I recently switched from 10w-30 valvoline to 10w-30 valvoline synthetic and its been leaking drops of oil out of the front oil pan and somewhere in the back. (not sure if its rear main bc its wet on starter too and my dipstick has been loose) I've heard conventional oil coats the gaskets better but im not sure whats true. would switching back to conventional stop the leak? or would a quart of lucas stop it? Dropping the oil pan would be a serious pain in the *** since you have to pull the motor up and everything.. any suggestions guys??

 

It was probably leaking before just not noticeable. There are a couple Synthetic oils on the market with a higher seal conditioner content, such as mobil 1 HM or valv. Maxlife Synthetic. Both of those are great.

The only thing I would pour lucas into is the trash.

 

I Think, yes you’re right about the synthetic not having a few different properties of that of or equal to some earlier conventional oil. When I was on a Bimmer forum I was reading about how synthetic is great for car with neoprene gasket unlike traditional oil that wears out. Well sometimes there a time to upgrade but being we r constantly moving. Sometime we have to pay the price of increasing technology such as synthetic oil. Basically this. Synthetic oil awesome, but require non quark gaskets, regular dinosaur oil is old and so is the gaskets it was intended for. I used to run synthetic mobile One, awesome, but switched back to Castrol GTX because it was ten bucks for 5 qts.

Its ok if you jack up the engine, it only takes as long as to change a fuel pump. And now a day there’s opportunity with that. (New timing chain) oil pump, and best of all they got a new state of the art neoprene gasket 1 piece. No sealant needed. It pretty sweet and worth the benefits and especially great fuel economy and reliable leak proof seal 20years+

Or perhaps the rear main seal is in need of changing, then the tranny and engine would need to be separated to remove the 1 piece gasket. I’m thinking that maybe conventional oil is the ticket, Lucas may get you by but there always going to be that leak there, you could tightening the pan bolts but its temporary kind of deal. What do you think? oh my cantaloupe told me this