I put the original Mobil 1 in my AMC Gremlin 40yr. ago, a lot of good it did me at 100k everything else was shot. At 2.6 cents a mile fixed cost who cares. Once I had 4 kids I've lost count of how many cars we've gone through, it must have been 15 or 20, my son totaled the only 250k candidate (Volvo) in a snow storm.
There is a difference between opinions and truths.
You must realize nothing has ever been proven to be absolute?
Also, everybody thinks differently. whose thoughts hold supremacy and on what basis?
You cannot just "call out" everything that does not conform absolute empiricism.
Yeah, the design of the car and engine have a lot more to do with how long it's going to live than the oil you use - assuming it's the right grade and changed per recommendations.
There are plenty of engines out there that you could put unicorn oil in and the thing would still blow up due to fatal design flaws.
I've never had a car past 150k, or a car I wanted to keep that long, anyway 🙂.
Are the various brands of synthetic oils of the same AWE similar, or close preforming ?
I use Petronas synthium in my old Volvo.
If you change it frequently enough, for most engines, there is actually no difference between conventional and synthetic oils carrying the requisite API / ACEA marks. This has been borne out of many, many used oil analyses and engine teardowns.
There are many oils competitive with M1. Mobil 1 is not even the "best" oil in most categories, but it is consistently good. There are only a few actual manufacturers of the base stocks and additives - it is possible to find several oils that are identical but sold under different labels.
Petronas Syntium - Bob Is The Oil Guy
You can use just about anything if your engine is not hard on oil.
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Yeah, if you are tracking the car or see high oil temps, then you need to be a lot more selective.
I had a car with BMW S54 engine, which mandated Castrol TWS 10W-60 or your warranty was void because of the infamous rod bearing issues 🙁.
A great oil for the track. A little thick for cold weather and overkill for the street.
The Girls can destroy cars far more successfully than I ever could. I had a think and I have owned 11 cars in my life so far. A couple of which were beaters to last a year, two were mom-mobiles and one was a project car that barely saw the road.
Currently listening to solo piano from the poor sod who tried and failed to teach me aged 8-12. AAA recording, minimal microphones, sponsored by Rega. Lovely last century goodness. Interestingly the record label now specialises in Metal 🙂
Me!
I plea guilty: for the last 10 or 15 years, I sat in the panel of jury to grade graduation works at the Technical University of Geneva, so that's a kind of referee, right? 🙂
A bit more seriously, we (the panel of referees/judges at the TUG) are fortunate enough to have only 1 single guy who has some behavioral patterns similar to what Prof. T is hinting at, and he's not a very popular guy.
PS: I love that cooking/audio design comparison! Is it OK to use snake oil to connect the 2?
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Spectrometric analysis for engine oils at specified intervals is a powerful (and costly) procedure for “on condition” maintenance programs for heavy machinery, ship or aircraft fleets. I don’t thing it is justified for cars,even for race cars.
Spectrometric Oil Analysis Program (SOAP)
I remember a Perkin-Elmer huge Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer measuring one metal element at a time.
Manual scanning across the wave length spectrum, recording the moving coil uA meter indication at every wavelength of interest (five), then translating the uA reading to ppm per weight for each metal, recording the result on log book and making an entry on the trend analysis diagram for the respective engine. Three-point calibration before test, every 15 minutes and at the end of test. (aircraft jet engine trend analysis, early 1980). Now it's all auto
George
Attachments
This new fork to the audio design thread is most welcome and right on time!
It's been 9 months since I returned my company car, and I'm a few thousand miles away to my very first oil change in my own car.
Dear experts, do we have an agreement on what's the best oil? Last time I went oil shopping, some 20 years ago, it was the Castrol Synthetic, recommended by a ME friend.
Blackstone in the US performs reasonably priced analyses. Unnecessary for normal uses as you noted, though. I think they use ICP-MS for the spectral analysis.
There is no best oil, anyone who says something like that is just plain wrong.
It depends on what your engine was designed for, what climate you live in, and what your driving habits are like.
0W-20 is what I use in my Mazda 3 2.5L. If you use 0W-20 in a Porsche 911 GT3RS and track it, you may be looking for a new engine.
If you post what car / engine you have, I'd be happy to recommend something.
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I've never seen a bigger strawman on this forum than this.
So your point is, don't challenge those who post claims stemming from subjective opinion.
In the early 80s where you got through 4-5 engines in a weekend (sometimes more if your qualifying block split at full boost) I don't think F1 was that bothered. Now that they are limited to 3 engine blocks for the season and no rebuilds you can bet they will be throwing every analytical technique in the book at them.
Doesn't look to be as accurate for the metals that are allowed. Gone are the glory days of sintered Be pistons.
The car is a Mercedes C 250 CDI designed as a work horse for older people, diesel engine with 4 cylinders and 2 turbos, 204HP, 4Matic transmission. The factory spec for oil seems to be MB229.51, and the popular Mobile 1 is on the list.
The country is Switzerland, the climate is temperate, the temperature range is 0°F to 100°F.
My driving habit is mostly freeway, "ECO" mode because of the fuel cost over here, the theoretical speed limit is 75mph, actual speed as set by the cruse control is 80mph, just below what the radars think is not OK.
I'm not looking for anything highend, just the best trade-off between oil change cost and engine wear.
I'm not a great expert in snake oil, but for what I know, most of the time, it usually has no effect. So cannot hurt ?
I even think that it can have a positive effect, insofar as the texts that come with it must develop the imagination and the poetic sense of its author.
Not to mention the benefit to society with the redistribution of the profits it generates.
This said, I'm not sure it is a good idée for cooking, because the way it looks and smell. My doctor use to say:
"When it looks like snake oil, when it smell like snake oil, it's mostly snake oil.
Instead use homeopathy*."
* I'm sure someone will kill me. ;-)
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Looks like the MB OM651 engine.
You should be good with any of the major brand synthetics that meet the MB229.51 standard. Whatever is cheaper or easier to get - if it's Castrol Edge, Mobil 1 (ESP probably), Shell Helix, all similar quality. A 0w-30, 5w-30, or 0w-40, or or 5w-40 should all be fine.
I believe MB229.51 and 52 are targeted toward protecting the DPF, so it's important to stay with an oil that meets that spec or maybe whatever the BMW cross-reference is for that. In order to meet that spec, and the ACEA specs, all of these oils are going to be synthetic.
I'm not as familiar with diesels, we don't get nearly as many in the US and I try to avoid them myself 🙂.
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