My 95 960 has 97,000 miles. I'm am swaping cars with my wife, so I'll be driving the Volvo as my company car which means more miles in a shorter period of time. I always use 10W-30 here in the South. I'll be moving to New Jersey in about a month. I'm thinking maybe I should switch to a synthetic oil for better cold starts and general friction reduction and better gas milegage. I've received conflicting advice on switching to synthetic. A volvo mechanic once told me that after about 60,000 miles I should not change the type of oil. However, my neighbor use has an older BMW 5 series says that it should not be problem even at 90,000+ miles. Any thoughts on this? My main concern with switching is an oil leak due to the gaskets.

Jim

Do it, did mine at 110,000.
--
1996 964 130,900 Miles

I bought a 965 94 model, 134,000 miles in July this year and it was on Castrol syntech. It had noisy lifters after many minutes of warming up and I started using mobil one 10-30 on the last oil change a month ago. After 200 plus miles the lifters only make noise during the first few seconds of start up and it is down to the 30's here in the south. I can only attribute this to the synthetic. Amsoil or mobil one will be your best bet. Don't waste money on Syntech or blends. You pay the same amount. IMO.
--
92 244 lowered, Bilsteins, IPD sways, Unitek cam/header, TSW Revo 18x8's - 94 965 Niiice MONEY PIT! - 76 Datsun 280Z lowered, modified head, cam, headers, intake

nope, it's not too late. i changed to synthetic around 130K roughly.
--
Kenric Tam
1990 Volvo 740 base sedan (B230F)
My Volvo 'Project'

Switching to synthetic oil at 100,000 miles is not an issue. Even a 960.

Not sure where your mechanic is coming from. But 60K on a Volvo is just warming up.

If your car leaks oil when you switch - I gaurantee you already had a leak and didn't know it. Contrary to popular opinion, synthetic oil is much better for seals/gaskets and seal wear. If your car already had a leak - it will leak faster because synthetics do flow better - that's why people think wrongly....

You should do an engine flush first though. Let me know if you want details.
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http://www.fidalgo.net/~brook4/oilslubesfilters.html

Thanks for the replys. I already have a can of Amsoil flush, so I will use it a next oil change to synthetic. I use K&N oil filters on all my cars and also installed a magnetic oil drain plug.

Jim

I began using mobil 1 at 86k when I acquired my current volvo.
currently @ 126k and no leaks. I get the usual oil around filler cap
between oil changes (every 5K). I see no reason not to switch, like previous
comment - "if it has seal issues, they were already there". If oil sludge is
all thats keeping the engine sealed up - its time for maintenance!

'91 945 SE (turbo) 126K

Paul:

My daugter's 87 240 has about 180K miles and has had all seals changed during last 40K. She has been using 10/30 dino oil, changing every 4K or so. It burns about a qt every 2500 miles. Last oil change at Jiffy lube they said that there was sludge in the engine and that she should switch to a blend synthetic and get a flush. Not sure if this was just their standard sales pitch or what??
I am considering a flush and changing to full synthetic Mobil one or Amsoil.
Can you advise re procedure for a flush. Thanks

I agree with Paul--use the AMSOIL (or BG) engine flush before changing. If the current oil has less than 3000 miles on it, you can just add the flush to that.
If it has more than that, it would be a good idea to pick up 4 qts of whatever is on sale, along with a cheap oil filter, and then do the flush with that oil.

After flushing, you should be able to run AMSOIL for a year or 25,000 miles), changing the filter after six months.

To flush with AMSOIL flush--
Run car to warm oil. Add can of flush, and fast idle for about 15-20 minutes.
Shut off engine, change oil and filter.

I wouldn't pay the bucks for their flushing.

I have the deluxe flush at my website. Follow my www below. Way overkill, it was designed for resucitating dead Volvos but works great.

In your case I recommend Amsoil engine flush with a new filter. Change oil. Then a short first interval, 2000 miles or so, followed by a Lubegard non-solvent flush.

You can go straight to synthetic but your consumption rates MAY be high for 10-15K miles.

Let me know, I can hook you up with Lubegard as well.
--
http://www.fidalgo.net/~brook4/oilslubesfilters.html

I would just switch to full synthetic and let the oil do the flush.
I believe after 10 or 20K of driving with full synthetic the sludge
should be gone, unless the car was running "quaker state" (or another
low quality paraffin based oil) I would skip the flush.

Lots of info at Mobil's site.
www.mobil1.com
(That's mobil number one)