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Maintenance & Repair Synthetic motor oil
8536 messages, Last post on Nov 21, 2009 at 9:34 AM
You are in the Maintenance & Repair Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
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Replying to: highmiler650 (Jun 17, 2009 12:42 pm) |
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Replying to: shipo (Jun 17, 2009 12:50 pm) I read in passing that when Castrol in marketing the Edge product refers to it as "FULL" synthetic. (I would presume closer to 100% PAO IV) By deduction does that mean LESS THAN full for the other than Castrol "synthetic" products?
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Replying to: shipo (Jun 17, 2009 12:50 pm) Bearing that in mind I would not hesitate to use it up to 6k miles without an OCI. On my own cars and motorcycle I use Amsoil because of it's easy availability to me (my neighbour is an Amsoil dealer and sells at dealer cost to me). |
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Replying to: ruking1 (Jun 17, 2009 1:05 pm) Best regards, Shipo
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Replying to: shipo (Jun 17, 2009 1:37 pm) |
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I have just changed the oil on my truck. I used M1 0w30. 2001 S-10, 4.3 V6 118K miles. This was a 10K OCI. The last one was at 108K, 1 1/2 years ago with M1 10w30. The one before that was a 5K (I think) with M1 10w30 when I switched from dino Valvoline 10w30. A couple of things that I have noticed in the oil change. When I switched to M1 10w30 I didn't really notice a difference in MPG or power. I actually didn't really notice any real difference at all. Several factors could have played into this. I wasn't doing a whole lot of driving with this vehicle and the driving I did do was short stints. They were usually less than 5 miles each. My gas mileage was pretty bad at around 16 MPG. I also installed a ladder rack and that also seemed to affect my mileage. When I was using the Valvoline I had been getting 17-18 city and around 23 hwy. However, this was when I was driving 3-4K miles a month and mostly highway miles. I also want to note that I was already getting the horrid mileage before I switched to M1. When I switched to M1 my driving habits had already changed for this vehicle. What I was looking for when I switched to the M1 was increased time between oil changes and better protection because of all the short trips. It was also cost effective as I could do an M1 oil change every 10K for around $30 versus a dino Valvoline change every 3K for around $15 (by doing it myself). Just recently I started driving the truck more. I now average about 1500 miles a month. A lot of highway miles are accumulated. The truck now goes instead of an average of 5 miles per trip, around 80 miles per trip. My mileage increased to about 17-18 MPG. Which I still thought was pretty bad seeing as how I used to get 22-23 MPG on the dino oil, but that was before the truck hit 100K and I put the ladder rack on it so I attributed it to that. Plus the driving I was doing wasn't all straight roads and downhills. It was up hills and down and around corners and such. So there was more accelerating and descelerating involved than I think would be typical. If I was really nice to the truck, I could squeak a 19 mpg, but that was being nice. I don't like being "nice", I just want to drive. However, I started driving more when the M1 10w30 had been in the truck for about a year. I was contemplateing changing it, but I still had about 4K to go before my 10K oci. Well I hit that 10K oci just a few days ago and finally changed the oil. I think I used about 1 1/2 qts of oil through out the interval and I was a qt low when I changed it. The usage seems high to me, but then again for a lot of that I was doing cold starts and driving a few miles and the truck didn't get a chance to really warm up before being shut off again. The truck would normally go through about 1 qt of dino oil per 3K oil change so the rate of usage per miles driven stayed about the same and even went down some with the M1. Now on to what I have noticed. I am running the 0w30 M1. The past 2 tanks of gas have been a little over 20 MPG. The last time I filled up I didn't have a calculator but I did a rough estimate in my head and came up with around 20 mpg. I thought it might be a fluke or maybe the attendant didn't fill it all the way or maybe I drove a little more nice. Today I filled up and went 310 miles on 15.3 gallons of gas. Again, right at 20 mpg. I used the same station and probably the same pump. It is also likely it was the same attendant that filled the truck last time. Remember, I used to struggle to get 19 and normal mileage was around the high 17's. I wasn't any more different in my driving. So it appears that the M1 0w30 has indeed increased mileage by about 1-2 mpg. I'll track it and see how it goes. I should also note that I have been running the A/C more frequently as well, whereas before the oil change, I hadn't been running the A/C as much. It just so happened that about a week before I changed the oil, I started using the A/C more. Also my temp seems marginally lower. The temp of the truck had normally been running right at 210 (mid-point exact), but over the past several days of driving I have noticed it running at about 1 notch lower. Maybe it's running cooler, maybe it's just I pay more attention to the gauge now I don't know. Someone before mentioned faster starts, but I haven't noticed this. My truck has always started with 1 crank of the starter will even fire up with just a half a crank frequently. It has always started almost instantly. I haven't done any UOA's, but I should as I would be curious to see what it happening. However, I may get a chance to peek at the insides of the motor as I suspect I have both a valve cover gasket leaking and now possibly a coolant leak at the back of the motor. So some parts are going to have to come apart to replace the leaky seals and so maybe that will give me a chance to see what is happening inside the motor. I suspect it might be in pretty good shape given it's had a dino Valvoline oil change every 3-5K since I purchased the vehicle at 26K 6 years ago and then just recently the M1.... |
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...and did an oil change  17,500 miles (app 3,000 miles too soon). Fram PH8A oil filter, Mobil One 0w30. Thanks for the WalMart $22.00 heads up.  . If folks are interested, I will report if the viscosity difference (from 5w30 to 0w30) was worth any mpg. My swag would be BARELY noticable .5 mpg. 3.3% to 2.8%
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Our Jetta has 5W-40 Castrol syntec, the oil level is right at the min mark so I'd like to top it off. I looked at 3 different stores and none had that product and 2 had no synthetic 5W-40 at all. One place even had castrol in 5W-50, but no 40. I bought a quart of Mobil1 0W-40. Will it be okay to add some 0W-40 to the 5W40, or should I keep looking?
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Replying to: jeffyscott (Jun 19, 2009 2:01 pm)  Best regards, Shipo |
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Replying to: jeffyscott (Jun 19, 2009 2:01 pm) I know for example Mobil One 0w40 is probably just fine for the Jetta. However it is always better to know and understand what the specifications are, whether you comply with them or deviate.
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