I caught about 1 minute of it and they had a RX8 on their commerical. It basically talked about conventional motor oil and synthetic motor oil. You guys know how there are tons of threads about using or not using synthetic motor oil on our RX8 right? Well, the guy basically said using synthetic oil would not damage the seals, would not void your warranty and that most cars nowadays come with synthetic motor oil from the factory in the engine already.

Anyway, this was on channel 46 on the speed channel...

I just found this pretty interesting....

 

When I see a Mazda commercial reccomending synthetic oil, maybe then I will switch but everything I have heard until now says to stay away from it in the 8.

 

You need to read some of the technical discussion threads on THIS site! There's lots of us who say synthetic is just fine, and there are excellent technical reasons to back that up. On the other hand, Mazda just has their liability lawyers coaching everyone that "the corporate answer that you must repeat is "synthetics are not recommended because we haven't conducted long term tests ourselves" "...

Regards,
Gordon

 

Yeah I found it ironic that they are using a car in the shoot who's manufacture has been strongly recommending straight mineral oil for years (for the rotary).

The only reason that I've heard yet that seems viable to me not to use synthetic, is that synthetic supposedly does not burn as complete as the regular oil, and since our engines inject oil and mix the residual bit can build up. Nobody really seems to have proof that this is true though. I use synthetic in my RX-7 anyway because I think the benefits on an engine where friction occurs on so many seals will outweigh the downsides in the long run.

 

It's not Mazda who claims that synthetics don't burn completely; and it's also not true. In fact, synthetics burn more completely than regular mineral oils because they have lower ash and wax content, so there is less sludge left behind after they're burned. The flash point (temperature at which the oil will ignite) of synthetics is higher than mineral oils, but even then is much lower than cylinder temperatures (or rotor chamber temps), so is not a problem.