Brake pad life span and best oil weight/type to use??

[aomdmm]

Two questions, first off what is the recommended brake pad life span under optimal conditions?
Also, I have a 40k mile cavalier with stock engine that i'll occasionally take out to the track... any recommendations on weight/brand of oil??

Thanks

[curtis73]

The first one is nearly impossible to answer. I've had pickup truck brakes that lasted 80k miles and I've had performance pads that lasted 8000. If you have a camry, drive it like a camry, and put factory type organic pads, expect 30-40k, but that is only a vague guess.

Your owner's manual probably suggests 5w30. I suggest 10w30; not because of the track, just because its a better weight. GM went through all of their vehicles and recommended the lightest adequate weight of oil to get their last CAFE MPG point down.

[aomdmm]

Is there any brand out there that is "the best"??
How about that Royal Purple, I think thats the name is it as good as everyone says?

[drdisque]

brake pad - performance friction is the best brand for a balance of price, performance, and durability

[curtis73]

Oil. Stick with a brand-name non-sythetic oil. I don't like Quaker State or Pennzoil, but pretty much any other brand name is a good oil. Castrol and Valvoline are my two first choices.

There is nothing wrong with synthetic but people choose it for the wrong reasons. If you want an extra 5-30% oil life, do it, but synthetic doesn't lubricate any differntly. Its a purer oil, but its the same molecule. The purer oil is able to dissolve more additives as well as more contaminants from combustion. The problem is that it may extend your oil life by as little as 5% or as much as 200%. The only way to know is to have the oil tested frequently. I've used synthetic before, but I truly think if you have two identical engines and use synth in one and dino in the other, they will both last the same amount of time provided you change the oil on schedule.

[aomdmm]

brand-name non-sythetic oil.

Why non-synthetic if they both work about the same??

[383PhoenixAm]

Non-synthetic is good if you don't plan on keeping the car for a long, long time. I don't know why you would say that, otherwise. It's cheaper....And in the car world you always get what you pay for.
And pad life depends on how you drive them, how much load you put on them, etc. The metal content ones last longer if that's what you're looking for. They like to squeak though.

[curtis73]

Originally Posted by aomdmm

Why non-synthetic if they both work about the same??

Because its cheaper. I'll try to explain it, but I'm a picture person and not as good with words. Both oils contain similar additives making them have predictable qualities for wear, pH, and shear. The synthetic oil is purer, meaning it can dissolve more stuff. How much more stuff is a crap shoot. Based on testing by Blackstone Labs, the average safe lifespan of a typical dino oil is 2000-9000 miles depending on many factors. The average safe lifespan of synthetic oil was 2000-13,000. So depending on what your engine is giving the oil, synthetic doesn't last any longer.

The other thing to keep in mind is that its the same oil molecule. One was created in a lab, the other from millions of years of rotting dinosaurs. They both lubricate the same. One doesn't lube better than the other.

So, what I'm saying is that unless you test you own personal oil, there is no way of knowing how long it will be effective in your engine. I therefore change my oil every 3000 regardless of what type of oil it is.

Having said that, they both perform the same up until they exhaust their additive package. Typically, but not always, synthetics maintain stability for longer periods of time. Since you can't tell where that point is, using synthetic oil doesn't make sense to me. You can gamble and extend your oil changes with synthetic, but you'd better know what the additive package is and how your engine affects it. Since you also don't intrinsically know how many miles are city, or dusty, or damp, or highway, or cold... you can't accurately predict when the oil will need to be changed. Hence the 3000-mile interval. I'm sure it can go longer, but do you want to gamble that?

[SUPERMANG]

I'd use synthetic oil. I believe synthetic oil gives you better protection at startup, better cold weather flow, better protection during extreme conditions (track), and longer oil change intervals. I also would use it if you do alot of city driving. If you do mostly highway driving, dino oil would work just as well.

[SaabJohan]

There are several types of oils, synthetic can be based on several oils like PAO's, diesters, polyolesters. These oils have different properties, the synthetic especially have advantages when it comes to high temperatures and pumpability at low temperatures but the oil film is generally also stronger. On a given addetive package synthetic oils generally performs better than mineral based oils.

Some "synthetic" oils aren't synthetic at all, just hydrocracked mineral oil.