Leaks cured by synthetic oil?

[lpearson]

Just put in a by pass oil filter system and synthetic oil. I had a pretty good leak in the front, it looked like it was the front seal.



Scheduled an appointment with a truck shop to tear it down and replace. --------------------BUT during the 4 day interim, the oil leak stopped. The only thing I did was the system and synthetic oil.



Anyone had an experience like this????



Lowell

 

[Grey Wolf]

No, but I,ve heard of synthetic causing some

 

[Hohn]

Yeah, you usually hear of sun "causing" leaks by cleaning out the gunk that causes false sealing.



It's possible the syn you used has more seal swell to it, thus the leak would go away.



Justin

 

[SMorneau]

I have been told by a guy dealing synthetics for a very long time that they will cause leaks in vehicles that have been neglected because they will cause swelling to go down. He also said that about 50% of the time if you live with the leaking for awhile the seals will become pliable enough to re-seal. His recommendation was if a conventional oil was used and changed at the proper intervals you should not have any problems.



Sounds like your leak stopped pretty quickly so I don't know that any of this applies.

 

[illflem]

I'm thinking the syn oil released deposits from elsewhere in the engine that then migrated to the leak plugging it up.

Could be a long lasting fix or might fail tomorrow, I'd just keep an eye on it.



Royal Purple dealer told me he recommends changing the filter a couple thousand miles after switching to syn on a older engine because syn oil has a cleansing quality that will loosen deposits possibly overloading the filter.

 

[y-knot]

I do not believe that synthetic oils will cause leaks, But if you already have one, they will usually leak more. They have away of getting past problem areas, like worn seals.

 

[lpearson]

Originally posted by illflem

I'm thinking the syn oil released deposits from elsewhere in the engine that then migrated to the leak plugging it up.

Could be a long lasting fix or might fail tomorrow, I'd just keep an eye on it.



Royal Purple dealer told me he recommends changing the filter a couple thousand miles after switching to syn on a older engine because syn oil has a cleansing quality that will loosen deposits possibly overloading the filter.

Interesting. The syn that I just put in was Royal Purple.

A filter change is a simple thing to do. I'll be watching to see if the leak reappears.



Thanks Bill,



Lowell