Re: [all] synthetic oil

["Ryan Schuermann" <rts@nol.net>]

you all have made very good points,let me now defend myself.
Partly due to ignorance, or lack of knowledge there of, I was in the 
middle of nowhere Alabama, and none of the gas station had Synthetic 
oil, I was scared to mix a few quarts of natural stuff, (I fled to 
Canada during the Jiffy-Lube draft). The oil light was not coming on,
the car was running exceptionally cool, what else could be wrong 
besides an improper dipstick, who knows if he slapped one on from a 
subaru or a honda or who knws what. The light did start to blink on 
turns and as soon as i pulled in the driveway near my home.

Come to find out adding oil would have done nothing to my car, 
possibly even damaging it as Ive had natural oil break down and 
seperate and warp my Jetta's head. I added oil the next morning, 3 
quarts, went strait through to the cement! I have a serious oil leak 
somewhere, the engine bay is spotless and I sure as heck can't get 
under the car. (2" from ground). All I know is I drove at least 
600miles with a very very small ammout of synthetic in the car and 
yeah it might have worn its life down a bit, but it's running strong,
and im almost positive hadit been natural oil I would have been 
driving a Flaming Rieger Scirocco...

Ryan
fix: as soon as i can take it to a shop and get it on the lift, i 
suspect an oil hose or something with a big hole in it, nothing
major as it wasnt leaking before the trip.

> At 1:49 PM -0700 08/01/1998, Kevin Collins wrote:
> >Ryan Schuermann wrote:
> >
> >> Case in point o nthe 1200 miles trip from Miami to Houston, about
> >> 600 miles into the trip I got some gas and decided to check the oil,
> >> there was no oil on the dipstick, the car was running fine so I
> >> assumed it to be a bad dipstick ... <snip>
> >
> >Bad dipstick?  Umm..... <????!!!>     :0
> 
> 
> I agree - not directed at you, Ryan, but for the benefit of those on the
> list, too much oil is better than no oil:).  Neither is good, but I'd
> probably have added oil until it at least read on the dipstick.  A quick
> way to see if there is _any_ oil in the engine is to take the oil fill cap
> off while the car is running and rev the engine - even with a splashguard,
> it'll spray around a bit.  I've never seen a "bad" dipstick - I've seen the
> tube break off, seen d/s which go in too far(reading overfull), never seen
> one not show any oil when the car has enough oil.  If I were on the
> highway, found there was no oil on the stick, I'd either add oil until
> there was enough, or worst case, drain the engine and add 3 quarts.  I find
> it hard to believe the engine ran 600 miles with _no_ oil - it'd make a lot
> of noise, not sure what the oil temp would do, even with synthetic(which is
> still oil, just more refined - it is _oil_, just better oil), eh, who
> knows.  It is an expensive mistake - if the engine(Ryan) did run 600m with
> no oil, its service life has shortened.  YMMV, etc, but if anyone else is
> faced with this, add oil, pay the $20 for an oil change at a truck stop, do
> something to ensure there is enough oil in the engine.
> 
> Interesting tidbit - last year, at the Denver Tour practice day, a guy spun
> a bearing in his MR2.  I listened to it, sounded bad, but not terrible.
> Did not know what was wrong, really.  A MR2 guy came over, listened for 10
> seconds, "your #2 bearing spun.  The engine is 1/2 quart low on oil."
> Walked away.  Uhh, ok.  We checked the oil, yup, about 3/4 quart low.  Guy
> returns, has a cell phone, gets put on hold.  Asks the car owner "When did
> you last check it?"  "Oklahoma," says the now disheartened owner.  MR2 guy
> rolls his eyes.  MR2 guy talked to someone on the phone, hung up, turns to
> MR2 owner, says "you can use my trailer to take it to(some Toyota place)."
> MR2 owner asks if it'll get to Texas.  MR2 guy says "we should'nt drive it
> on the trailer."  Oh.
> 
> Moral?  Check thy oil!!!  This MR2 was driven 500ish miles 1/2 quart low,
> then autocrossed 10 runs or so.  It spun a bearing.  Toyota motors, like
> them or not, are pretty bombproof.  I check the oil before each set of runs
> at an autocross, and again after.  It often loses 1/2 quart in a day of
> autocross(pukes it into the breather bottle).  This guy's problems were a
> result of sideloading/starvation - my Audi actually buzzed at me yesterday
> sliding around the airport, lots of rain, I was drifting it around in the
> puddles, got onto some concrete & starved for a second(1/2 second, maybe).
> Bzzt.  Eek!  Put a half quart in.  BMW autocrossers(E36 M3) run a bit
> overfull(1/2-1 quart) for this reason.  Keeps the lifters quiter, too.
> Motors like oil.  Engines are either expensive or a pain in the butt, or
> both.  We're lucky - we can buy an engine for $500 at most.  A belt broke
> recently on a friend's MR2 Turbo, its going to be $3000 to get it fixed.
> Yuk.
> 
> 
> I.Mannix(my Jeep had no dipstick, it leaked oil.  I added oil every now and
> then, for safety.  Changed the oil one day, 10q pan, it flooded the pan.  I
> put a dipstick in;)
> 
> 
> PS - before the naysayers start with "Toyotas suck, you said you've seen 2
> engines blow!" stuff, let me remind you that one was operator error, the
> other poor maintenance.  Had the belt been replaced sooner, #2 would not
> have happened.  Had the first guy checked the oil, he'd still be driving
> it, I am sure.  Also, in the 4 years I've been autocrossing, I have seen 2
> Toyota motors pop(those two), several Corrado VR6s blow headgaskets, 2
> Rabbit motors die(one bearing, one rings, not including Eric's), ummm, a
> 944 Turbo blew up recently at an event(left two trails of oil on the
> concrete), eh, think that's it.  Everything breaks eventually, most things
> seem to break because the owners do something wrong, it seems.  Oh yeah, a
> Supra spun a bearing last year, but _that_ owner is _REALLY_ suspect;).
> FWIW, figured I'd have to type this sooner or later;).
> 
> 
> 
> 
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