S2000 0E

04 model now 11 mths old due its first service in january when it will have done 9000 miles should i go synthetic with the redline oil i have in my possesion or should i go with the garage semi/mineral whatever they supply, i know that another member desided to stay mineral recently but his had only done 7000 or so..... what do people think.

eSeM

I would go full synthetic.

I changed from using semi to full synthetic last year and the oil lasted a lot longer. ~ 6 months IIRC, before it started to turn black.

A_Wooly

I switched at just 4k at about 6 months old when it had the recall for the oil bolt. I've never had to touch the oil between services. At it's last service when I told them I would supply my own Mobil, the service manager said I could have the old stuff back for my corolla! I know it varies from car to car I do very little milage just 12

mdjohnso

disagree

having spent hours reading all the oil threads on the US side

go for semi sync keep the redline until you've cracked 10k at the very least

i've a box of redline waiting for me in my garage too

just changed the diff and gear oil to redline, will change to fully sync redline
in the engine in the summer at prob ~12k

eSeM

Here is an old thread on oil:

Engine Oil

I also found that since I went fully synthetic the car uses less oil.

Busamav

Mine has its first service on thursday and it will have semi synth , no way it is having fully , its only got 7400 miles otc ,

I think its unneccesary for even hard road use , based my final decision on the recomendations of a couple of high performance engine builders .

I think the oil companies have done a good job in the marketing of fully synth imho , people are buying oil they need rather than what the engine needs

AdrianEagle

Fully synthetic - it doesn't burn away!

lower

as long as it is changed regularly and kept topped up, unless you are going to keep the car for 200,000 miles, you won't notice any significant difference with either oil. you might see a bit less oil consumption with fully synth if your car is an oil drinker.

Lurking Lawyer

Oil consumption is unlikely to be an issue, whichever type is used, given that it's an 04 we're talking about and they consume substantially less oil than the earlier models.

My dealer put synthetic Shell Helix Ultra in at my first service. I haven't had to top it up at all in the subsequent 3,000 or so miles.