Brand new car, Mineral or Synthetic engine oil?

[Voodoo_SV6]

Newb to Holden question. I can't find this topic covered elsewhere.

I am coming from a long term love with Subaru cars. Their factory recommendation is to only have mineral oil in the engine for the first 12,500 kms minimum.

This is part of their running in process and they claim that synthetic oil will not allow their run in proceedure to occur correctly and the engine will take longer to loosen up.

I always do a very early oil change on my new cars, typically within the first 500km and will then be doing 7500km changes thru the life of the car.

Do Holden suggest Mineral or Synthetic as their runnning in oil?

[TinSnips]

If you put the motor under enough stress early on, the run-in process (for the motor at least) should be done and dusted by 500km. HSV, for instance, use Mobil 1 as factory fill - which is group 4 full synthetic oil. There's a few threads on running in new commodores on the site, have a flick through them to get an idea of what's required. Basically, don't baby it (obviously don't rev it through the roof either) but you want to put the motor under a reasonable amount of stress to bed everything in. Don't sit at highway speeds for extended periods and try and use all the gears. Just make the car work harder than average for the first 500 ish and you should be fine. The worst thing you can do is cruise in it straight up. If you're doing the oil change after 500, then so long as you've got everything bedded in properly, full synth will be fine. Make sure the filter gets filed in the bin as well and replaced with a newy.

Holden have their first scheduled service at 3000km - if the piston rings aren't sealed properly by then, something is very wrong. When you take it in for this service, an oil change isn't part of it - make sure they do one! (and use the best oil you can afford at the time). You'll need a new filter and new oil - there shouldn't be much in the way of crap wearing off new motors any more due to better manufacturing processes - but I would definitely be changing oil then regardless. I would also then change it at 7500, then again at the 15,000 service - and every 7500 after that.

[tomholzy]

I put Royal Purple in at 3000 and havent looked back!

[Cameron P]

I am coming from a long term love with Subaru cars. Their factory recommendation is to only have mineral oil in the engine for the first 12,500 kms minimum.

This is part of their running in process and they claim that synthetic oil will not allow their run in proceedure to occur correctly and the engine will take longer to loosen up.

LOL who fed you this garbage

[TinSnips]

LOL who fed you this garbage

manufacturers do. Because they don't trust people to run their cars in properly.

[Cameron P]

they might put mineral oil in from factory but from the first service onwards subaru use fully synthetic

[BackyardSpecial]

Sorry not correct, Subaru use Semi synthetic and the first service is at 12500 kms.
previously at 5000kms. will not use full synthetic unless you ask and pay for more.

[Cameron P]

sorry semi synthetic..

brand new liberty's and outback's dont have the 5,000km service but everything else does..

[Voodoo_SV6]

LOL who fed you this garbage

FAQs - Subaru Australia

F.H.I. (Subaru Japan) have advised that they only require the engine oil used in Subaru vehicles to comply with the A.P.I. (American Petroleum Institute) classification for oil Quality and the S.A.E. (Society of Automotive Engineers) rating for oil viscosity as listed in your vehicle Owners Manual. F.H.I. do not differentiate between mineral and synthetic oils nor recommend a specific brand. Subaru Australia recommends staying with mineral engine oil until approximately 5000 to 6000kms to reduce the time and mileage taken to run in the engine. Synthetic oil generally produces less friction and therefore the engine run in time may be greater than mineral oil.

The people who make the car - that's who.

Although, they used to say minimum 12,500 many years ago

[Voodoo_SV6]

If you put the motor under enough stress early on, the run-in process (for the motor at least) should be done and dusted by 500km. HSV, for instance, use Mobil 1 as factory fill - which is group 4 full synthetic oil. There's a few threads on running in new commodores on the site, have a flick through them to get an idea of what's required. Basically, don't baby it (obviously don't rev it through the roof either) but you want to put the motor under a reasonable amount of stress to bed everything in. Don't sit at highway speeds for extended periods and try and use all the gears. Just make the car work harder than average for the first 500 ish and you should be fine. The worst thing you can do is cruise in it straight up. If you're doing the oil change after 500, then so long as you've got everything bedded in properly, full synth will be fine. Make sure the filter gets filed in the bin as well and replaced with a newy.

Holden have their first scheduled service at 3000km - if the piston rings aren't sealed properly by then, something is very wrong. When you take it in for this service, an oil change isn't part of it - make sure they do one! (and use the best oil you can afford at the time). You'll need a new filter and new oil - there shouldn't be much in the way of crap wearing off new motors any more due to better manufacturing processes - but I would definitely be changing oil then regardless. I would also then change it at 7500, then again at the 15,000 service - and every 7500 after that.

Thanks for the info, I am up to speed with some peoples preferred run in process and I stick pretty much to what you have suggested.

Last Subaru and Falcon I changed oils on in the first few hundred kms had noticable metal particles in the removed oil. Yes oil filter is a must every change, or it's pretty pointless.

I was more wondering about mineral or synthetic, sounds like I will leave it till I have had it a week then change it to fully synthetic which is good as I have no mineral oil in the right grade, but have over 50 litres of synthetic in the shed