Full Synthetic and other questions

[Burfy]

Hello all, another couple of questions for everyone:wasntme: I just recently got 5w-30 full synthetic oil... I'm not sure what my car thinks of it though... It seems to be VERY lazy in the lower rpm band where before it was not... When it was idling (at about 700rpm) and I gave it the SLIGHTEST bit of gas, it died. Before I introduced full synthetic it had no problems like this. I also had an engine flush performed. I'm not sure how old the pan is though, hopefully the chemicals they used didn't muck it up Another problem I ran into (this was my fault) was the rad was extremely low on water and the temp gauge went past the 3/4 mark... My engine felt like it was mis-firing every 5 minutes... I was on a highway going ~100km/h and the car would lose all power for a second and dive forward, then recover. Which brings me to another thought of, is my clutch dying! It has been slipping (mostly on take-offs) and even when I pop the clutch it won't really jerk the car, it'll just rev down.

So things that I need advice on lol:
-Full synthetic 5w-30 good/bad for my 1.2L engine that has 294,300km on it
-Did I damage something from overheating it
-Is my clutch on its way out
-How do you tell if your cat converter is in need of replacement, currently the support has broken off and is rattling against the piping.

I've got the next 10 days off, and it's supposed to be beautiful weather, so I'm going to check my spark plugs/dizzy/everything associated with them and see if anything is worn.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Charlotte001]

I'd say on an older engine fully synthetic oil isn't going to do it a lot of good as the engine will have got used to burning mineral oils, synthetic and mineral oils burn differently. As long as you aren't doing F1 style driving or boy racer driving you will be ok. The engine may be feel down a while.

Semi Sythetic would be ok as it's got the mineral oil to back it up.

Charlotte

 

[paul_k10_Lx]

im sure ed has said before u need good old mineral oil in k10's fully synth is too thin

 

[whipit]

Another thing id like to point out is that an engine flush on an old engine can be the death of it. The flush is designed to remove particals of carbon built up within, the problem being that this carbon blocks gaps and feels holes which when removed by the flush can cause major engine problems.

 

[Burfy]

Another thing id like to point out is that an engine flush on an old engine can be the death of it. The flush is designed to remove particals of carbon built up within, the problem being that this carbon blocks gaps and feels holes which when removed by the flush can cause major engine problems.

Yea, I was certainly aware of this and took the chance. I've kept a very close eye on the pan and checked for puddles and so far it seems I'm in the clear. Unless you're saying that it'll create holes elsewhere that will cause problems (other then oil being able to leak onto the ground) I wasn't sure that the thickness would be good for the ma12 though... I have a bottle of lucas oil oil stabilizer (http://www.lucasoil.com/products/display_products.sd?iid=25&catid=2&loc=show) that i was going to insert tomorrow... It claims to do wonders, hopefully it'll help my situation.

Obviously a very inexperienced question, but wouldn't thinner oil help it speed up the rpms in the lower band? Or would it just make it spin too easily thus killing the engine. I'll wait until I put in the oil stabilizer before I decide to drain the full and replace it with semi, or just say the hell with synth all together.

Still waiting on some insight with the clutch life and the cat converter, again thank you for your input already, it's MUCH appreciated Keep it coming!

 

[Turtle]

I use 10/40 Semi Synthetic, which works well.

 

[AMY]

0-40 mobil 1 fully synth has always served my micras well. I have had great results with it. But my car has covered a lot less miles than yours! it's the only oil I will use. I would say your problems stem from the overheating, not the oil. You shouldn't lose any water at all, unless you have a leak somewhere, have you checked for the usual syptoms of a bad head gasket? Try adjusting your clutch, see if that helps. if the clutch is slipping, rather than a loss of power the most noticable thing would be the revs rising without corresponding acceleration.