We just purchased a new Camry (please don’t tell Dave Ramsey); just plain Camry, no LE, etc. at a small dealership in Paris, TX, and loved the people whom we dealt with. And, we love the car so much, we may never go back to a Honda (own 2001 Civic. Two questions before we take to big city dealership for 5K check…1) how do we know, for certain, if we have synthetic oil in auto, or not, and 2) what is the advantage of nitogen in tires, and what happens when we are away from a dealer, and need plain 'ol oxygen?
Plain old oxygen and plain old conventional oil are both fine.
Unless your owner’s manual specifies that you need synthetic, and on the Camry 4-banger I don’t think it does, then you do not need synthetic and it will do you no benefit. No harm, but no benefit.
Nitrogen has absolutely zero benefit in street tires. No harm, but zero benefit. As a matter of fact, the air we breath is 77% nitrogen already, and only 22% oxygen, the balance being argon and misc. Pure nitrogen in tires is a sales gimmick. Harmless if free, but a waste of money if not free.
When you are away from the dealer you use a normal, regular air pump, even if your tires were filled with 100% nitrogen at the dealer. It’ll mix with the nitrogen in the tire and the tire will be 98% nitrogen filled rather than 100% nitrogen filled. It’ll never know the difference.
If your car requires synthetic oil, the owner’s manual will definitely tell you. I doubt your car needs it.
Search this message board for “nitrogen” and you’ll find all the discussion you need. If it’s free, go ahead and use it if you’d like, but I wouldn’t pay money for it.
For this service that you’re about to do, make sure you do the items listed in the owner’s manual and not anything added by the dealer to help with their boat payments.