ClubCJ - The CJ Lancer Club

Coming up to second Capped service (have 5 free) and considering changing to full synthetic oil.
My personal mechanic of passed 26 years has suggested I don't switch over till I have covered at
least 5000ks, should be there by next service.
Was considering using Nulon which I have used in the passed, works fine and reasonable price,
or push up to Mobil one which is expensive but supposed to be the best, or should I continue using
Castrol but fully synthetic. Any suggestions?

After 5000klm would be fine,the engine should be well run in by then.

Personally I would just stick with a good brand semi synthetic oil. Much cheaper and more than suitable. Modern day engines will last around 400,000 km with normal driving and regular services.
Buying expensive oil for a street na car is just a waste of money

Synthetic oil doesn't have to be expensive. Also you will simply not get 15,000 km out of semi-synthetic, at least with having the oil lubricating and doing the other things it does properly.

I admit I only cover about 5000ks a year, so distance traveled is not a concern. My concern rests with time period of a year
between services and cleanliness ie sludge etc as my usage involves mainly short hops of 1 to 3 Ks and some mainly 30k to 50k
runs. No stop start .

I have done 250,000kms on my lancer using semi-synthetic, doing oil changes every 15,000, dosent lose oil between changes and still drives as good as new.

Gleno wrote:I have done 250,000kms on my lancer using semi-synthetic, doing oil changes every 15,000, dosent lose oil between changes and still drives as good as new.

Hi Gleno, you obviously have had excellent results using semi-synthetic oil. Is all your running mainly long runs, short hops, stop start
or just an average mix? Notice your car is an EVO. Thought EVO's ran on synthetic from new.

Glen does not own an Evo. That is club cj post level. The more posts the higher the rating.

aspir3 wrote:Glen does not own an Evo. That is club cj post level. The more posts the higher the rating.

Apologies, still learning will not happen again.

I believe generally in modern engines you don't want to be running mineral oil or mineral oil blends. Your basic synthetic oils aren't expensive, and are decent as long as you get a decent brand (Penrite, Nulon etc), and also Gulf Western (syn-x 6000 is a really good and good valued oil suitable for the car if you can find it).

I believe Mitsubishi call for a 5W oil.

Nulon:
5w-20 (primary)
5w-30
5w-40,

Penrite:
HPR 0 0w-30 (primary)
HPR 5 5w-40

Castrol:
Edge 5w-30 (primary)
Magnatec Stop Start 5w-30 (I wouldn't go this one, unless high mileage)

Gulf Western:
Syn-x 6000 5w-40 (probably the best value, and is a great oil if you can find it)
SYN-STAR LV 0w20

Mobil:
Note that I had to google this one, it was the only one that didn't seem to have a proper lube guide. I would therefore take this with a bit of caution. Their main Australian site seems to target European brands now.
Mobil 1 0w-20
Super 3000 0w-30
Mobil 1 0w-30
Super 2000 5w-30
Mobil Formula S 5w-30

In each brand the recommended is at the top, then the lower ones are recommended in descending order. The common theme amongst these is that they're all synthetic. I guess another way to look at it is using any of the recommended oils from the different oil companies if there is a warranty issue you should be okay. If you decide to use some semi-synthetic oil not recommended to save $10 at every 15,000 km you may end up with warranty issues if something arises.

No offence to aspir3, you have to consider his car is a 2008 model? There was a change in the 2.0 L engines around 2012. For instance, for a 2008 Lancer Nulon recommend the 5w-30, 5w-40 fully synthetic, and last on the list is 15w-40 semi synthetic. The last is for extreme wear situations where you are burning oil. For the older pre-2013 2.0 L Lancers, penrite still recommend HPR 5 primarily, with their high end fully synthetic in the middle, and lastly their 5w-40 semi-synthetic. Remember that is only under pre-2013 Lancers, and would be for high mileage engines where it is burning oil.

