When is a good time to change the oil in a brand new engine? I have 1300 miles on my car right now and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to go ahead and change the oil early because of the break-in period? Also is it a good idea to use synthetic oil when I do change it? Dont know if it has synthetic in it now or not, probably not. But I would like to use the synthetic. Thx in advance

 

mucho gracias senoir You will have to forgive my spanish...I only took a starter course back in high school.

 

I'm not positive about new factory engines, but in the past, engines used to be assembled with a special thick lube material around the cams and crank to prevent excess wear during initial start up while there wasn't any oil circulated yet. It was a good idea to change the oil and especially the filter soon after because the lube could clog the filter. I wouldn't recommend putting synthetic oil in the car right away. Many modern cars are made with such tight tolerances now that there is almost no break in period, and they are able to use synthetic oil right from the factory. Our cars being as inexpensive as they are, I doubt they are made with tolerances quite that tight, so they may actually benefit from some break in miles. It's not uncommon to see better acceleration numbers from cars after 5K to 10K miles are on the car.

 

I have heard from two different P5 owners that the dealerships strongly recommend that we do not use synthetic oil.

Does anyone have any info on the stance? Is it a Mazda thing? Or is it based on something else?

And.....could someone tell me the advantages of going synthetic? I have always used the regular stuff.


Yellow P5, 18" Tenzo ZT6s
Markham, Ontario
Jason

 

We contacted Mazda USA techs about the Pro5 & synthetic oil & they suggested you not use synth but use synth blend. Both synthetic & regular oils have their own pros so the blend uses the best of both.

 

do not use synthetics yet. wait and put more miles on the motor. Not unless you dont mind if your motor starts to use oil. Change it early thats good.