New s2k Owner! Previous Owner Used Synthetic Oil
 

Just picked up a 04 Sebring Silver S2000. Its awesome and I love it.

The previous owner used synthetic oil for its first and second oil change (apparently he doesn't read s2ki ), should I just use synthetic oil for future oil changes or should i flush out the system and start using regular oil?

Any Suggestions?

Stick to the sythetic. Dropping to dino oil high in moly (the reason for using dino to start with) won't help anything now. Hopefully everything seated correctly before the first oil change.

If its nor burning any oil don't sweat it.

that's not really an indication of proper breakin.


as for you using synthetic, what's done is done. he's already changed over to synthetic (hopefully not too soon), but the main thing was using synthetic before 7500 due to the FRM cylinder walls. :(

At worst it will shorten engine life, but you won't know much until it actually goes. (i dont mean it's gonna go in the next 40,000 miles or something) But keep to a good maintenance schedule and take care of your car!

Also, look into the oil journals in the tech forum. Interestingly enough it seems that Havoline GF4 dino oil might actually be BETTER than synthetics, unless you're going for very long drain intervals or live in extreme cold/heat.

Can i switch to Havoline GF4 dino oil without harming the engine? I live in Cali, and the guy i got it lived in San Diego. He had it for a year, kept it garaged and when i got it it only had 4000 miles on it (doubt it was broken in before synthetic oils). He basically just changed it every three months with out knowing not to use synthetic oil.

The problem wityh using synthetic is that it will not allow the engine to break in as quickly. You could switch to a dino oil for the next 3-4k miles. It would not hurt anything. I would not worry to much about this. As for oil consumption, I used Dino for the first 12k miles before switching to synthetic and I still go through ~.5 to 1 qt every 3-4k miles. I also followed the break in period religiously. I just don't think it matters that much anymore.

you can switch to dino with no problem

Where in the owners manual does it say not to use synthetic? nowhere

It only says to change the oil every 3750 or 7500 miles, so if he changed to synthetic at ~3750 miles he's just following what the manual says. Whats the big deal here? :banghead:

Do a search on "oil" here and you'll see why he's concerned.

Do a search in the manual and tell me where honda says synthetic is no good.