[crazyjoe]

quote:Originally posted by emr131


On to the questions:
First, since I drive so conservatively, I change the oil at the recommended 5,000 miles and I use standard oil. Is that okay?

Despite the panic you will hear in general about turbocharged cars, know this: Most of the cars with failed turbos had a number of contributing factors that were involved.

First, and most common, is that the turbos were purely oil-cooled, and did not use a combination of oil cooling AND water cooling. All of Chrysler's turbos are both oil and water cooled, and offer much greater protection against "coking" of the oil.

Second was the driving conditions. People who would drive the vehicle in wide-open-throttle (or at least high boost) situations, and then shut the car down, leaving the turbo bearings with an inadequate time to cool down (and thus burning the now uncirculated oil). For instance, kids who zoom through their subdivisions and then park the car, or someone who lives off of a main road.

Anyhow, the point of all this is, if you're doing a good deal of highway driving and changing your oil at 5,000 mile intervals, normal oil is going to be just fine for you. I drove two Chrysler turbo cars well over 100,000 miles, and one of them over 200,000 miles (and then sold them both in running condition) without a turbo failure. Using regular oil.

If you're still reading (heh) and you're concerned, the next time you change your oil, save some of it and send it out for testing. I am not sure of the pricing, but if you factor the cost overage of synthetic vs regular, you should have it made up in a couple of oil changes (7 bucks on oil vs 25 bucks adds up quick).