Mobil 1 improves with age

toojung2die · Jun 17, 2004

Very interesting long-term independent study of Mobil 1 motor oil. If you are a compulsive 3K mile oil changer like me and use Mobil 1, you may change your mind after reading the results of this study. Long story short, the maximum engine wear while using Mobil 1 occured during the first 3,000 miles after the oil change and then the oil performance actually improved.

http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/mobil1.html

Check out the rest of the site for other oil tests. It gets technical.

speedytalon · Jun 17, 2004

I wonder if the same results hold true for our turbo's.. i would assume so if they claim the oil was better for the motor after 3k miles .. but i want some real hard facts about the oil and its conditions after running over 3k miles through my 16g

joeym4130 · Jun 17, 2004

wow...verrry interesting. i dont use mobil1, but still..it makes you wonder... good post! :thumb:

TSIfreek · Jun 17, 2004

It would be cool to see a test with a slightly moded 6 bolt running 18 PSI on the street. I beleve the oil would break down faster due to the heat from the turbo. Thanks for the info!!! :thumb:

greenmachine97 · Jun 17, 2004

I am very happy to hear that :thumb:

, i use mobile one, but i didnt get to change my oil last tiem until 4000 miles. i was worried. but i pamper my car. good info though. thansk alot! :thumb:

Street Surgeon · Jun 17, 2004

Well then why don't they sell used oil? Heh.... I mean if you have to drive your car 3000 miles before the oil "breaks in" and THEN you get maximum efficiency, you're still having to drive that 1st *rough* 3000 miles..... I'm still going to change my oil every 2500.

greenmachine97 · Jun 17, 2004

Street Surgeon said:
Well then why don't they sell used oil?QUOTE]
No matter what, who the hell would buy used oil. there would be no way to regulate it. i will still change mien at 3000 or 3500.

toojung2die · Jun 17, 2004

greenmachine97 said:
No matter what, who the hell would buy used oil. there would be no way to regulate it. i will still change mien at 3000 or 3500.

The important point I got from the study is that the best thing you can do for Mobil 1 oil is not to change it at 3K miles but to change the filter and top off the crankcase. These two actions (filter change and topping off) were the most beneficial and restored the oil to a better than new condition. It wasn't until 18K miles that the lab tests indicated the oil was spent and should be drained. It was still in better shape than some dinosaur oils right out of the bottle.

They're halfway through the Amsoil tests with much different results. I wish Walmart sold Amsoil.

L2RTSiAWD · Jun 17, 2004

toojung2die said:
They're halfway through the Amsoil tests with much different results. I wish Walmart sold Amsoil.

No place around here sells amsoil besides that fact that it's expensive.

SpoolnTsi · Jun 17, 2004

I just started using mobil 1 synthetic some time ago and my car loves it :thumb:

I used to run castrol but after awhile the valves started to ping. so i started to experiment with different kinds. just from experience with my car i came to find out that my car hated penzoil and valvoline(valves ping like a SOB), quakerstate sucked, the cheap sunoco oil sucked, and the cheap sheetz oil believe it or not was pretty good but it went threw it like water, castrol is ok till after awhile of running it, castrol synthetic my car didnt like either for some reasone and dont ever try castrol high mileage!! :barf:

That stuff is the worst!! :thumbdown The 2 that i recommend the most is regular castrol 20-50 (only in the summer offcourse, 10-40 in the winter) and mobile 1 synthetic. But if i had to choose between those 2, i would choose mobile 1 synthetic hands down! :thumb:

A big noticable difference with mobile 1 snythetic believe me :talon:

I know every car will act slightly different from one another, so this might not be the same for everyone. Its just experience that ive had with my car that has 155k. But maybe this will help shed some light on the subject :talon:

paranoidTSi · Jun 17, 2004

Mobil 1 made the motor louder than other synthetics I've tried...so I am stuck with Castrol Syntec w/ Lucas Additive.

9d2TSi · Jun 18, 2004

Street Surgeon said:
Well then why don't they sell used oil? Heh.... I mean if you have to drive your car 3000 miles before the oil "breaks in" and THEN you get maximum efficiency, you're still having to drive that 1st *rough* 3000 miles..... I'm still going to change my oil every 2500.

Man your car is just sick. I love it! :thumb:

Defiant · Jun 18, 2004

I keep trying to find someone who'll give me their 3K-old synthetic, so I could use it for the rest of its 15K life.

toojung2die · Jun 18, 2004

Defiant said:
I keep trying to find someone who'll give me their 3K-old synthetic, so I could use it for the rest of its 15K life.

I know you're being funny, but I think people are missing the point and not reading the test results. It doesn't say Mobil 1 is bad for your engine before 3K miles. It says you are missing the best miles of the oil's life if you drain it at 3K miles. You already have used oil in your crankcase when you hit the 3K mile marker. It suggests you are wasting money if you drain it at this point.

