Regular or Synthetic? Help
 

So I just bought a 1990 Civic Si HB for a winter car/daily driver. It has 172,000 kms on it. I am going to do an oil change this weekend and was wondering should I switch it over to synthetic?

I have run synthetic in all my other vehicles, just wondering if this one has to many kms?

Also, on that note, should I switch the power steering and transmission fluids to synthetics aswell?

I plan on using some royal purple products when the time comes as I can get a deal on them through a friend.

Thanks for the help/advice.

Your fine to run synthetic, for the tranny fluid, just get the honda MTF.

I 2nd that. Use honda fluid for transmission. Synthetics work great in the winter! Though, it's not really a performance vehicle with high demands, so you could be like 70% of the word and just normal oil. I live in a snow belt "Kincardine area" and used 5w30 in my ITR through the winter with no starting issues.

Maybe flush brake fluid, transmission fluid, rad fluid...

Try doing a search on synthetic oils. Been covered many times.:deadhorse:

Bottom line, synthetics provide much better protection than regular oil in any conditions. Synthetics resist breaking down and can withstand higher operating temperatures much better than regular oil, just to mention a few advantages. It can flow through tighter tolerances and lasts much longer than regular oil as well.

To me, there is no question about which oil to use. The benefits far out-weigh the extra cost.

honestly asking which oil to use is like asking which gas is better 87 or 91.
even though it isnt a performance car, i would use sythetic oil. its not that much more if you DIY.
also MTF for tranny fluid. cant go wrong.

For a 90 civic I would just use regular oil. No need to spend that extra money imo.

its just a old 90 civic use what's on sale at CT.

that old hatch only has 172,000 kms if you noticed. most people drivie around in ek's with well over 200 000 km mark yet still put synthetic.
OP if the motor is running healthy and strong then use sythetic if you want it to stay like that.

I noticed but it is a 20 yr old car. As well there is nothing wrong with regular oil. But again just my opinion.

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'm going to run synthetic. I do the oil changes myself and I'm driving alot at work right now so that will give me more time between oil changes.

You'd be fine with synthetics in your motor and the tranny, if the kms are original for the motor and it passes emissions without any grinding for clutch slipping.

What type of motor do you have?

Synthetic oil is such a waste in our motors. I've stated my opinion on this topic many times. Our motors are engineered for conventional oil, not synthetic. There is no point in 'upgrading'.

I run valvoline maxlife, which is a synthetic blend in all the civics I have owned (94 VX, 93 LX, 93 Si, and 99 Si) According to the Bob is the Oil Guy Forums (Bob Is The Oil Guy - Powered by Motor Oil) it is pretty darn good stuff for just a little more than regular name brand stuff. If you are going through 1L between oil changes you might as well just run whatever is the cheapest.

It doesn't matter if the engine was engineered for it. You will still benefit from using full synthetic.

Castrol 10w30 FTW :d
Honda MTF

Really?

What benefits will our engines see? I've seen vehicles last 500,000km+ on conventional. If I switch to synthetic does that mean I can make it last 1,000,000km?

I am well aware of the benefits of synthetic, but my point is, this is no point whatsoever to spend $30 more an oil change when conventional works just fine.

Go ahead and use the cheap stuff. As long as you change it regularly and don't beat the living snot out of your engine everyday, you should be fine.

I'd rather have synthetic in my engine and know that it's protected well beyond what any conventional oil could, and that I can easily go over twice the distance between oil changes.

hey guys...my car has 230,000 km on it and I've been using conventional for years. Just wondering if it was too late to switch to synthetic. I do my own oil changes so it wouldn't be too much more for me. What do you guys think? Go synthetic or stick with conventional?

The reason I switched over to synthetic is because you can go twice as long between changes. On the synthetic filter box its says. Good for 11,000 kms. Lets se regular oil last that long. Double the price, double the life. Seems easy to me.

How can you go twice over? You have the same filtration system?