1.8 Liter (Base Engine) Synthetic Oil.

[Gizmobiaritz]

Greetings,I have a 2005 Vibe which will be due for its first Oil change soon. I usually always use synthetic oil. I change my oil at Costco, where it is around 45 CND for Castrol GTX and a Fram filter. The vehicle I had before was older and did not have any problems running on Synthetic Oil. I have a few questions in regards to this car:Had anybody used Synthetic on their Vibe?Is it Ok to use Synthetic on a Vibe (Base Engine)?If so, do you recommend a certain oil or filter ?Thank you.

[ragingfish]

I've been using synthetic for at least a year now...I run Mobil 1 with a Toyota oil filter...

[wicked1981]

http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id ... ad?id=4451

[damronjr]

Quote, originally posted by Gizmobiaritz »Greetings,I have a 2005 Vibe which will be due for its first Oil change soon. I usually always use synthetic oil. I change my oil at Costco, where it is around 45 CND for Castrol GTX and a Fram filter. The vehicle I had before was older and did not have any problems running on Synthetic Oil. I have a few questions in regards to this car:Had anybody used Synthetic on their Vibe?Is it Ok to use Synthetic on a Vibe (Base Engine)?If so, do you recommend a certain oil or filter ?Thank you.Don't know if it is good (never read those threads), but I just started using synthetic Valvoline my last oil change. They didn't Not recommend using it knowing I had been using regular prior as I am in their system since I go there all the time. It costs more but recommends changing less frequently.

[Raven]

A lot of base Vibe owners are using synthetic oil, although I am not one of them. I have heard good things about Mobil 1.

[Altus]

Yup - synthetic oil is good stuff and the Vibe engines are just fine with it.Mobil 1 is a popular choice, but any synthetic 5W30 should be just fine.Fram oil filters are to be avoided however - very poor internal construction. Toyota filters are good, as are AC Delco (GM dealers), Purolator, Wix.

[ragingfish]

I've never heard of a car that you COULDN'T use synthetic in...heard of cars that REQUIRE it, but not PROHIBIT it...*shrug*

[Gizmobiaritz]

Greetings,Thank you for your comments. So to summarize: Mobile 1 with a Toyota filter?

[Stang2Vibe]

It might be easier to find an AC Delco oil filter for your Vibe, and the part number for a Delco filter should be listed in your Vibe's owner's manual.As for Mobil 1, I hear mixed reviews. I used nothing but Pennzoil 5W30 in my 1994 Grand Prix. Owned it for about 7 years and it ran great, very smooth, and burned no oil at all. Always used AC Delco filters on it too. When I bought my 2000 V6 Mustang, I changed the oil after the first 400 miles to Mobil 1 and usually used Puralator filters. Always changed it with Mobil 1 and it was developing upper head problems (partucularly engine knock and valves tapping) by 20,000 miles. After seeing some professionally done testing of oil performance that was posted here a long time ago, I decided against using Mobil 1 for my Vibe. I went back to using Pennzoil after seeing in those performance tests that it outperformed Mobil 1 in some categories. And it costs much less. I'm at about 23,000 miles with my Vibe after 28 months now and I've had no trouble using the Pennzoil. I found out that crude oil from Pennsylvania wells has been found to be the best in the world for making lubricating products. It is so much better than every other source that they won't refine it into fuels because it would be such a waste. Pennzoil is made from Pennsylvania crude, so I can support the claims and the research from personal experience.

[21Rouge]

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »It might be easier to find an AC Delco oil filter for your Vibe, and the part number for a Delco filter should be listed in your Vibe's owner's manual.I just looked in the 05 owner's manual. The part no. are 88971573 and 88969580 but when I did a search in Genvibe/with Google neither part no comes up That seems strange. Can someone check what the AC Delco oil filter # is suppoesed to be?

[bud_one]

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe » the part number for a Delco filterAC Delco # PF1233and the Fram filters are to be avoided at all cost....

[21Rouge]

Quote, originally posted by bud_one »AC Delco # PF1233Thanks but any idea why GM doesnt show the same # in the manual?

[utahindie]

those are the part numbers for the "toyota" filters with gm stock numbers on them. when you order those part numbers through parts you get a toyota filter. cost of those is about $16 retail if im not mistaken. get the same filters from toyota for about $6-9.

