Mephistopheles Jones > wrote in message in.com>...
> On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 09:58:17 -0700, Tim Shoppa wrote:
>
> > Mephistopheles Jones > wrote in message in.com>...
> >> I've got a 1993 SL2 manual 144,000 miles. First a quick question: do you
> >> guys pay $5/qt for the Mobil 5W30 synthetic oil? I can't seem to find it
> >> cheaper anywhere else. I'm in Los Angeles, by the way.
> >
> > No offense (I have a 92 SL1), but the car isn't worth enough to
> > justify putting synthetic into it at this point. Maybe if you
> > really abuse the engine (high-speed driving for long stretches... I-15...)
> >
>
> Well, two things: my gas mileage recently dropped significantly on my
> last trip up to the Bay Area (used to be 31+ mpg, now it was 26 mpg, but
> maybe it was because I was due for an oil change?)

Oil changes are good... but won't make that much difference in mileage.

*If* you were going to go to 30K mile change invervals and doing it
with synthetic, then it'd be a win. But I doubt that is what you're
trying to do.

> the synthetic would correct it. Also, I plan to be driving this car for
> the next ten years, as long as it can pass the emissions tests, so to me
> it's worth spending an extra $10 every 3 months on my present car (if it
> extends life) than spending $1000 every 3 months on a car payment.

If you've been changing the oil every 3 months for the past decade, you've
already been treating the engine pretty nicely. IMHO switching to synthetic
at this point would only make sense if you were going to some really long
oil change interval, and even then I'm not sure that's better than what
you've been doing.

You probably do want to stick your head under the hood every couple of
months. Lots of rubber things will be near the end of their lives most
likely, and you want to catch them before they leave you stranded.

Tim.