RMills944

What is semi-synthetic oil? I've read all the threads on Synthetic versus dyno oil, but what is semi-synthetic oil? Is it better than dyno oil at all? Is there a way to tell the synthetic v. dyno blend?

seb928s

NOT WORTH IT.

It's a mix of dino and syn oils. Might as well be putting dino oil IMHO. We stopped selling that stuff at work. It's one or the other so just use dino or syn oils.

AznDrgn

I've always wondered how much synthetic is actually in a synthetic blend oil. For those people who insist on using it I'd say buy some dino oil and replace a quart or two with synthetic. I personally don't see any point in it, like seb said use one or the other.

pearldrum944

I heard something about that it can be .01% synthetic and still be called semi-syth. I would just ue full synthetic.

Chris_924s

Here goes my usual rant.. My experience- Mobil1 exclusively in a daily driven Porsche for almost 8 years.

If you wanna do Dino- fine, synthetic does NOT cause leaks, but will propagate thru existing leaks plugged by dino-oil. I wouldnt trust a "mix" - no real benefit from it over dino.

and drugs are bad, mmkay!

Zero10

mmmkay mr counsellor from south park!

Anyhoo...
Yep, there is no law restricting the synthetic oil content in a synthetic blend, or semi-synthetic oil.
I think they are required to list SOMEWHERE what the synthetic content is though, but I'm not sure on that.

IMO, just go with a full synthetic, your engine will thank you for it.

yoyoguy2

i think the blends have their place, espeically when you consider that most "synthetic" oils are just improved formulas still made on conventional, pulled from the ground oil base stocks. so theyr'e really just a grade between the different levels of hydrocracked oil, the regular and the synthetic, like the mid grade gas or whatever.

Techno Duck

From what i have read, is it true that Mobil 1 is not a full synthetic oil? I believe they said something about Castrol Syntech was 100% synthetic.

Im not sure if that is true or not, i read that a few months ago here on the forums.

Matt H

I LOVE it!! GF5 is the new industry standard. I am willing to place a crisp 20 dollar bill your "dino" oil is already semi-syn. If it isnt it will be by March 05 as that is the latest the industry is switching from GF4. Most major manufacturers, Kendall for one have already made the switch and some made it 6 months ago!
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seb928s

Matt Yes some of the dino oils we sell are semi-syn but they are not market as a syn blend oil. I think the syn blend oils that are for sale it's worthless to pay the extra money for something you get with some dino oils now. Also the oil prices went up once again for us. It's like a 3 month thing now it goes up.

yoyoguy2

other way around, mobil 1 is the only really readily avaliable oil that is full synthetic, using PAO and ester bases. syntec is not, EXCEPT for (get this) the 0w30 weight which is labeled "made in germany." yeah, the german one is synthetic.

the new oil standards for dino are also outrageous, as matt h pointed out, so there's probably not any problem with using them. but of course, i say that but use fleet grade extended service oil like delvac 1 myself, at 8 bucks a quart....

Matt H

Yep, I agree 100%. New reports also show that people are changing their oil less frequently. It will soon be difficult to be a oil change only type place. Then again, they charge so much it wont hurt anything but the bottom line.
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seb928s

We are an indepentant shop around we charge 21.95 which comes out to 23.49 with tax. Jiffy lube and them start around 30$ which is a hugh rip off. We used to charge a buck less but was in August before the oil company started to raise the price up every 3 months now. That is for oil that is worth something GTX. There are shops that do the oil change for 9.95 use and use crap oils but those would be shops that make you pay probably 50-75$ atleast for the oil change cause they make up stuff about needing this and that.

Matt H

About average, I would say for most times of the year.

Not really a rip off, more that there only business is the quick lube stuff, they make money doing it.

Careful, major chains do that as well and I assure you they are not using crap oil. It could be that those shops buy EDIT 11.5 MILLION gallons of oil a year.

Not much reason to make stuff up. The average car needs about 200 dollars in repair work. There are some shops that are just plain cheats but for the most part that is not true. There is nothing wrong with selling a customer an air filter if the car NEEDS one. There is also nothing wrong with checking the rest of the car to see if something is broken. Would you rather know now...or when it breaks?
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RMills944

I was just wondering. I use Mobil 1 full synthetic in the Porsche, but just got Valvoline Semi-synth for my neon becuase my brother's Advanced Auto had a huge sale for containers with an old lable (as cheap as regular dino oil). I was just wondering what was going into my car though.

I thought it was a bad idea to mix synthetic and regular oil?
Also, I'm debating switching that car to synthetic or not right now because it's getting mainly highway miles, has only 8000 miles on it, and I'd have to change the oil less often.