[Psychobroker]

I've been using AMSoil full synthetic since 5k miles and my baby runs smooth as silk. I change the oil and filter every 10k miles.

[Vibe_dude]

Quote, originally posted by Gizmobiaritz »Greetings,I have a 2005 Vibe which will be due for its first Oil change soon. I usually always use synthetic oil. I change my oil at Costco, where it is around 45 CND for Castrol GTX and a Fram filter. The vehicle I had before was older and did not have any problems running on Synthetic Oil. I have a few questions in regards to this car:Had anybody used Synthetic on their Vibe?Is it Ok to use Synthetic on a Vibe (Base Engine)?If so, do you recommend a certain oil or filter ?Thank you.45$ ho;y cow dude that is alot.........i pay 23$ at costco for the same thing here.....man o man they are pricey there......its 45$ here for the synthetic..

[21Rouge]

Quote, originally posted by Psychobroker »I've been using AMSoil full synthetic since 5k miles and my baby runs smooth as silk. I change the oil and filter every 10k miles.I am taking my 05 Vibe (1100 km) in tomorrow for its first change of oil. I will bring the appropriate Toyota filter and Mobile 1 synthetic 5W30. Exciting eh?

[WVRedneck]

I've always heard not to start using syn-oil after 30K miles if you have been using regular oil. I don't know if this 'myth' is true or not. My Vibe has 19,260 on it(bought it used this weekend) and I am going to go with a syn oil for the next change... since it's still under factory warranty.

[Mr. Poopypants]

I use Mobil1 with a Purolator PureOne filter, works out great for me. I have heard bad things about Fram filters though, there was a great website on the difference between filters, but for the life of me, I couldn't find it.

[21Rouge]

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »It might be easier to find an AC Delco oil filter for your Vibe, and the part number for a Delco filter should be listed in your Vibe's owner's manual.I have a 3 week old '05 Vibe. With the hood up it was easy to see that the OEM filter is the *Toyota* filter...made in Thailand. I just that there might be a GM AC Delco filter as original equipment.

[Baltovibe]

Quote, originally posted by Mr. Poopypants »I have heard bad things about Fram filters though, there was a great website on the difference between filters, but for the life of me, I couldn't find it.I think the link you are referring to is mentioned on http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id ... .n....html

[utahindie]

as far as running synthetic after 30k miles and whatnot its not a "myth" so to speak. What happens is when you use regular oil it has a higher wax content then synthetic because of the way they formulate synthetic in the labs. the wax then builds up creating a sort of "barrier" and when you switch to synthetic the detergent package they use takes all that excess wax and gets rid of it thus removing the "barrier". An engine that suddenly leaks after you switch to synthetic is a perfect example of this happening.

[21Rouge]

Quote, originally posted by utahindie »An engine that suddenly leaks after you switch to synthetic is a perfect example of this happening.If there is a problem using a synthetic early in a new car's life I would expect a warning of some type in the car's manual.And there are cars that come off the assembly line with a synthetic as its OEM oil.

[utahindie]

what i meant by that line was that some cars develop leaks over time(30k+) but the wax in the regular oil keeps your engine dry. synthetic can sometimes clean your engine too much causing leaks to show up when there were none.and yes. there are quite a few cars that come with factory synthetic fluid. just off the top of my head. bmw. mercedes. most high end sports cars. they are not tolerant of regular oil, and it can decrease performance when used.

[Arc-Element]

I switched to Royal Purple 10w30 & K&N oil filter at the 18,000 mile mark. noticed the car to be smoother running. Put Royal Purple 10w30 & K&N oil filter in my 05 Colorado at the 1000 mile mark. Everything runs great & smooth.

[goodvibe]

Change to synth or back any time that you like. Your seals would have to be totally gone for a leak to develop. At one time synths didn't have the adds needed to swell seals like dino and the seals were of different materials. That's no longer the case. If a leak occured it would only be from the synth cleaning the sludge away from a broken seal. If your not sludged and worn out there's no problem.

