Synthetic or regular oil
 

Hi - I've read several post regarding what oil people use and I am curious (since the car is new to me) should I ask dude who owned it what oil he used? I'm planning on changing EGR valve, oil & filters this weekend but not sure what's best for an 03 Monte LS with 210K miles.
Any advice would be helpful... seems this topic is all over the board.
Thanks
E

If I where buying it I would ask the previous owner. I always used mobile 1 in my 06 Monte SS since the day it was new. But if the previous owner did not use synthetic oil, at 210k miles I see no need to start now and incur the extra expense

I'll try to text him and see - I didn't think of these questions when I bought it two weeks ago... Thanks Tad

I'd personally just continue to run whatever is currently in the car. If its synthetic, stay with that, if its conventional stick with that. Pull the dipstick, usually conventional oil is a bit darker than synthetic and you might be able to tell that way, or check with the previous owner like you said.

Hi Evie,

I agree with both Tadd and Keane. At 210K it's kinda' late to change to synthetic that will extend the life of the engine if it has not been treated with it in the past. Most of the wear has already happened.

I'd just put regular oil in it. With that kind of mileage, if the powertrain is original, then it doesn't have a ton of life left anyways. I think that the difference in cost could be better put towards saving for a new car or a new powertrain (if the rest of the car is in really good shape).

For me using synthetic or regular oil is more about other things.

- length of time between oil changes
- cold weather starts (freezing temps)
- hot engine running and maybe when driving it harder (not sure on this one)

again for me as long as you change oil of either kind at recommended intervals and use a proper filter for each oil type you will probably end up at the same point with engine life.
For me it is more around convenience as I drive a lot of miles and I change my own oil so I use synthetic.