Synthetic motor oil

fiftyfivenomad · July 2003

I'm also a UT fan. I worked in Knoxville after I graduated from Tennessee Tech. in 1994 with a Civil Engineering degree. I moved to Nashville last year to attend Vandy.

There is no better place to be than in Neyland Stadium on a chilly, sunny fall day with 107,000 fans going nuts. It is a surreal, dreamlike experience.

I just got a chill up my spine thinking about it.

It's good to meet another Tennesseean. The downside to living in Nashville is that the city is attracting a lot of LA entertainment types. I hope that the rest of the U.S. never discovers just how great this state is so that it won't turn it into another California.

chinee · July 2003

I've read on www.bobistheoilguy.com that Pennzoil and Castrol are two high quality dino oils, and I've read that GTX can safely go 5K miles... haven't read about Pennzoil (wasn't looking for comments either").

Since your comfort level is what's important, Iwould advise that you stop by the oil site and read for a few days, even pose a question... Those guys over there are always helpful and will recommend an oil and a change interval for you, regerdless of whether you choose dino or synthetic.

ryoken · July 2003

Are there other labs besides Blackstone to do this? Not that I have anything against them, I'm just wondering if I have choices.

bobistheoilguy · July 2003

yes, schaeffers, amsoil, m1 all have labs. So does your local cat dealer.

The main reason most use blackstone is to help support them because they pay good advertising money to help support the bobistheoilguy board and they appear to do an excellent job. But as for choices, many oil companies do supply analysis.

zoomzoom626 · July 2003

I drive 2000 626 V6 and I was wondering would I get better wear protection if I switched from mobil 1 10W-30(what manual calls for) to mobil 1 0W-40 given that I run 10 K drain intervals.
Thanks!

brendella · August 2003

That looks like the Mobil Trysyn in your analysis.

It did very well. The new Supersyn will even perform better for you . I like that oil !

tassi · August 2003

Can somebody inform me if this Valvoline Max Life Oil is a good buy. My car is at 100,000 miles and I'm trying to figure out what is the best oil I should be using. Up to this point I've been using Quaker State oil. I drive a '99 Chevy Lumina LTZ with a 3800 V6.

brendella · August 2003

Yes the Maxlife is a good oil . All the oils have high milaege versions these days . Mobil has a new 10/30 available as well .

The 3800 will run many miles with either of those oils .

tassi · August 2003

Can somebody inform me if this Valvoline Max Life Oil is a good buy. My car is at 100,000 miles and I'm trying to figure out what is the best oil I should be using. Up to this point I've been using Quaker State oil. I drive a '99 Chevy Lumina LTZ with a 3800 V6.

csandste · August 2003

Got a lot of good press on this board when it first came out. I believe at its introduction it had a pretty good dose of moly which has since been reduced. The favorable reports have decreased. Whether this is substantiative, or simply the result that this and other boards such as bobistheoilguy consist of a fairly small cadre of oil nuts and not anything statistically significant is something I'm not sure about.

brendella · August 2003

The many oils does not have to use moly to be good products and protect well though . Maxlife analysis have looked very good ,even better than some moly oils .

Not to argue , just an observation based on the much touted oil analysis some like to have done .

csandste · August 2003

there are many additives such as antimony which perform even better than moly and don't even show up on UOA's unless you pay big bucks.

brendella · August 2003

Shell Care in TX is one of the Analysis Companies that tests for Antimony in their analysis kits that cost 12 dollars. Antimony is a part of the make-up of trimetal engine bearings so they test for it. No big bucks there and other labs test for it as well without causting anymore . Just have to pick one of the many labs that test for it is all.