[cknight725]

I'm a long time classic VW (aircooled) guy and I have lots of experience iwth the ins and outs of synths vs. blends vs. conventional and the effects of the various brands of oils.... here's my 2 cents .. maybe it will help y'all ...Older engine designs and older gasket materials (basic cardboard etc) do not do well with synthetics as a general rule. I have had good success running Mobil 1 in my hi-po ACVW motors, though judicious use of RTV and gaskacinch by the engine builder helps keep leaks away (Aircooled flat-4 VW engines blocks split in half down the middle and do not have much of a gasket and its common to have leaks develop there with syths and blends). Syths in older style transmissions (Redline oils for example) is a big no-no in my experience. Unless there is a modern aftermarket gasket and seal kit available the synths will defeat the seals in a matter of 7K-10K miles. The gearbox in my Beetle drag car needs a complete re-seal because of this -- ah well, lesson learned!"Super" Additives (Prolong etc..): Waste of money if a quality oil is used in the first place ... Do you run your car without an ounce of oil in it EVER? No, so who cares if they can do that in their infomercial!Blends are big now because they can easily be put in older engines (read: "Hi Mileage formulations") and you can take advantage of many of the benefits of synths without worrying about the oil passing older seals and gaskets. Castrol was one of the first to market blends as "higher mileage, 4x4 & off road, and hi performance formulations". Basically they are all blends with different ratios and additives. Good stuff though! Mobil now has a complete line of blends that I would expect to be just as good as their sythetics.I personally don't use sythetics in my engines until the first oil change. Granted when I say "my engines" I'm refering to a motor design that was conceived in the 1930's, doesn't have a water derivative as a coolant, and was never equipped with a proper oil filtration system from the factory. However, after that initial oil change I swear by synthetics. More power, greater reliability, and I have never seen evidence of thermal breakdown of the oil. Parts stay nice and clean and wear is generally below normal.As for brands, I have very strong opinions and reasons to back them up, you can take them for whatever its worth to you all... Pennzoil: IMHO, Pennzoil is absolute junk! I will NEVER EVER EVER EVER again use Pennzoil in any engine EVER(again that is)! I once ran simple Pennzoil conventional (read: cheap stuff) in one of my ACVW motors only to find that after only 2K miles all of the internal engine parts had a nice coating of sludge on them. (How do I know? -- well ACVW's have manual valve lifters that need frequent lash adjustment) Redline oils: Great stuff, if you have a modern engine or a perf engine with aftermarket hi-po gasket kits and seals.Castrol GT: My preferred conventional oil -- I have never seen slidge or excessive wear in any of my castrol engines.Amsoil: Very, very highly regarded in diesel circles. Those motors are virtual mechanical marvels so if its got a good rep with "million mile" motors, that's good enough for me!Mobil 1: I only use this stuff now. I thought that Toyota was using Mobil 1 in all of its engines (I had a '00 Tundra whose manual specifically called for it.) but maybe not the NUMMI Ponyota 1.8L ...

[drunkenmaxx]

wow. what about quaker state?

[cknight725]

Don't really have an opinion about "The Q" ... never used it and don't have any cogent and well crafted opinions from others to pass on ...Sorry!

[goodvibe]

Quaker State was as big of a sludger as Pennzoil back in the day and it only took a fill or 2 to cause some real problems. That is no longer the case in either of these oils. They're both no more sludge prone than Castrol dyno in todays formulas. If you don't want to give them your dollars because of checkered past, I have no problem with that just like some poeple won't buy Castrol because they sell severly hydroprocessed dino as synthetic and lowered the bar by doing so. Red Line is great stuff but I wouldn't use it if you don't do a few long runs per week. It has a high content of Ester base oil which is somewhat hydroscopic and a hot run is a good idea to burn off moisture. Current SM Castrol, Pennzoil, Havoline, Chevron and Tropartic are all great oils and cheap. As for addatives Lube Control works at extending the useful period of an oil and keeps the motor clean by disolving carbon and sludge and keeping it in suspension. Valvoline Synpower is also good if you want a to add a dose of soluble Moly, Zddp, and Borate antiwear/friction to the oil. It also has some Calcium for cleaning. These are the same adds as are used in current oils. Just don't use more than 1 oz per quart and not the whole 15 oz bottle as recommended or you'll raise your viscosity. The current SM -GF4 formulas have less ZDDP to alow manufacturers to give longer Catalyst warrantees. ZDDP is one of if not the most effective wear additive out there and cheap but the Phosphors are bad for your converter. If you don't burn oil, it's a non-issue. One of the reasons Amsoil is so good is that they use higher than API standards of ZDDP along with true synthetic PAO basestocks purchased from Mobile with possibly a small amount of synthetic Esters for seal swell.

