Synthetic oil!

Post by **eroosa** » 07 Mar 2007, 07:38

A warning for owners with high mileage autos. I read the various Synthetic VS Regular oil posts and decided with the cold upstate NY weather it would be a good idea to use synthetic oil. My 1993 850 has 145K miles on it and has always had regular oil. I drove the Mobil one synthetic oil for exactly 1000 miles and now I have some issues. My car did not leak any oil or have an odor of oil burning on the manifold. After just 1000 miles or synthetic I now have oil dripping on my new driveway and if I drive it for any length of time I get the smell of burning oil which I assume is from the valve cover. I have used synthetic in my wifes' Ford van for two years, but I started using it when the engine was fairly new (10K miles) with no problems. PLEASE take my advice, if you have a higher mileage car that has only had "Dino" oil in it stay with the Dino oil. I really regret using the synthetic and dumped it out at 1K miles. Hopefully this help others who are trying to decide about synthetic oil use.

dripcandles · Post by **dripcandles** » 07 Mar 2007, 19:44

I wondered if your pcv is clean and is there no sign of positive pressure at your dipstick tube? Is it a turbo? If there is oil coming out onto the head could it be the oil cap seal? I hear synth oil can cause leaks because it cleans the engine, and if there is positive crankcase pressure I could see that cleaner seals could leak. I was a bit unsure about what to do with regards to my oil change but I put 2 quarts of Mobil 1 and 4.5 of Castrol GTX into my 98 XC70 with 196kmi about 700 miles ago and I haven't had any issues. I intend on adding one more quart of synthetic each change until it is full synth, assuming I don't encounter what you did.

Post by **Pauloil** » 08 Mar 2007, 05:27

you've got a leak somewhere.
i agree: check PCV, oilcap gasket and turbo oil return line gasket.
do autoRX and go back to M1 or some other syn. oil
your turbo will love you!

99V70xc, 95 850glt

turbotim2 · Post by **turbotim2** » 08 Mar 2007, 12:41

Don't do it! You have had the same trouble that most experience when going to synth with a lot of miles. Stick with dino and you will be trouble free for a long time!! Volvos have been getting 400k miles+ for many years before synth came on to the scene.