Look here at antimony pentoxide and other variances of antimony. It appears to be a solid additive much like moly disulphide. I would personally avoid any solid additives in a motor oil. They speak of actual micron sizes here .

http://www.usantimony.com/products/ant_oxide.html#vf

armtdm · August 2003

Unless you are having some consumption issues or seal leekage why would you change what has been working well? At 100,000 miles if it ain't broke don't fix it is very true. The high mileage oils may only be worth switching to if you have some issues. Otherwise jsut keep on driving with what you have

brendella · August 2003

I agree. The advertised " for motors with over 75,000 miles " does not depict the need of a high milaege oil . If the motor does not leak but is starting to use some oil it would be best to go a step higher grade oil . Especially in summer when the difference between a 10/30 and 10/40 does not matter that much with cold starts in mind .

txstudmfn · August 2003

What is the difference between 5W 30 and 5W 50 synthetic oil? Manual recomends 5W 30 in my 99' camry (80k miles). I'm wondering if the 5w 50 would work? Is mobil a good brand to go with? what kind of drain interval am i looking at with the camry?

malachy72 · August 2003

a 10w-30 and stay away from the 5w-50. The car does not need an oil with that viscosity.

M1 is fine if synthetic is what you want.

My 2 cents.

ruking1 · August 2003

There is a lot of viscosity difference. I would stick with either the 5W-30 or the 10W-30. One practical difference between the two is app .5-.7 mpg better gas mileage with the 5W-30. Unless you are dialed into the differences there is almost no SOTP difference. Mobil One is an oil I have been using for INXS of 650k miles.

asac · August 2003

I just bought a Honda S2000 with 11K miles on it. I plan on using Mobile 1 at the next oil change. Since the is such is high revving engine, what oil change interval do you guys recommend for the Mobile 1 or other synthetic oil? I haven't discussed this yet with the dealer, but wanted to see what this board recommends. Thanks.

brainlessbozo · September 2003

I have an 02 Passat V6 4 Mo. I bought this with 11000 miles on it when it was 8 mo. old. Even though I got it with an oil change of Valvoline blend 10-30, I changed it to M1 5-40, per by the book. The next change was at 16700 miles, with the same M1 5-40, stock of which I had, and I had only used 1/2 a quart during those miles! Drives like a dream.

However, it seems M1 0-40 is replacing 5W-40. What do I do??? I am intending to increase drain intervals gradually to 10,000 miles over the next 2-3 oil changes with intermittent top-offs as required. I live in the Dakotas. Your thoughts please......

snarks · September 2003

Your oil interval should be what the manual requires for mileage interval. Once the warranty expires then you can do what you'd like while however under warranty follow requirements.

asac · September 2003

My owners manual requires 7500 mile oil changes for normal driving. My question is whether more frequent oil changes are recommended with the Mobil 1? I would never go beyond the 7500 interval anyway.

rayfannn · September 2003

Has anybody used engine oil additive lubricant made of small (5-15 micron)and soft ductile metals. The product claims that the patented micro-metallubricant fills in imperfect, worn surface areas of cylinder walls, rings, camshafts, bearings, and other critical parts, providing a smooth and well-lubricated surface.
And because of that it can improves engine performance/compression/mileage and reduces friction/exhaust emission/oil consumption. Does it make sense? Anyway I have tried with my 88 Corola (160,000 mile) and 98 Altima (90,000 mile), both work very good and I can tell big difference before and after.

Ray

pulgo · September 2003

Take a look at this:

http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;- f=5;t=000830

It's just snake oil, similar to the comments on the linked page. If you want to ruin your engine, just go ahead.

micweb · September 2003

I just purchased a new Toyota, 1.5 liter engine. Standard spec oil is 5-30, but I have heard a lot of good things about the 5-20 oil and would prefer to run it. Any thoughts? I would use Quaker State or Motorcraft 5-20. I would be running 3,000 mile oil changes, and I am interested in better engine protection, not better gas mileage.

Since I am going to do 3,000 mile oil changes, I prefer not to use 5-30 M1 (although with only a 3.5 liter crankcase capacity and no oil consumption, maybe M1 isn't an impossible choice in terms of cost).

My driving is mostly freeway, but a couple of times a month I'll do interstate runs of 200-400 miles at interstate speeds. I also have a stick shift and will occasionally run the engine up to 5,000 rpm or a tad under redline, and when driving on mountain grades downhill, will let the engine rev high so as to get the engine braking effect.

according2me · September 2003

in price for the Walmart M1 5 quart jug.

Sigh... I guess I'm going back to dino now.

joatmon · September 2003

I'd recommend 3-4k on the Motorcraft, or 6-8k on Mobil 1 0W20. I think it may depend on whether you want to be under it more often and if it is easy to change?

