Half Synthetic/ Half Natural Oil?
 

Alright, I'm going to be honest, I've never changed my own oil so I was a little worried when I saw that I have to add oil periodically. The dealer i bought my car from gave me free oil changes for life every 6 months/ 5000 miles. That's too long, isn't it? They use a half synthetic half natural so that you can always switch back to straight natural. What's your opinion on the best half synthetic/ natural oil? I keep seeing 5x-30 but have no idea what that means next time i go to autozone. Any help would be great.

please no BP or vegetable remarks

I'd do oil changes at half that mileage interval...the time interval is of no concern.

I would never run any 5 weight oil of any kind despite mazdas recommendation. I would run either 10-40 or 20-50 in the summer, and 10-30 or 10-40 in the winter.

I would simply run standard conventional oil. Synthetic blend is not only a waste of money when being changed at those intervals, it is also not recommended for this engine.

With that said I doubt that any harm would come to the engine from using a synthetic blend, but I just see no reason for taking the chance unless you are someone like me who can build an engine if you experiment and it bites you in the ass.

^ Good advise from a rotary expert. Also, in order to achieve a 5W oil it has to be a synthetic blend. Then there is some argument as to what a true synthetic is as well. We could talk all day about that but really the type of oil is of little concern as long as it is a brand name and not some home made crap.

The most important thing is that you change it often due to the fact that you are removing only about half of the dirty engine oil when doing a change.

thanks

if you get an oil pump you can remove another quart and half of oil as opposed to just a drain and refill.