Synthetic oil Query

**tbplus10** · 11-22-2007, 10:45 PM

Anyone running Synthetic in their HHR?
Mechanics at the dealership have no input on the issue (I suspect they have no information or experience to back them up if they tell you "yes" run Synthetic or "no" dont).

My questions are:
Will the extra expense of Synthetic be returned by longer oil life?
Better MPG?
Less engine wear?

How will this affect operation of the DIC oil life meter?
My understanding of the oil life meter is that it takes certain operating parameters and uses the information to determine oil life. If it isnt adjusted for Synthetic will it have you changing the oil to early?

On a side note has anyone heard of the Engine Management Computer storing long term maintenance information that can be retrieved only by the dealer?
Like how many miles you drove between oil changes (at least how long between reseting the DIC) or other maintenance information that tells when and if certain maintenance was performed on time?

**TahoeFever** · 11-23-2007, 07:15 AM

I'm running Synthetic just seems to make the engine run a little better dunno

it does not affect the DIC in anyway i'm thinking of going over to the royal purple stuff but it's too much $$$

i usually run around 5k before a change since thats what the bottle recommends considering on the DIC you can run about 7500k before the DIC tells yah to change the oil

**TomsHHR** · 12-02-2007, 05:50 PM

I just had my second batch of synthetic put in. I used Valvoline full synthetic, I did change my oil filter at 4,000, 8,000 and changed oil at 11,000 miles with 30% still on the DIC. I know it starts easy with the temps hanging at -4F and -9F the other night. If you look at lets say a 4,000 mile on Dino for half the cost of the Valvoline full synthetic, I guess you could say I saved 30% on cost, Mileage looks to be about 1 mpg on the driving to work and my highway has been close to 31 on 87 proof and 33.5 on the good stuff. Not sure on the engine wear. The HHR DIC on my car does not have to be reset for syn, I saw no issue with the change from dino to syn.

**tbplus10** · 12-02-2007, 10:54 PM

Were not at oil change time yet but with all the info I've been able to gather I think I'm gonna go synthetic. I'll admit I'm a die hard Dyno fanatic, but on my Harley I had 3 mpg better and 20 deg cooler oil temps after running synthetic, this means a lot on an air cooled engine so I hope the results are the same for the HHR.