i have a 2002 eclipse gs with 57000 miles. well maintaned, wondering if it would be a good idea to switch to a synthetic oil. i am doing a tuneup next weekend(plugs,wires,brakes,oil change, trany fluid change, antifreeze change and installing a cai) i purchased a synthetic blend to ease into the synthetic oil. is this a good idea or not. also i would like to replace the timeing belt, they want 400 at a shop, is this something i can do myself. i have access to any tools as well as a full shop bay(airforce base hobby shop). any information would be helpfull. thank you.

400 for a full 60k tune up is a good deal. (Timing belt, water pump) Parts and labor.

You can switch to a full synthetic oil but like you're doing ease into it, and most of the time for the 4cyl eclipses you really don't need a full synthetic oil unless you're looking to get alot more miles in between oil changes. A synthetic blend should be fine, and I'd stick with that unless like I said you're planning on goin alot more miles in between oil changes

Unless you live or plan on driving in extreme conditions it is a waste of money.

so the 400 is just for them to install a timing belt. i was wondering about the difficulty of changing the belt. again i have all tools, and shop. i would like to try it myself, but don't want to mess anything up. i can get a belt and tensioner kit from auto zone for 100. thank you for your help

Its not hard. Get a haynes or chilton guide and read it, then read it again.

Then come ask any questions you have.

That's also true.

have you ever drove in Arizona in the summer? Arizona is one area i would say does fall into the "extreme conditions" category. if your driving and the local temp says its 107, your looking at around 117 off the pavement. that will easily bring your engine temp up enough to be within the "extreme conditions" zone.

side note: if you buy synthetic at walmart it doesn't cost 3times as much for the oil. so its not really a waste of money since i pay only $22.50 for 5 quarts of oil when everyone else pays around the same price for the high mileage conventional oil at autozone or checker/kragen. i use castorol syntec, and it works great. i'm at 6,000 miles on my last oil change. i have only used one extra quart for topping off, and i plan on going another 5,000 more miles before i change the oil again.

oye

I got my synthetic from wally world as well. cept i got pennzoil platinum. and the mobil 1 filter from advanced

Don't ever use pennzoil! that crap is horrible, it's all about full synthetic valvoline.

Its actually just a transfer oil, I'll get a good quality synthetic next, this is the first synthetic I've put in, I have been putting mineral oil in and changing every 3000. I've been putting mobil 1 in our yaris.

Mobil 1? I'm sorry. I personally don't like that oil. Too expensive as well.

Valvoline FTW

Dont like Mobile 1 either, Its all about that Valvoline, not wax not to cheap but not to much money either

MOBIL1 is one of the best oils...synthetic. problem is when people go synthetic they mix it with regular Crap from like econo lube once u go synthetic u should always use the same every oilchange

No I've used mobil in one of my oil changes and it was a synthetic blend just like the Castrol GTX that was in there before, and I didn't like it at all. It didn't hold up and lost it's viscosity alot sooner than the Castrol did.

for Socal and any hot weather Get
Mobil1 Synthetic High mleage.
also Fram toughgaurd filter FTW
10w-30 is GREAT for it.

Do not use fram oil filters. They are known to fall apart well before the 3000 mile interval.

not for me. i dont do 3k oil changes i do 4-5k changes when using synthetic its ok-so say ASE BS this year. well i use fram because its easy for me to use.plus free :D