Synth oil has those additives for seal swelling. Been that way since about the mid-1970s...

 

Well then...my knowledge of oil is dated. lol.

 

The best thing about synth oil: It doesn't cook in the turbo when you cut off the motor.

 

Yeah, personally I use it in the turbo cars but not in the Hondas.

 

Here is a related question, I guess: how good is the Oil Life gauge at gauging synthetic oil life? Is it somewhat close to a UOA?

 

Nowhere close toa UOA. The oil life monitor simply keeps detailed track of every thing you do with the car. How many times you start, how many of those starts were COLD,how many times you accelerate hard, EVERYTHING.

The oil life monitor does not actually MEASURE anything about your oil. It has no way of knowing what kind of oil is in there, or even if you fill the crankcase with water instead.

 

Jim, based upon what you're saying, the OLM will not show me a longer life using a dino oil vs. the "best" synthetic oil available that could possibly triple the drain interval?

Thanks.

 

Thats right. Its programmed to take into account the normal oil thats called for, basically a good petroleum 5w-20.

AFAIK, theres NO car of any maker that actually measures the oil performance.Ive never heard of anythinglike an on-board UOA.

Lots of people here like to change oil more frequently for a margin of safety. You can do that 2 ways...
1 - change oil when the monitor gets to 30% or something, dont wait for it to reach 10%.
2 - use a synthetic oil & let it go down to 10% or even zero.

If you want to do #2, you might want to get a UOA. Butif you take advantage ofthe oil monitor, you may not have to getseveral UOAs to establish the range & repeatability of your driving habits.

 

Jim, thanks for the reply. Some of the newer European mfrs have added in a qualitative measure of the oil. The algorithm is far more sophisticated than # of starts, RPM ranges, etc. They are apply to measure (via an in-pan sensor) the dielectric of the oil and gain some info there. VW's system is smart enough to know if you top-off with more than 1/2L of the wrong oil (non Long Life), it will automatically shorten the drain interval.

I suspect my OLM will show it needs to be changed every 5 or 6k miles based upon the 1600 miles I've traveled so far. I'm fine with that. My trips are fairly short and I'll probably need to change the oil every 9 months or so. I'll probably look at a syn blend (aka Mobil's 7500 oil or the Motocraft syn blend) 5W20. It probably doesn't make sense for me to lay out the extra$$$ for a full syn product as I adhere to the 12 month change philosophy to comply with mfr/warranty requirements.

 

Well, if VW & some others are actually measuring, I bet Honda isnt far behind. Maybe???