Suggested oil and other fluids for the Mirage?

[namco]

There is more to oil than you guys/girls are reading into. Send two oil samples, one of the oil before it goes in your engine and one after. You will notice huge changes in how the oil has reacted to the engine and the stressful metal environment. The point is to run the oil that will keep your engine running the longest (or at least, that's how ive always viewed it.)

Royal Purple always gets a bad rep, either because they aren't as "name brand" as Mobil or Pennzoil or Castrol, or because some twat tuner used it and after his "motor blew and its royal purples fault". I ran royal purple in my 93 del sol, normal 5w30 full synthetic and never had one issue that was because of the oil. What had happened however was me blowing my motor which was MY FAULT and not the oil, most tuners would blame the oil because they are stupid.

As far as "this oil can go XXXXX miles before being changed" its completely irrelevant. There are so many factors that come into play when you talk about oil change intervals. Someone who drives slow, never going high rpm, sure, they might be able to go 5000-10000 miles before needed an oil change with some of today's oils. I drive an 05 sti and I am always in full boost as often as possible redlining and flooring it everywhere I go. Its addictive. I have to do my oil change every 2000 miles even when using very high end full synthetic oil. That's just how engines work. Under "normal" driving circumstances, sure, 3000-5000 mile oil changes as I've seen many subaru owners do because they never really drive their car the way it was meant to be driven, they just baby it and show it off as a trophy..... When I had my s2000, I was changing my oil ever 3k miles and my trans fluid and rear diff every 6k. People told me I was crazy and that I was wasting my money. People also told me the car had a "glass" rear end that would break if I tried to drive, yet EVERY DAY I drifted my car and launched it hard enough that if the rear end was truly "glass" it would have broke. My anal retentive fluid changes kept the life of that car young and fun. IF I had let the fluids go bad with my "rice boy" driving, sure, I could imagine my rear end giving up and breaking from both bad fluid and wear/tear.

In the end, you should use the best oil you can and keep your car running as healthy as possible. I redline the **** out of every car I've ever owned and never had a motor blow from it. The del sol blew from racing and a mis-shift which is user error. I've even had people tell me that "the stock STI wasn't meant to stay in full boost, so you shouldn't keep it in full boost, its not a race car its a daily car". Well if its not meant to stay in full boost, wouldn't they have some sort of safety feature build in to stop me from blowing the motor? Kind of like say boost control items like a bypass valve and boost limits? Oh wait, it DOES have those things!!!! Subaru forum retards also say you shouldn't red-line the car often, because it can't handle it. If it can't handle the redline, then I wouldn't be able to rev it that high!!!! If I drive a honda that can got to 9200 RPM, and you tell me it can't handle it, then why didn't he manufacturer make the redline lower? like say 7200 since that is "safer". The point is the car as is, can handle what it is. But my rant kinda went off topic.... lol.

[cwatkin]

I don't think either of us have any plans to hoon the Mirage so odds are any quality synthetic will do! Yes, if you are running them hard under boost, then take care of them as that is hard on the fluids. Any turbo car is going to be harder on the oil.

Conor

[BRagland]

I don't doubt that many vehicles can be pushed "hard" so to speak and survive, but it's also not what everyone should do, or wants to do.

As per oil: I've seen many cars go 200,000 miles on conventional oil. I seriously, highly, truly, doubt that Royal Purple, or any other expensive oil is going to make much of a difference. There are SAE, ACEA, ILSAC standards for a reason. They keep good oil good.

Any oil which meets these newer standards is quality. No reason to spend twice as much on Royal Purple or AMSOIL when the cheap-er Pennzoil Synthetic will do just fine, and last quite a while, and carries even MORE ratings than Royal Purple could ever afford to test for.

Oil is complicated, but what's actually much more complicated, is fluid dynamics in internal combustion engines. Technically speaking, the fluid dynamics of the oil inside the engine, how it flows, how it sticks to parts, how it splashes, how it foams, how it resists compression, etc. has much much more to do with engine lubricity and longevity than you'd think.

Also: another point, yes, you were changing your oil too often. Much too often, likely. Just as you yourself said: send that oil in for testing, and I guarantee they would have come back and said "another 2,000 miles easy!" so all that 2,000 OCI stuff you pulled, was damaging the environment for no reason.