[scott_h]

I've read good things about Mobil 1, and plan on switching in both our Vibe (4,000 miles or so right now) and Maxima (nearly 80,000) at their next oil changes. Costco has 6 quarts for 24.50, which seams like a pretty good deal.At the Maxima forum, people say great things about both Mobil and Napa filters (and stay away from Fram). Any other recommendations? Are they as hard to find for the Vibe as people report for the air filter?

[utahindie]

Quote, originally posted by goodvibe »Change to synth or back any time that you like. Your seals would have to be totally gone for a leak to develop. At one time synths didn't have the adds needed to swell seals like dino and the seals were of different materials. That's no longer the case. If a leak occured it would only be from the synth cleaning the sludge away from a broken seal. If your not sludged and worn out there's no problem.forgive me for my oversight. its a bad habit. the scenerio only rarely happens. and yes, mostly in older vehicles. as far as filters go. i've worked with valvoline filters and they seemed to work as well as napa filters. but i wouldnt compare them to napa gold. the only real way to tell is to chop them in half and check out the differences. a filter with very few folds of fabric to catch oil contaminants is a junk filter (see fram). usually if they feel heavier they probably have more "guts" inside them. i know they have different types of valve mechanisms to prevent backflow but i havent researched oil filters to that extent.

[MrCritical]

Ditto. Stay away from Fram Oil Filters.

[MrCritical]

NAPA filters are made by Wix, which is one of the highest ratedfilters.

[zionzr2]

guess I'm gonna have to find somplace else to do my changes since Wal-mart droped acdelco filters and only use fram....

[binary]

Quote, originally posted by zionzr2 »guess I'm gonna have to find somplace else to do my changes since Wal-mart droped acdelco filters and only use fram....Same here... sucks too. The dealers want you to bend over when you buy them there. I ended up buying the slightly more expensive Frams until I can find another store that sells better filters. I plan on switching to Synthetic after about 8k on my engine. Gives the moving parts enough friction to get seated and settled in... then I'll switch.I used Mobil1 in my last four cars... switched my Mustang's 5.0L after 50k... never leaked a drop or burned any either. My Contour had 138k when I traded it in after switching to Mobil1 at 14k miles. It never lost a drop even after 8-10k oil change intervals. for Mobil1 to myths about switching over from dino-oil.

[binary]

Quote, originally posted by utahindie »as far as running synthetic after 30k miles and whatnot its not a "myth" so to speak. What happens is when you use regular oil it has a higher wax content then synthetic because of the way they formulate synthetic in the labs. the wax then builds up creating a sort of "barrier" and when you switch to synthetic the detergent package they use takes all that excess wax and gets rid of it thus removing the "barrier". An engine that suddenly leaks after you switch to synthetic is a perfect example of this happening.The reasoning behind this is that your oil's wax is preventing leaks - and that just isn't true. People also say that regular oil causes seals to "swell" and the synthetic doesn't - causing more leaks.Synthetic is made of molecules of all one size, which is less likely to leak compared to "natural" oil which is made of many different sizes of molecules. But that's a very moot point in most engines these days... either oil will leak from a poor seal or gasket - switching oils will do nothing.The main reason behind going synthetic the scientific proof that synthetic oils will last longer, work better, and don't create sludge by burning up on the hot cylinder walls and then settling in other areas of your engine.I have seen the difference in internal wear between a high milage engine that had synthetic and regular oil... it was amazing. You could tell when you took the heads off which had used synthetic - that's exactly what I want my engine to look like.

[goodvibe]

