The synthetic oil in your car’s engine has an incredibly challenging job. From lying cold in the bottom of the engine’s oil pan, it needs to surge up to the valve gear at the very top, then flow all the way back down, and that has to happen almost instantly when you start the engine.
The oil protects everything inside your engine: bearings, pistons, cylinder walls, and all the other parts that move or touch something that does.
Then, after the initial cold startup, the oil must continue protecting no matter how hot it gets and how hard the engine runs. It has to do that for a period of months, if not years, through numerous short trips, long cruises, and (for some) occasional racetrack or twisty two-lane flogs.
You depend on your car’s oil to do its job flawlessly through the bitter cold of northern winters and the sticky hot of summers—all while fighting rust, contaminants, and passage-clogging deposits. -CARandDRIVER
The benefits of synthetic oil vs conventional oil:
- Better fuel and oil economy
- Increased engine protection and wear from lower friction
- Reduced engine drag from greater resistance to thickening
- Fewer emissions
- Longer intervals between oil changes
- Oil effectiveness/quality is more predictable and uniform
- Quicker engine start time
- Helps clean engine sludge and deposits