Semi synthetic or fully?

[ChilliConn]

I have a 2006 Toyota Corolla verso and it's coming up for a service, something I do myself. I'm currently using Halfords 5w30 semi synthetic oil but am seriously giving thought to using a fully synthetic oil instead. Trawled the Internet but I keep getting coflicting results in that people say it can make the engine run quieter and you can increase the time between oil changes but it can cause oil leaks because of the makeup of the oil molecules. 

Has anyone done this themselves? Is it more trouble than its worth or should I stick with what I'm using right now and keep using it. My car currently has just over 101,000 miles on the clock. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Toyota doesn't give any preference for either semi or fully synthetic. Think the 0W20 oil used in Toyota petrol engines from around 2008/9 is synthetic, but doesn't change the service intervals from every 12 months or 10,000 miles, whichever occurs first. Aside from that if your engine is chain driven, regular oil changes are needed to avoid potential timing chain issues.

[oldcodger]

As Frosty says, stick to 12 months / 10k miles engine oil  changes, and equally important don't forget the gearbox  at 40k miles /4 years and brake fluid at 20k miles /2 years.

Use Full Synthetic on mine without problems, its only going to give you trouble with oil leaks or oil burning if your engine already has such problems as bore wear and faulty seals.

Equally no need to change from Semi if you are happy with that, the key is to buy decent quality oil,  Halfords is just rebranded, some web comments suggest its made by Comma; have used Commas oils on several cars for many years, all going above 150k  miles without engine problems.

Everyone has their favourite, I'd say just avoid the real cheap or very expensive stuff as they are not worth it in a standard engine like ours.

Comma have a handy oil selector here , just give it your reg /model details.

http://www.commaoil.com/products

 

[Cyker]

Semi or not tends to be dictated by the grade anyway - 5w30 tends to be semi. For the newer engines that are specced for 0w20, you're probably stuck with using fully synth.

It used to be that semi was more recommended as it was considerably cheaper than fully synth, and unless you were really abusing the engine you probably wouldn't see much benefit from the more expensive fully synth, but looking on Opie Oils the price difference seems pretty negligible now so why not?

Regular changes is the bigger thing; I was starting to do 6-month changes on my old diesel Yaris because the chain was starting to get a bit rattly and oil has to work a lot harder in a diesel engine than a petrol one (It's literally black after a week of use! If a petrol engine had oil that black I'd euthanize it!!). I'd considered using fully synth, but at the time I was getting free 5w30 oil as part of the Toyota service kit and was being too cheap to pay the extra to get fully synth!  It's a damned shame they stopped that offer; That was a good deal!!

 

[Aamir2892]

TBH I always use Fully Synthetic in all my cars I've had even family's cars. Fully is cheap enough these days and the price between the two isn't too far of. My T Sport Compressor will always get fully, currently running Castrol Edge with a Toyota Denso oil filter.