As you can tell, I just wouldn't recommend trying to save $10 a year on cheapening out on oil

I would suggest this one:
https://www.autobarn.com.au/gulfwestern ... 00-5w40-5l

Probably the best way of explaining.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYkg0oDUXs8

The general consensus is that you should change your oil and filter often and not focus too much on what brand or type of oil providing it meets or exceeds the manufacturers specifications in your handbook.
remember this is a passenger vehicle not a high performance race car.
Occasionally you can get really cheap deals on OzBargain for fully synthetic oil. I exclusively use fully synthetic but i never pay full RRP.
cheapest was a 5L Valvoline syn 5w40 for around 20 bucks

@burfadel
These engines are not designed to burn oil. and using a thicker oil or switching to a mineral blend will only delay your problem of having oil transferred into the combustion chamber due to bad seals or rings.
"high Mileage oil" should be treated an marketing term until independently proven otherwise.
The only changes to the 4B11\12 engines was the addition of full electric power steering, a slight detune to meet competitive fuel consumption targets and a change in design of the intake filter.
don't focus too much on brand names as there is a LOT of marketing and hype out there but instead focus your attention to the API\ILSAC\ACEA standards that the oil you are buying meets or exceeds.

I wasn't trying to focus too much on brand names, just oils recommended. The high mileage oil was the only one I found that was semi-synthetic and 'recommended' for any of the Lancers, that's the only reason why I mentioned it. It was pretty silly of Mitsubishi I think not to make the 4J engines standard then (maybe even just having the 4J12 for areas without the 2 L restriction), seeing as they were already out at the time they made that change. Or even variable lift on the intake and exhaust ports like the New Zealand Lancers.

Generally it's like this, without taking anything else into consideration (age, type of car etc):
With recommended intervals for the car of:
5000 km / 3 months (older cars): Mineral
10,000 km / 6 months: Semi-synthetic
15,000 km / 9 or 12 months+: Fully synthetic.

This doens't mean you can use a fully mineral and change every 5000 km, or semi synthetic and 10,000 km, which would defeat the purpose of using them by the time you consider changing the oil and filter anyway, in a car that has 15,000 km service intervals. Then there's the next point. If there is isn't the difference in wear etc, then what's the point of using mineral/semi-synthetic for the first 5000 km to wear in the engine!

I was more stressing the point of using a fully synthetic that is suitable for the brand new car, rather than trying to save a few dollars. It's like starting to date a lovely non-bogan girl and trying to impress her on a first date with a 2 L cask wine that you got on special at Dan Murphys. It's not the smart thing to do, you're meant to refill a bottle from a good wine using that 2 L cask (or get the 4 L cask for better value), and recork it .

sarusa wrote:

Gleno wrote:I have done 250,000kms on my lancer using semi-synthetic, doing oil changes every 15,000, dosent lose oil between changes and still drives as good as new.

Hi Gleno, you obviously have had excellent results using semi-synthetic oil. Is all your running mainly long runs, short hops, stop start
or just an average mix? Notice your car is an EVO. Thought EVO's ran on synthetic from new.

I do a lot of freeway driving. At one stage I was driving from Sydney to the Gold Coast at least 4 times a year, and the traffic isn't as heavy on the Gold Coast compared to other major cities. The mechanic at the local Mitsubishi dealer has a lancer come in for servicing that has done over 400K with the original motor and CVT transmission.

And sadly I don't drive a EVO , just a VR model lancer.

Gleno wrote:

sarusa wrote:

Gleno wrote:I have done 250,000kms on my lancer using semi-synthetic, doing oil changes every 15,000, dosent lose oil between changes and still drives as good as new.

And sadly I don't drive a EVO , just a VR model lancer.

Nothing wrong with a VR probably better bet then an EVO for the type of driving your doing anyway. My car is just an ES Sport and I love it. Has less, so gives me greater ability to modify. So far Whiteline front strut brace, sound deadening and got rid of original Yokohama noise bags after 3000ks. Now speak in whispers at highway speeds and working on adding Bling to inside and outside, sport badges and chrome moulding. Still working on sound deadening, will stop when silent.

Hi burfadel, my car is a MY15 ES Sport and the owners manual states that I should use 10-40 oil for my climate, Melbourne and unless with temperatures well below what we experience in AUS: has all bases covered with use of oil at 40 hot and not 30 hot war as suggested by you. Any recommendations?