Your vehicle keeps nagging you that your motor oil needs changed. You might think you can delay it another hundred miles, or even push it several hundred more. And while that may be the case, changing your engine’s oil will keep it in its best condition throughout your ownership. So, what’s the best motor oil for your ride? Here’s our guide to help you begin your search.
Oil creates a protective layer between the moving parts of your engine. Moving thousands of times every minute, these parts need the best protection to create minimum resistance. The additives in motor oil provides that protection and the longer it maintains it’s stability, the longer it can protect your engine.
Synthetic or Conventional Motor Oil
Both conventional and synthetic oils start off as crude oil. Conventional oils are the most economical option, requiring far less refinement. Conventional oil uses additives to reach the required specifications for the oil. Synthetic oil is created by distilling the crude oil and then rebuilding it with other artificially made chemical compounds.
Synthetic motor oil offers many advantages. One of the more significant advantages is the longer life stretching out the time between oil changes. That advantage also benefits the environment with less used oil waste generated. Other advantages can include longer engine life, higher performance, and increased fuel efficiency. Research has shown that synthetic motor oil performs roughly 47% better than conventional motor oil.
What’s the Best Motor Oil?
So which motor oil should you choose? That can depend on many variables like the vehicle you drive and which engine it has, your driving habits, and even where you live may play a factor. The first and best thing to do is to refer to your vehicles operating manual. The manufacturer of your vehicle will have suggested the viscosity or grade (oil weight) and perhaps even a brand of oil to use. That is a great place to start. Here are some of the best motor oil options for you to consider.
The Best Motor Oil for Most Cars
Mobil 1 offers many great synthetic oil options and is a trusted name in the industry. Mobil 1 is designing and testing new oils to stay current with the variety of modern engine technologies manufacturers are implementing. The newest ILSAC oil performance standard, GF-6 is targeted at improving fuel economy and enhancing engine capabilities for cars. This new standard is specifically focused towards all those new cars with turbos under the hood. Mobil 1, Mobil Super, and Mobil Full Synthetic motor oils meet or exceed the new ILSAC GF-6 specs.
Many car manufacturers use Mobil 1 as original equipment including, Aston Martin, Bentley, Cadillac, Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, Corvettes, Mercedes-AMG, the Nissan GT-R and 27 different models of Porsche.
Mobil 1 Full Synthetic Oil
Mobil 1 is an advanced full synthetic motor oil designed to keep your engine running like new by providing exceptional wear protection, cleaning power and overall performance.
Best Conventional Motor Oil
If you don’t put many miles on your vehicle or your car’s manufacturer specifically recommends conventional oil then there are still many options to choose from. You will find both regular conventional motor oils and what they call synthetic blends. The blends are usually just conventional oil with additional additives possibly providing some improved performance and durability.
While many other sources will say one of the benefits of using conventional is price, that isn’t always the case. While you may pay a lot more for a full synthetic oil, you can easily find a 5-quart bottle for about the same price as a bottle of conventional. It all depends on what you choose. If you pay $20 for a conventional oil that you have to change every 3,000 miles, then you could spend at least $60 for synthetic that gets you 10,000 miles and be better off.
Here are a few of the more popular options when it comes to conventional motor oils.
Valvoline Daily Protection
Castrol GTX
Pennzoil
Don’t Forget the Filter
Once you have chosen the best motor oil for your vehicle you want to choose a good oil filter as well. They perform the critical job of keeping foreign debris from damaging your engine. Check out our guide on choosing the best oil filter.
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