There is more to oil than you guys/girls are reading into. Send two oil samples, one of the oil before it goes in your engine and one after. You will notice huge changes in how the oil has reacted to the engine and the stressful metal environment. The point is to run the oil that will keep your engine running the longest (or at least, that's how ive always viewed it.)

Royal Purple always gets a bad rep, either because they aren't as "name brand" as Mobil or Pennzoil or Castrol, or because some twat tuner used it and after his "motor blew and its royal purples fault". I ran royal purple in my 93 del sol, normal 5w30 full synthetic and never had one issue that was because of the oil. What had happened however was me blowing my motor which was MY FAULT and not the oil, most tuners would blame the oil because they are stupid.

As far as "this oil can go XXXXX miles before being changed" its completely irrelevant. There are so many factors that come into play when you talk about oil change intervals. Someone who drives slow, never going high rpm, sure, they might be able to go 5000-10000 miles before needed an oil change with some of today's oils. I drive an 05 sti and I am always in full boost as often as possible redlining and flooring it everywhere I go. Its addictive. I have to do my oil change every 2000 miles even when using very high end full synthetic oil. That's just how engines work. Under "normal" driving circumstances, sure, 3000-5000 mile oil changes as I've seen many subaru owners do because they never really drive their car the way it was meant to be driven, they just baby it and show it off as a trophy..... When I had my s2000, I was changing my oil ever 3k miles and my trans fluid and rear diff every 6k. People told me I was crazy and that I was wasting my money. People also told me the car had a "glass" rear end that would break if I tried to drive, yet EVERY DAY I drifted my car and launched it hard enough that if the rear end was truly "glass" it would have broke. My anal retentive fluid changes kept the life of that car young and fun. IF I had let the fluids go bad with my "rice boy" driving, sure, I could imagine my rear end giving up and breaking from both bad fluid and wear/tear.

In the end, you should use the best oil you can and keep your car running as healthy as possible. I redline the **** out of every car I've ever owned and never had a motor blow from it. The del sol blew from racing and a mis-shift which is user error. I've even had people tell me that "the stock STI wasn't meant to stay in full boost, so you shouldn't keep it in full boost, its not a race car its a daily car". Well if its not meant to stay in full boost, wouldn't they have some sort of safety feature build in to stop me from blowing the motor? Kind of like say boost control items like a bypass valve and boost limits? Oh wait, it DOES have those things!!!! Subaru forum retards also say you shouldn't red-line the car often, because it can't handle it. If it can't handle the redline, then I wouldn't be able to rev it that high!!!! If I drive a honda that can got to 9200 RPM, and you tell me it can't handle it, then why didn't he manufacturer make the redline lower? like say 7200 since that is "safer". The point is the car as is, can handle what it is. But my rant kinda went off topic.... lol.

[Eggman]

Also: another point, yes, you were changing your oil too often. Much too often, likely. Just as you yourself said: send that oil in for testing, and I guarantee they would have come back and said "another 2,000 miles easy!" so all that 2,000 OCI stuff you pulled, was damaging the environment for no reason.

This assumes namco cares about the environment. By his own self-description, I strongly doubt it.

[namco]

No, my sti cannot go 2000 nore miles, because the oil loss id have would be too great and cause early wear from lack of lubrication. If i was driving like an old man sure, i could probably go another 4000 even, but the way i drive, after 2000 or so miles the oil is black. Oil should never be run black for a long time. Almost any car could potentially go into high mileage on conventional, that doesnt mean ****. Ive seen cars go up to 450k miles on conventional because they do their oil changes on time for their driving. Give me any car running conventional and it will need an oil chamge before 2000 miles and the oil loss will be greater than full synthetic. As i said its all about how you drive.

[BRagland]

Black oil doesn't mean it needs a changing just yet.

All the black oil means, is that the oil is doing it's job: suspending the carbon from combustion. If your oil get's black really really fast, then it's likely you have some leaks in your piston rings. Which could be caused by: red-lining your car way too often.

Oil get's black for many reasons. It's probably the most common myth: my oil's black, needs changing. It's not always the case. if I were to follow that rule, then I'd need to change my car's oil at 1,500 miles. And I baby it. I don't drive it hard, or ever red-line it. In fact, I've yet to red-line my Mirage or Ford Focus. Not even once.

