Glossary / General

synthetic

10 Episode Mentions

Too Afraid to Ask

“Synthetic” just means the fluid is made differently, but it still gets old. Heat and time still change its properties, so it can’t last forever.

Technical Definition

The host is making the point that “synthetic” fluids are not immune to aging. Even synthetic oils and other fluids still degrade because they’re repeatedly heated and cooled during normal engine operation.

Hear It Discussed

"The biggest bigger problem is switching from a synthetic or from a non-synthetic"
Save Money On Car Repairs With Our Car Talk Show Under The Hood show 11:22

"So the only thing in the hybrids available is synthetic. We actually did a comparison of the new ES versus the old ES."
CarCast+Edmunds - New RAM TRX, Lexus ES EV, Tesla Model Y L and more. CarCast 30:27

"a lot of times you're changing your oil 10,000 miles. So they do last long. And there's these, you know, part of it is they're, you know, there's just a lot of synthetic"
How to Survive High Gas Prices Talking Cars (MP3) 27:18