I just purchased a 96 V6 camaro with 82,000 miles and I want to put Mobil 1 synthetic oil in it. Is it a good idea?

 

You might develop some leaks... depending on the condition of your car.

Synthetic is more "watery" and has a way of working its way out on older motors. But then again I was running mobil one til 115,000 miles with out any leaks, then started to develp some switched to Valvoline Max life, no leaks now.

 

yes and no.
Yes synthetic is a great oil to use. Some people say that you should not use this oil in higher mileage engines. I have proof against this. I run it in a 93 V6 with 180K miles and have no leaks, and burn no oil. You will get a slight increase in HP and torque over regular oils. The other advantage of a synthetic is that you can run it alot longer. I run my oil 7500 miles before an oil change.

The reason I say no is this . Mobil 1 is not a true synthetic. Pretty much all of the name brand oils that you buy at your parts house is not 100% synthetic. Its a synthetic BLEND. There are two oils that I no of that are 100% synthetic. AMSOil is the one that I use and I will warn you it is pricy. The other is an oil that comes in a purple bottle, I hate to sound so non-technical here. I cannot think of the name.

 

Royal Purple

 

i have used Mobil 1 10W30 since my car had about 15,000 miles on it. it now has 117,000 and other than my misfire problem(another post) it runs excellent. in fact just changed my oil last night. amazing difference in engine smoothness after an oil change, but be warned i pay close to $40 everytime i change my oil and that is for oil and filter only, i do the labor, so it does get pricey.

 

Should I use 5w30 or 10w30? I live near Chicago and it is about 15 degrees here today.

 

Its pretty common to get leaks in higher mileage cars when switching over. Oddly enough though all the 5W-30 mobil one synthetic I saw the last time I bought oil said higher mileage formula or something of that sort.

 

I started using M1 at around 60,000 and haven't have any problems to this day. But more than a handful of my friends who switched DID develop leaks...well, not develop leaks but the small leaks became bigger.

You can try it for one oil change and maybe keep an eye on any new spots on the garage floor and check your levels. If theres no probs and you don't mind paying the extra $$$, go for it. You can push your intervals longer with synthetics and the protection is far superior.