What is the Difference between Regular and Synthetic Oil?

“What is the Difference between Synthetic Oil and Regular Oil?” Welcome to Mercie J Auto Care, Where Compassion and Craftsmanship Come Together. I'm Rick Smith, ASE Certified Master Technician. At this point, I recommend synthetic oil in pretty much everything. You may think your Ford Explorer or Toyota Corolla are not high performance vehicles, but they both are very complex. We have so many vehicles with variable cam timing or turbo chargers that at Mercie J we only use synthetic especially with our high temperatures in Mesa Arizona. Also, for increased fuel economy, many of our engines are using low tension piston rings which increases oil consumption. This makes it very important to check the oil level regularly. We have a Honda Accord in the shop right now that calls for very long intervals between oil changes. It has not been checked in a while and became dangerously low. The synthetic oil helped protect it front the abuse. Don’t worry about switching between conventional and synthetic oil or mixing the two. It won’t hurt anything in a pinch. As a matter of fact, there are some oils on the shelf that are a mixture or blend of synthetic and conventional.