Jack

sandman46 · September 2003

My car is now at 3500 miles and it calls for the first oil change at 3750 miles. Is there any advantage with going with a synthetic oil or just staying with dino oil at 4k change intervals for the oil and filter?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The Sandman :-)

armtdm · September 2003

If you are more interested in protection vs higher mpg etc. I would definitely stay with the ?W30 as recommended in the manual. If you want a 0W30 you can easily find that as well but I do not understand why you would even care to run a 0W20 in an engine where at 30 weight is recommended

knapp3 · September 2003

Boy, you'll get answers on both sides of that question. The only experienced-based answer I've seen comes from Bill99gxe on the Maxima.org site who advocates using dino for the 1st 10K in Nissan Maxima engines based on the oil analysis spreadsheet results he's seen while collecting UOA reports over the last few years. He feels that the VQ V6 Max engine takes a long time to break in and thus benefits from dino oil during that time. Whether that applies to the 1.8L or 2.4L Sentra engines is anybodys guess.

Everyone else's opinion is just that, opinion. The question you need to answer is, what's the hurry or benefit of switching so soon?

dustyk · October 2003

There is the same opinion for the 287 (4.7) motor in Dodge trucks.

I would think that the best time to use non-synthetic motor oils in an engine is during that nice clean period while it's new, assuming regular oil changes, of course.

Dusty

sgrd0q · October 2003

And can somebody explain how the engine "benefits" from dino oil? Let's say you switched to synthetic at 1,000 miles and now you have 50K miles. Further, assume you have had no oil leaks and the engine burns no oil.

How is your engine worse off?

dudleyr · October 2003

If your engine burns no oil it is not worse off.

bluedevils · October 2003

Wal-Mart has again drastically slashed their price on the big jug (4 or 5 qts?) of 5W40 - somewhere in the low $3s/qt. But the price on the single quarts is even better - $2.00.

amcanoe · October 2003

I changed to a fully synthetic oil in my 2001 CRV at the first oil change and I will continue to use it. I use Amsoil 5W30 and I have 62,000 miles on my CRV. It is not using any oil and I have been changing the oil at 25,000 miles and changing the oil filter (also Amsoil) every 12,500 miles. This oil change interval is what Amsoil recommends for the 5W30 fully synthetic oil. Also they make an oil wetted foam air filter that can be cleaned, dried and oil wetted with a special oil they make for this filter. I take the filter out once a year and clean it. I did see an improvement in gas mileage when I switched to Amsoil fully synthetic oil of 2 mpg. Over a period of a year that is quite a signifacant savings in gas as I put 30,000 miles a year on my CRV.

sgrd0q · October 2003

I doubt very much the difference of 2 mpg is due to the oil alone. But you can indeed get a better mpg with synthetic, possibly even big enough to offset the higher cost of the oil, but nowhere near the increase you are talking about.

jcosta001 · October 2003

I recently changed my oil using M1 10w-30 but did not consider checking the API Grade requirements for my engine. I now see that my owners manual calls for API SH or SG and M1 does not list either as an approved specification. How serious is this? Should I change out the M1 immediately?
Thanks.

ryoken · October 2003

Mobil1 is rated API SL. If I'm not mistaken, as you go down the alphabet, they get better.. so if your car calls for SG/SH then anything SG through SZ is fine (with the current standard being at SL at the moment).

jcosta001 · October 2003

Lots of recent questions regarding "should I go to synthetic". This article provides lots of information and comparisons to petroleum oil.

http://www.getahelmet.com/tech/syntheticoil.htm

armtdm · October 2003

As a long time Amsoil user I can assure you that it is rare for their oil to hold up for 25,000 miles. Remember their statement is 25,000 miles or one year "which ever comes first" and if you go beyond one year you must have analysis to back it up.

Their original 5W30 IMO will never make 25,000 miles and still be servicable. The diesel 5W30 (can be used in gas engines), maybe but very doubtful as well. Most people doing the oil analysis rarely make 15,000 on a synthetic, too many factors make the oil too contaminated to continue (unless you have a bypass filter) like driving conditions, climate, well operating engine etc.) I personally cannot go beyond 12,000 miles without the oil being too contamnnated to lubricate properly and the wear metals get to the point of being too high for my comfort. I am afraid you bought into the Amsoil marketing hype on the 25,000 mile change and need to do an oil analysis ASAP to see what is going on with the oil. try a sample at say 12,000 miles as see what it looks like. I have been using Amsoil for over 10 years and a binder full of oil analysis results on my cars. Please do not take their hype for granted!

