Here is a site that I believe will provoke great interest and comment.

Synthetic

You may learn some rather shocking news about the synthetic oil you trusted (I know I certainly did).

Do I believe most of what this site is telling me? Yes; the libel and slander laws are still in place and working nicely. If the basic info presented here was not true, the site and company would have been sued out of existence long ago.

Happy reading -

JeffH

 

Yes indeed, there are TWO kinds of synthetic oil, the cheaper one being "hydro-cracked".
As far as I'm aware, both can be called 'synthetic' in US, but not in Europe -- but don't quote me on that one, it could easily be the other way round!
I understand the germans in WW2 put a lot of effort into devising/improving synthetic oils, primarily because of shortages. Lubricating gas turbine and jet engine bearings which get very hot in the slipstream of burnt gasses, and are turning at anything up to 100,000rpm can only be done with synthetic reliably. (Hence if your car has a turbocharger, at least semi-synthetic is needed).
Mineral oil certainly has limitations. I used to have an electric fan-heater under my bench at work as the heating wasn't too efficient in the workshop. Every 3 months or so I had to lubricate the turbofan bearings as they began to squeak annoyingly. But then I used silicon oil instead -- and never had to oil those bearings again.
Leedsman.