Thread: Yes, I'm a noob, with a noob question

I have just a general question about my '96 SE-R. I didn't buy it to modify it....it's just a daily driver, but it runs great. The question I have is about the mileage - it has 211,000 miles on it, as good as it runs....

Is there any basic "very high mileage" maintenance I should do to give it a chance for even higher mileage? The previous owners had the car for many years, and gave me a big stack of receipts showing all the work they had done, so it's been kept up mechanically. The body is rough, though.

Regular oil changes. Fix anything that's broken. You'll be on your way to 400k miles in no time, provided the chassis doesn't rust out from under you.

Should I start using synthetic oil now, or any other kind of specialty high-mileage oil, or is that stuff just a lot of hype?

Always use synthetic, unless you're breaking an engine or components in. It's not hype. Yes switch ASAP.

no

stick to regular oil. You put synthetic in now and your may get oil leaks. I have 263k on my motor using regular shell rotella or castrol and the inside of my motor is super clean. Keep a eye on the oil level with the high milage. If the car had less miles then syn oil would be ok.

He's a pic of my motor

http://www.sr20-forum.com/members-rides/25706-back-b15-game.html





Hardly any cam wear.

The oil leaks switching to synthetic at high miles is a myth. Well, partial myth. It is not a reason to stick with organic oil IMO.

It may not happen to all cars, but it happened to me enough times for me to know. Usually day after I change the oil, and it wasn't from changing the filter or drain plug. It started to seep from various gaskets. I wish it was a myth in my case.

see man you thought people would laugh at you, but you asked a very good question!

Community love for the win.

Here's the story with the synthetic oil leaks. The synthetics have much better detergents, which clean out all sorts of crud left by 100k miles of organic oil use. That crud in many cases is the only thing sealing the engine since the gaskets are long past their prime. Synthetic oil, with the better detergents cleans out the gunk from the entire engine, including the crud by the gaskets, which can cause oil leaks. I prefer to run synthetic even on old engines and fix the leaks properly with new gaskets, versus sticking with organic oil.

At least we can all make educated decisions on the issue and decide for ourselves since the cause is known. It was pretty annoying a while back when no one knew why it happened.