As to their foam air filter, the origianl (now they ahve a new version) has been proven in many small tests to actually not filter as well as the OEM paper filters in terms of keepin silicon/dirt out of the system. I will no longer use them and OEM have been the best for me in terms of reduced silicon in the oil analysis. The foam just doesn't work IMO and is too much of a hassle to clean and reoil

matthew525 · October 2003

Anyone heard of sludge build up when using Mobile 1? My Toyota service writer told me that he has seen a car using Mobile 1 and it turned to a gel because of the oil break down. Doesn't pass the sanity test to me; unless the owner ran 15K or so miles without an oil change. Thoughts?

ruking1 · October 2003

I have been running Mobil One 5w30 with 15k oil and oem oil filters in TLC's for INXS of 660k miles.

I am guessing you are probably talking of the V6 problem of coking in upper engine parts due to poor Toyota design?

So cutting to your chase, if I understand where it is leading(if not correct me) : 1. if Mobil One has a higher coking point than say the Toyota recommended oil, he is recommending the Toyota oil with the lower coking point? 2. He is recommending lower oil change intervals with lower coking point oil to compensate for a poor design?

If so, may I recommend the higher coking point oil Mobil One and if you have a concern about coking change it out more frequently?

For me this coking problem is a clear red flag.Specifically the V6 in older Siennas has been the issue. In fact,Toyota has had coking SLUDGE even when I had 1985 V4's Toyota Camry's.

nortsr1 · October 2003

My wife purchased a SRX last week...and...the first thing I always do is read the owners manual {supposedly the least read book in the U.S.A.}. The maintenance schedule calls for the first oil change at 25000 miles or the first year {whichever comes first}. They call for a synthetic oil. It was so unbelievable that I even went back and checked the schedule a second time. I will call the service dept. mgr. to verify same. Any comments would be appreciated.

ruking1 · October 2003

I don't have a Caddie but I do have a Corvette Z06 which recommends Mobil One 5w30 full synthetic. There is an onboard oil change estimating computer that has on its high side 15,000 miles and or 1 year. Actually most Vette owners that post in two web sites not only have a hard time believing this but in fact change at a much more frequent interval. I personally run 15k intervals and have in other makes for a long long time now. Normally, the usual practical question is: do you even come close to 25,000 in a year? While I would be inclined to run 20-25k intervals, I am fully aware the overall issues that might influence the landscape.

kirbstoy · October 2003

As referred-to by ruking 1, my '03 Chevy Tahoe has the Driver's Information System (DIS) which includes the Oil Life indicator which indicates what % of the oils' life is left before the recommended oil/filter change. While I think it is a fascinating technological feat to indicate the "life" left in the oil, I'm too old and set in my ways to follow the computer's advice. My Tahoe now has about 10,500 miles and at its first oil change (5500 miles) I went with Mobil-1 5W-30 and the GM filter. I've used Mobil-1 for many, many years and it has always performed flawlessly. Now I need to find a source for Mobil-1 brand oil filters. My local Auto Zone sells them but, incredibly, doesn't have a Mobil-1 Filter catalog!

dustyk · November 2003

I'm not sure, but the Mobil website may have the listing for you.

Dusty

armtdm · November 2003

Very nicely said.
Kudos!

micweb · November 2003

kirbstoy · November 2003

Hi..Ya, I looked around on the Mobil-1 website and never could find a link to a catalog for Mobil-1 oil filters. Frankly, I thought that was weird. I looked at a few other websites. One provided the correct filter number and a good price per filter, but then indicated they were out of stock on the one I needed!

Finally, I found a website with reasonable prices on K&N oil filters so I bought three of them. After looking for these filters, my sense was that some e-retailers don't pay much attention to how their website functions. They could learn a lesson from Amazon.com! Have a great day!

according2me · November 2003

I use M1 and I'll settle for 300K from my vehicle, but forever would be nice.:^)

Synthetic motor oil

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