I had the same experience as Gammy. I didn't do a baseline but I noticed a big difference on cold mornings. I think it's mainly attributed to changing to synthetic diff fluid though. My truck felt like the e-brake was on before it warmed up on extremely cold mornings and when I switched, the slugginess went away.

John david

ok few things some got addressed.

its a new car and your first oil change. that old factory oil cleaned all the little burrs, dirt deposits, super small sand particals, and anytign else (small fibers of gaskets etc). so once you got rid of all that stuff of course its going to see better FE, has nothing to do with sythetic or not. coulda changed it with straight dino oil and it would have seen just about the same increase...

and baddog yea i would change it. manual trannys dont have to have the fluid changed often at all. not anywhere near an auto does. mostly because its essentially just a gearbox. but id change it every 100K miles or so. same with the diferential (if you have RWD)

and for those of you who switched to long life oils, you still have to change the oil filters every 3k...its just like an air filter, just cuz you got some new high performance intake you till have to change the filter or recharge it...

i know for a fact if i run the dino oil ment for high mileage engines that my chevette wont leak or use a drop. if i run regular dino oil same weight it will leak a tad...but usually i can find a great deal on it castrol GTX high milleage 5 qts+ fram filter is only $13.99

From my experence I have seen switching to synthetics go from making little difference in mpg, to making a significant improvement in mpg, and even making mpg worse!

For me the bigger the engine is the more potential margin for improvement there would be from reduced internal friction by synthetic oil. Making the change on a new small well fitting engine has made little initial difference to even worse than dyno oil.
I've read some folks theory that helps support the worse mileage on synthetic initially is actually caused by improper breakin. There theory goes that you need to run a new engine at high rpm during breakin with dyno oil or it will just sludge up the ring gaps and not really break in properly. Then when you switch to synthetic the sludge gets washed away and you get drop in MPG for a long time until the engine finally wears in. My wife's car went through this very same drop in MPG when I switching to synthetic after the first 2k but it did eventually come back up some 8k miles later...
I did not get to drive her car much during that break in time and getting her to switch off the overdrive and wind it up a bit was not happening.....

If it were me , on the manual trans , I'd go ahead with a 30k interval . Thats me though - I tend to be a bit over zealous with maintainence . Is the Metro spec'd for ATF in the manual ? I am aware that many manual trans are , but am curious if the Metros are also ( for my own knowledge )

Now on that 3k filter change :eek: ?!! You sure about that :confused: ? Got a link or a definitive reference about it ? (again for my own reference )

no but think about it, its a filter right? the dino oil is not what gets them clogged its all the carbon from piston blowby and all other little fragments of metal and dirt. doesnt matter what oil you use it still gets carbon blowby, still gets dirt in it, still gets little ammounts of metal...

oh and its only 25,000 miles OR ONE YEAR!
https://www.go-synthetic.com/oil_change/oil_change.htm

it even says to change the filter per manufacturers instructions, or if you use thiers its every 6 months or 12,500 miles...

I realize the Amsoil thing ( I've used it , good stuff !) The new EaO Filters are great - although even Amsoil will tell you they are a once an interval filter...end infomercial .
Standard filters are cheap (read Inexpensive ) and recycleable too . The filter swap and oil top off certainly won't hurt a thing . I've been on a 6 mo/10k max schedule for years and it works for me . At most 2 changes/filters a year as up until recently I've never put 10k on in a year .
I just don't get the 3k interval even if extended drain oil is used , especially since most manufacturers are on a 5 , 7.5 or 10k oci with dino oil (many with an *every other* oci, change the filter clause). So why does the filter need a 3k interval with extended drain oil?

Experiment. I have found the perfect combo for my vehicle. Right now, I'm in love with Bosch oil filters. They are less then K&N, and it seems to run smoohter.

m

i gotta use either bosh or delco in my truck cuz it has a checkvalve that prevents the oil from draining back down in the night so it has some valve chatter in the first start of the morning.

why? i never changed the oil on any of my cars before 4k miles, even the new one.

the surface area of the filter and the size of the motor could be set to whatever combination and the filter could last longer. honda recommends 8k miles right??

i will never change any sooner than 5k or every 6 months

For the Element, Honda recommends 20k mile oil filter change intervals. I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing. I'm just saying.