Dear Esteemed Enthusiasts,

I am new to the forum and the RX 8 both. I have admired to car for some time and finally took delivery of 6 speed GT and am very pleased with the car. I wanted to ask what your opinion of engine oil to use. When I picked up yesterday I questioned to salesman and he said to use non-synthetic oil because synthetic will not burn and the engine is designed to use and burn oil. He seemed very knowledgable about other things about the car but wanted to ask my fellow enthusiasts.

Bob

 

Congrats on the new car.
This question has been answered in previous posts. Click on "search" on the bar at the top. Type in "engine oil type" and select "The Tech Garage" for the forum to search in.
You'll get about 20 posts that should answer your question.

 

Congratulations. I use Castrol GTX 5W20.

Al

 

Also read Royal Purples observation on the rotary and synthetic oil. click the FAQ tab on their site and click the section for rotary. www.royalpurple.com

 

Dear All-thanks for all the help!

Bob

 

FWIW, your salesman was completely wrong. The only differences that matter between synthetic and mineral oil are that the synthetic oil doesn't break down as quickly and will flow better at very cold temperatures. If he thinks it doesn't burn, get him to pour some in a metal dish (do it side by side with mineral oil, if he likes), and get him to light both of them. Synthetic oil burns just fine (and is perfectly fine to use in the RX-8).

Regards,
Gordon

 

Gordon-thank you-I take what the salesman says with grain of salt. The only good thing is the owner of the agency is a personal friend and the transaction was relatively painless without any games.

Bob

 

Salesmen can and will say practically anything. When I bought my first new car back in the 80's, it had an overdrive gear. Just to see what the salesperson would say, I asked what that meant. She said "it puts a negative charge on the engine". Good thing I wasn't drinking anything because it would have shot out my nose.

 

Dear Nubo,

That started my day with a good laugh! And I was swallowing a gulp of coffee-good thing I got it down in time!

Thanks,

Bob

 

not to generate spam on this thread or anything... I have also heard from several sources that Synthetic=bad with the rotary.

I have no problem running dino oil. Since we are talking about 5w-20 we are basically talking about cooking oil anyway.