There is no proven wear difference between synth and dino oil and used oil analysis will favor one or the other based more on the additive package and engine compatibility then the base oil. There's plenty of great running clean motors with over 200k mi. on them that have used nothing but dino. There are 3 different kind of synthetics in common use. Grp III (Castrol, Pennzoil)is most common and isn't all one size molecule though the spread is smaller than dino. It's highly refined dino and needs additives for seal swell, cleaning and solvency. These adds are often carried in dino oil because of its superior solvency. Grp IV is PAO (M1, Amsoil), needs seal adds, also has poor solvency and needs adds for cleaning. More regular molecules but the wider the visc spread the more different sizes plus the additive carrier will be different also. GrpV (esters) great solvency and the most consistent. cleans and protects great but can cause too much seal swell and is hydroscopic. Redline is over 50% ester and Amsoil uses a small amount as the additive carrier and seal swell agent. The advantage if synth is that it doesn't break down as quickly as dino and therefore shouldn't sludge things up but modern dino is getting close to Grp III performance and should be fine for those that don't like to keep oil in their sumps for more than 5k mi. If you aren't doing extended drains or running super high temps like from a turbo then there's no real advantage to synthetic. Obviously, some are better then others. A sludged high mileage motor can leak from synth because as the sludge gets displaced from around the seals, openings will expose themselves but if the motor was well maintained with dino this isn't an issue. If your dirty or leaky, try Auto RX. A great organic ester that cleans slowly and effectively. I currently am using a 4 qt havoline to 1 qt redline mix and an oversized filter at 5k intervals. I like some ester in the oil as it's also polar and clings to metal. It can climb a dip stick. Great for cold starts and the add packs of these 2 oils are similar. ( lots of Moly)

[binary]

Quote, originally posted by goodvibe »There is no proven wear difference between synth and dino oil and used oil analysis will favor one or the other based more on the additive package and engine compatibility then the base oil. There's plenty of great running clean motors with over 200k mi. on them that have used nothing but dino. There are 3 different kind of synthetics in common use. Grp III (Castrol, Pennzoil)is most common and isn't all one size molecule though the spread is smaller than dino. It's highly refined dino and needs additives for seal swell, cleaning and solvency. These adds are often carried in dino oil because of its superior solvency. Grp IV is PAO (M1, Amsoil), needs seal adds, also has poor solvency and needs adds for cleaning. More regular molecules but the wider the visc spread the more different sizes plus the additive carrier will be different also. GrpV (esters) great solvency and the most consistent. cleans and protects great but can cause too much seal swell and is hydroscopic. Redline is over 50% ester and Amsoil uses a small amount as the additive carrier and seal swell agent. The advantage if synth is that it doesn't break down as quickly as dino and therefore shouldn't sludge things up but modern dino is getting close to Grp III performance and should be fine for those that don't like to keep oil in their sumps for more than 5k mi. If you aren't doing extended drains or running super high temps like from a turbo then there's no real advantage to synthetic. Obviously, some are better then others. A sludged high mileage motor can leak from synth because as the sludge gets displaced from around the seals, openings will expose themselves but if the motor was well maintained with dino this isn't an issue. If your dirty or leaky, try Auto RX. A great organic ester that cleans slowly and effectively. I currently am using a 4 qt havoline to 1 qt redline mix and an oversized filter at 5k intervals. I like some ester in the oil as it's also polar and clings to metal. It can clime a dip stick. Great for cold starts and the add packs of these 2 oils are similar. ( lots of Moly)Wow, I thought my understanding of oil was pretty solid. I'm going to have to do more research (and keep my opinionated mouth shut) until I know more I worked for many a year in a garage during my skoolin' days. I learned first hand what an engine with synthetic looked like after a 100k mile tear down and a dino engine looked like. There is a bit of bias in the synthetic though - people who will buy synthetic are more likely to maintain their vehicles better. So I guess there's a self fullfilling prophecy with synthetic oils and wear tests.I think I was most impressed with the first sports car I owned when I was working at the garage. An 87 Mustang GT. The 302 HO motors were notorious for sludging up in various places. A quick inspection of the valve train showed considerable gunk at 50k miles. Switching it over to Mobil1 and changing the oil and filters every month for the first 6 months really cleaned up a lot of it. AutoRX would have been nice but I was always leary of "snake oils" and didn't want to loosen up everything at once... a good way to plug an oil channel and spin a bearing or other non-niceness. And for cold starts, I just replaced the battery with a 1100cca Interstate... even on a ballfreezing cold WI wintern night that beast turned over like it was a summer morning.

[scott_h]

I just put Mobil 1 synthetic + filter in the Vibe (7k) today - first time I've ever used synthetic. I plan on changing in my Maxima (80k) next oil change as well.

[McVibe]

Yea, when I changed my oil last I put in some QuakerState Advanced Engine Syn Oil and Fram double guard and my Vibes Idol RPMs has actually gone down below thw 1k mark since I've been using it.