My 2012 Ford Focus turns the oil black after 1,200 miles. My Mirage turns the oil black after 1,500 miles. In fact, the only car I've ever owned where this was the exception, was my Ford Mustang. The oil would never be black, even after 10,000 miles. (That's the OCI for the 2012+ Mustangs, via Factory Manual. Some are 15,000 miles).

No, my sti cannot go 2000 nore miles, because the oil loss id have would be too great and cause early wear from lack of lubrication. If i was driving like an old man sure, i could probably go another 4000 even, but the way i drive, after 2000 or so miles the oil is black. Oil should never be run black for a long time. Almost any car could potentially go into high mileage on conventional, that doesnt mean ****. Ive seen cars go up to 450k miles on conventional because they do their oil changes on time for their driving. Give me any car running conventional and it will need an oil chamge before 2000 miles and the oil loss will be greater than full synthetic. As i said its all about how you drive.

[Daox]

Black oil doesn't mean it needs a changing just yet.

Gonna have to agree with that. As I said before, the ONLY REAL way to know is to do an oil analysis on the oil. Looking at it and feeling it is not enough to really know for sure.

[namco]

Black oil doesn't mean it needs a changing just yet.

All the black oil means, is that the oil is doing it's job: suspending the carbon from combustion. If your oil get's black really really fast, then it's likely you have some leaks in your piston rings. Which could be caused by: red-lining your car way too often.

Oil get's black for many reasons. It's probably the most common myth: my oil's black, needs changing. It's not always the case. if I were to follow that rule, then I'd need to change my car's oil at 1,500 miles. And I baby it. I don't drive it hard, or ever red-line it. In fact, I've yet to red-line my Mirage or Ford Focus. Not even once.

My 2012 Ford Focus turns the oil black after 1,200 miles. My Mirage turns the oil black after 1,500 miles. In fact, the only car I've ever owned where this was the exception, was my Ford Mustang. The oil would never be black, even after 10,000 miles. (That's the OCI for the 2012+ Mustangs, via Factory Manual. Some are 15,000 miles).

Black or dark brown, i doubt its black, when oil is legitimately black it starts to get thick and starts to sluge, i guarantee if you put your supposed black oil on a white glove or paper youd see its brown. There is a difference.....

And by all means, be one of those people who think redline is bad for the motor, if thats the case redlines would be lower to prevent consumers from causing harm, oh wait that is what the redline does!!! Amazing how the dealers know the rpm limit and set a safeguard so you dont damage the motor!!!! Crazy!!!! (Extreme sarcasm)

[jbarr]

We are over thinking the oil here. Any ILSAC certified API SN oil in 0w20 viscosity will easily protect the engine for 7500 mile oil change intervals. The expensive boutique oils are not warranted in the Mirage and the engine won't care how fancy or expensive it is. If you want to do a 15,000 mile oci then maybe consider an "optimal" oil for that application which would need to be informed by a used oil analysis.

Use only the Mitsubishi Diaqueen CVT j4 in the cvt transmission. I will be changing mine every 30,000 miles

Use DOT 4 brake fluid from reputable brand. I will be changing mine out every 3 years.

I plan to use only Mitsubishi Anti-freeze, but there is certainly aftermarket compatible anti-freeze.

[namco]

We are over thinking the oil here. Any ILSAC certified API SN oil in 0w20 viscosity will easily protect the engine for 7500 mile oil change intervals. The expensive boutique oils are not warranted in the Mirage and the engine won't care how fancy or expensive it is. If you want to do a 15,000 mile oci then maybe consider an "optimal" oil for that application which would need to be informed by a used oil analysis.

Use only the Mitsubishi Diaqueen CVT j4 in the cvt transmission. I will be changing mine every 30,000 miles

Use DOT 4 brake fluid from reputable brand. I will be changing mine out every 3 years.

I plan to use only Mitsubishi Anti-freeze, but there is certainly aftermarket compatible anti-freeze.

I actually want to try water-less coolant. They seem to get astonishing reviews on how well it works, and since there is no water there is zero pressure like with water based coolants. You can pop the cap whenever you want. It still flows through the motor and does what it does.

As far as oils go, I like peace of mind. I also drive a manual (never auto in any way for me) so I will use whatever brand full synthetic with the proper specs (gl4?) for trans and amsoil for oil as i always do.