I spoke to someone today that swore his life on synthetic oil but couldn't really say why...

As a ram owner what do you use for oil?

Pros and cons....

 

Synthetic in everything I own that takes oil.

 

Until I don't have to change oil at 2500 mile intervals in the Ram due to warranty, I will use cheaper dino oil. I use synthetic for all my other cars and have for years.

 

2500 mile interval? Really? I'm not being a butt head but I'm really shocked. Did Dodge make a radical change like this in just 1-year: The interval in the manual for my 2011 reads 8000 or 6-months. I think 8000 is too long and won't do it. I'm running full synthetic in everything I own and believe 4 to 5k is about right for me. I just turned 5k and have already changed twice just because I believe the break-in period is the most important for any engine.

If you do your homework on synthetics you'll find that the major difference is in viscosity break-down. Natural oil breaks down much faster.

Ofcourse if my warranty said 2500, I'd be right there with you brother. I'd probably run natural as well. Besides that, in my 40-years of vehicle ownership I've never had an engine component fail because of lack of maintenance. Synthetic or natural; change at the proper interval for your driving conditions and your engine should last a long time.

 

Synthetic oil is significantly better than conventional oil at holding it's viscosity in low and high temperatures. Has much greater shear stability, is much more resistant to oxidation and thermal breakdown.
It's molecules are of uniform size, with conventional they vary greatly and smaller molecules will evaporate at temp while larger ones will cause sludge.

The only negatives to using a synthetic oil is that it can expose leaks in the engine, specifically around seals that the larger globules (sludge) has plugged up. Because the detergent additives in synthetic oils tend to be much better, they will break down this sludge. The myth is that synthetic oils cause leaks, the reality is it merely exposes them.
The only other negative that I can think of is no longer valid. Back when I was a teen, you could still get leaded fuel as well as unleaded, and I chose to run leaded premium. I had a few sports cars and older trucks way back that you could run leaded fuel in as well as some motorcycles until well into the late '80s that ran on leaded fuel. Lead does not suspend in synthetic oil like it does in conventional oil. With synthetic it settles and accumulates. It's never a good idea to run synthetic in an engine that uses leaded fuel...

 

+1 for synthetic. It's all about uniformity.

 

The BIGGEST advantage of running synthetic is it's ability to be long change capable.

If you stick to the manufacturers recommendation for changes, any oil will be OK. With the synthetic in there, you don't have to worry if you can't get it changed "on schedule." It will still be doing it's job, until you drain it.

 

Ok, I said 2,500 miles because that's when the dash lights up and tells me to. I'm assuming that if you don't do it then, the dealership can bring up warranty issues if you continue on to 4, 5 or 6k miles. Isn't the 6K miles interval figure best case - long freeway drives. And if mine tells me to change at 2,500 its due to my driving habits - I do lots of short trips - live close to where I work. I'd love to ignore dash and go longer on miles, but wouldn't I be putting my warranty in jeopardy?? (By the way, I go around 1.5 years and about 5-7k miles between oil changes on my 06 E350 MB sedan - it's out of warranty.)

 

Are you just talking about the first oil change? I believe a n early change is programmed into the truck for that, usually around 2500 miles.

 

the oil change monitor is supposed to be duty based... the computer calculates when you'll need your oil changed...

OK that's the party line, but I don't buy it.

I had a '08 QC with the HEMI, and exactly every 2500 miles my change oil message would come on. I didn't really care, as I had 5 yrs of free oil changes when I purchased it. It was no skin off of my nose, all it cost me was about an hour of my time. It didn't seem to matter how I was driving... I could drive it like I stole in on the hiway for 2000 miles and it would still go off at 2500, I could do the same thing with short in town runs, no change. I also tried driving it like I was well in to my 70s (and probably should've stopped driving yrs ago)... you guessed it, no change!

Since I've purchases my ''10 CC Sport I've changed the oil twice. I've got almost 9K on it now. The first time was about 1700 miles (was getting ready to take a road trip, and wanted fresh oil for the 3K round trip), and the second time was a little after 5K. During that time I never got my change oil message. About 300 miles after I changed the oil it came on.... I reset and ignored it after checking to make sure the levels were fine and giving it a visual inspection...

I use Mobil 1 5W20 synthetic ('cause it's cheap at Wally World) and a Mobil 1 filter every 5K. I check the oil at least weekly and every time I get gas, never had any troubles..

just my take

Exco