First time poster on this board. I just bought my first Volvo- a 2010 XC60 T6. The dealer has all the records and it has always had regular oil put in it. Some people have told me synthetic is better for a turbo model. Is this true? I hear the oil changes for a synthetic are much more expensive. Does it make it run better, faster, etc.? Thoughts?

 

I have used synthetic oil in our Volvos after the first oil change at 7500 miles. I keep cars for a long time and I do believe that synthetic oil is a better lubricant than standard oil refined from crude oil.

Synthetic oil is significantly more expensive than standard oil, but the labor charge for changing the oil is the same. Synthetic oil is more resistant to heat degradation which can occur in the oil lubricated bearings of the turbocharger.

Synthetic oil has a longer lifetime in the engine. I use Mobil1 5W-30 Extended Performance in both my 2004 V70 2.4L and in my wife's 2007 XC90 3.2L. Neither of these are turbocharged, and it could well be that standard oil changed at 7500 miles would do as well for less money, but I can afford it and I just do it.

I have the oil changed once a year because we put less than 10,000 miles per year on the cars.

 

James- thank you for the info. Once you put synthetic in do you have to stick with synthetic for the life of the car? Also, if I use synthetic I can change it after 7,500 miles?

 

You can change back and forth between standard and synthetic oils as often as you wish.

When our cars are in warranty I change oil according to the schedule in the manual, which for Volvos is 7500 miles, even though synthetic oil will last longer. Once out of warranty I will let it go to 10,000 miles or longer.

 

Mobil 1 5W-30 Extended Performance has a recommended change interval of 15,000 miles. This is a conservative interval according to Mobil's own testing. Mobil 1 5W-30 EP is a very good oil that you can buy at Walmart for about 30 bucks a gallon. I have run it as far as 21,000 miles in my Toyota Sequoia with no problems and have the oil analysis to prove it.

The USA is in the stone age on oil change intervals. A result of scaremongering by the various parties that make money from too-frequent oil changes, including your Volvo dealer.

Bottom line? Install a high quality synthetic oil and run it AT LEAST 10,000 miles.

 

I am glad to hear that your oil analysis shows that the synthetic oil is going the waranted distance.

I use Mobil1 5W-30 EP in both of our Volvos, a 2004 V70 2.4L non-turbo, and a 2007 XC90 3.2L non-turbo. This is warranted for 15,000 miles or 1 year. I change oil once a year.

I once let the oil go for 12,000 miles, but usually we don't go that far in a year.

 

Sounds like I should go the synthetic route especially since I keep cars a long time too. Thank you both for the information.

 

Do you think it is OK to extend the time interval for changing synthetic oil? I am currently changing Mobil1 5W-30 at 1 year but I wonder about letting it go for 1.5 year or even 2 years if the distance traveled is less than 15,000 miles.

Do you think the standard Volvo oil filters will last 18 months or 2 years, or should these be changed at say 1 year?

 

Stick with once per year if you can. There are other factors, other than the oil that are in play here. You don't want a $200 bill for removal of a stuck oil filter that had a seal that wouldn't let go of the base.

 

It is not that common these days that an oil filter sticks, but here is a possible way to free it: start the engine and then wrench on the filter. The pressure of the oil should help loosen it. Of course, in order to do this the oil cannot have been drained first.

I discovered this in 1978 with the old style metal can filter on my Dodge Dart.

For a reason I can no longer remember I thought the filter might be hard to remove and so I tried to loosen it before draining the oil. If I couldn't get it off, I planned to take the car to a shop and have them change the oil and filter.

And I was correct the filter was stuck on hard. I wrenched and wrenched but it would not budge. It suddenly occurred to me start the engine--the filter came right off.

Naturally, this one trial is not sufficient to establish that this actually works, but it's possible that this would make the difference in some cases.

 

Yes, absolutely, 2 years is no problem, the oil does not have access to a calendar. The Volvo oil filters will last more or less indefinitely. The one year change thing is just marketing boilerplate.

The one thing I'd add is that it's important to regularly get your engine up to full operating temperature. If you only drive short trips - two or three miles - make a point of taking the car out for a longer drive every couple of weeks.

 

I think you guys are nuts. Once you put the oil in a car, install a filter and turn that ignition key, the process of contamination and degradation starts. To add to that situation, short driving trips and sitting up somewhere allows the process to continue. I wouldn't let no kind of used oil sit in the motor of my car for almost 2 years and try to drive the car anywhere. I believe our oil filters have a paper base, I could be wrong. At any rate, soaking a filter material in hot pressurized oil then letting it sit for 18 months with off/on use will surely degrade.

I'd rather spend $45 twice per year and be on the safe side than try to save $135 every 18 months and risk messing up the motor in my car.

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

There's no risk. The oil degrades very slowly. Two things happen to it. It gets dirty and the additive package gets used up. The only reasons to change the oil at all are (a) because the filter allows the oil to get gradually dirtier, (b) because eventually the oil becomes acidic as the acid-neutralizing additives are depleted.

Most European cars have a 30,000km (~19,000 mile) oil change interval. Porsche in the US has a 20,000 mile/2 year oil change interval. Over the road trucks run their oil 100,000 miles or more. This Mack truck ran a 409,000 mile oil change interval.

But that 3,000 mile OCI is hard to shake. Jiffy Lube sends their love.

 

There's a big problem with extreme positions here. The 3,000 mile change is definitely a marketing tool (drinking the Kool-aid) and is often unnecessary and almost always wasteful. However, the extremely long high mileage intervals work far better for professional drivers or in OCD clinical situations where people never start the car unless they are driving 15-20 miles or avoid even the mildest windy days to prevent any trace of dust, than they do for real people. Behavior somewhere in the middle is where most people exist. I defy anyone to pop the head on a BMW that has been driven 20,000 on the factory recommended European formula synthetic and not see a filthy, sludge-filled and coked engine that has varnish coked on it. And I don't mean 20,000 miles on a test bench.

Most manufacturers design service intervals for real world driving conditions and reasonable warranty claim reserves.

 

Some engines are more prone to sludging and coking. My 2004 Toyota Sequoia with 145,000 miles gets an oil change once a year with an OCI in the range of 16,000 to 18,000 miles. No sludging or coking and runs like a new vehicle.

My opinion is that synthetic oil and a 10,000 mile OCI is a conservative and risk-free oil change regime.

 

I agree, but only in selected situations. For the thousands of people driving the Toyota Sienna V6 kid-haulers just a few years ago who suffered catastrophic engine failures due to lubrication due to sludge from the combination of poor oil galley design and inadequate engine/oil warmup, 5,000 OCI wasn't long enough.

 

Did any of these failures occur when synthetic oil was used? Did the oil gallery design cause overheating of the oil which degraded standard oil but which did not degrade synthetic oil?

As far as I know the original oil fill of all mass produced cars is standard oil. Reportedly this allows the rings to wear to fit tight whereas synthetic oil is such a good lubricant that the rings never wear to fit.

 

Dealers are going to tell you to change the oil at 15 or 20 K so when the engine dosen't run the way it should they can get you into a new car. Also when you get a oil change its a good times to inspect the car to find little problems before they get to be major ones.

 

I've never seen that. Dealers make the majority of their profit in their service department so want you coming in as often as possible. Most dealers will tell you to change your oil at 5,000 miles or even 3,000 miles regardless of the manufacturer's recommended OCI.