wise crack response? Don't run from this site and keep posting questions! I like reading new topics even if the questions have been asked before! The truth is you just asked a question I had on my mind for the past few months and never got around to asking or searching for an answer.

 

I must thank all the members that have sent me email, pm's and posted support. Many have said that the post issue has always been a problem and someone always finds the time to tell members to search first. We must also keep in mind that each category in the forum asks us to post our questions and not search for answers. Searching is good but many times I don't have the time, working 7 days a week, to read posts that I need and aren't even relevant any longer. An example was many posts were saying that the 0W40 was discontinued so I settled to use 5w30 which the search said was a fine replacement. By surprise I was in Walmart and they had 0w40 oil so I bought it. Today I also found in a local auto store at 9+ dollars a quart. Its all over for sale. That search wasn't very good but if I continued to read the posts up on page 44 it mentioned that it is available. I wish we could just answer questions for others without fighting as we have enough trouble with this economy and world to deal with. Enjoy your cars! Ron

 

I really hate it when I see that someone's only answer is "do a search". I think some do this just to get their post numbers up. I have done searches many times, and have to go through an awful lot of threads. Marlam also brings up a good point that newer memebers may be able to provide better information that you won't find in an old thread. If someone asks a question, & I don't have an answer, I don't post anything.

 

Several things:

First of all, engine oils don't actually break down just from sitting, either inside the bottle, or in your engine. Several things occur to the oil while it sits there, doing nothing:

First off, depending on the quality of the oil (in this respect, poorer quality oils), some of the additives in the engine oil will settle to the bottom of the pan, or bottle. This takes a long time to occur. Its easy enough to shake a bottle before pouring it in, but if you can shake your car before starting it, you can do whatever else you want in life. I won't try to stop you.

Second, when the oil is in the pan sitting for a while, depending on the climate you live in, condensation might build up inside the engine. now technically, this shouldn't happen, as the engine is a fairly well sealed unit now a days, but people are convinced that it actually occurs. All you have to do is get the engine good and hot, and the condensation turns into water vapor in the engine, and gets sucked into the intake system to be happily burned in the combustion chambers. No harm, no foul.

Third, any combustion by products that are mixed in the engine oil will have a chemical reaction to the additives in the oil that are there to neutralize them. This then weakens the oil over time. Every time you start the engine and run it for a while, and then shut it back down, you add more by products, and you decrease the amount of protective additives. Eventually, you will have contaminated oil. Only solution is to replace the oil with fresh oil. This is the most common issue faced with cars that for sit long periods of no use.

And last, its not 5W-30 that is recommended in place of the 0W-40, it's 5W-40.
I'm about to make you blow your top with the next sentence, so be warned:

A proper search would have told you that.

Hehhehehe.
Aren't I a trip?

Anyway, next up is that Mobil 1 0W-40 oil actually isn't that good for sitting long term in an oil pan with combustion by products sitting in it. It doesn't have a good enough additive package anymore in order to neutralize them over the long term. You would be better off with another brand of oil, with a better additive package for that kind of lack of use.

BC.

 

Another thing we can all do to help is what I have often done.
When a question is asked that has already been discussed or answered ....
instead of posting saying "do a search" I take a moment and do a search myself.
With the amount of time I have spent on this site I can usually find the answer and provide a link to a specific post or a thread on topic.

Be helpful rather than critical.