Read the test results and make up your own mind. This test was performed with the goal of verifying or disputing Mobil's claims. :thumb:

cfisher · Jun 18, 2004

i go with royal purple all the way. good for at least 6000 miles and all you have to do is change the filter at 3K. shit is awesome. i used to use mobil 1 and always got lifter tick after about 2000 miles. never had any lifter noice at all after i changed to rp.

98RedGs · Jun 18, 2004

Defiant said:
I keep trying to find someone who'll give me their 3K-old synthetic, so I could use it for the rest of its 15K life.

:laugh:
Synthetic can be switched over anywhere from 5k-8kmiles I've always thought. Never ran my oil more than 1k miles over tho.

tylerk · Jun 18, 2004

Defiant said:
I keep trying to find someone who'll give me their 3K-old synthetic, so I could use it for the rest of its 15K life.

I'll sell you mine!

GSX0TIC · Jun 18, 2004

cfisher said:
i go with royal purple all the way. good for at least 6000 miles and all you have to do is change the filter at 3K. shit is awesome. i used to use mobil 1 and always got lifter tick after about 2000 miles. never had any lifter noice at all after i changed to rp.

Ok right now I use Mobil 1 synthetic and change it every 3k miles. 3k miles tends to be the point(at least for my car) when the oil starts getting real dirty. Like your car cfisher, i have no lifter tick until 2xxx miles. Pretty much when it's almost around the 3k mile marker, and time for an oil change, the lifters start ticking away. Other than that I have no complaints for Mobil 1 Synthetic and would recommend it to anyone. BTW whenever the hell I have money for a 6bolt......Royal Purple Synthetic all the way.

Defiant · Jun 19, 2004

98RedGs said:
:laugh:
Synthetic can be switched over anywhere from 5k-8kmiles I've always thought. Never ran my oil more than 1k miles over tho.

CHP currently runs non-synthetic for 8000 between changes. The cars aren't exactly babied, and are run 110,000 miles before being replaced.

15K for synthetic in a healthy engine should be child's play. When Neo synthetic was introduced (then called Eon, which Exxon had troubles with), it was sold as being a 50,000-mile oil.

Of course, it the motor's not healthy, no kind of bottled goo is going to help anyway.

toojung2die · Jun 19, 2004

GSX0TIC said:
Ok right now I use Mobil 1 synthetic and change it every 3k miles. 3k miles tends to be the point(at least for my car) when the oil starts getting real dirty. Like your car cfisher, i have no lifter tick until 2xxx miles. Pretty much when it's almost around the 3k mile marker, and time for an oil change, the lifters start ticking away.

One of the strange findings of the study was Mobil 1 viscosity gradually increased as it got older, just the opposite of conventional oils (remember the oil commercials warning about "viscosity breakdown"). Perhaps this increased viscosity would account for the lifter tick you get as the oil gets used? The color of the oil had nothing to do with it's protective properties. The test oil was very dark after 10K miles as was to be expected but it's chemical properties were still very healthy.

I'm going to go with the study findings and modify them for heavy duty cycle. I'm going to change the filter and top off every 3K miles and drain the oil at 9K. That's half the life expectancy of the the oil in the study.

97spydagst · Jun 19, 2004

ok i have a 97droptop gst but i also got a civic. I put a turbo kit on it and after taking it off and puttin a stock header on with new oil it felt like it wouldnt get up to hight rpms. 4 months later the oil light came on so i put m1synthedic oil and now it gets up to high rmps liek nothin and shit 6thousrpms almost fills like my 3rpm on my gst( LOL

) anyways i love this oil now and will always use it!

c5chris · Jun 19, 2004

I use Mobil 1 Synthetic in all my cars every 3000 miles and I notice that in the GSX, the oil gets really dirty. Other cars like my C5, my bro's RSX and my mom's Previa are not like this. At 4500 miles, the RSX's oil is still very clean!

Turbo cars break down oil faster since it is using the oil to cool the turbo. At 3000, that oil is already spent may it be synthetic or not.

Justin_Bailey · Aug 6, 2004

I've been using Marvel Mystery Oil in my engine along with Mobil 1. Helps a lot with the lifter tick... you guys should try it! :thumb:

IMMORTALSPYDER · Aug 6, 2004

I've only ever used Valvoline full synthetic. I'm gonna try royal purple now that Pep Boys sells it.

Tallen · Aug 6, 2004

I'm at 5,000 right now, at first analysis I thought I was a lazy bastard. Now it turns out that I am a genius for not changing it.

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Mobil 1 improves with age

toojung2die

speedytalon

joeym4130

TSIfreek

greenmachine97

Street Surgeon

greenmachine97

toojung2die

L2RTSiAWD

Honorary Moderator

SpoolnTsi

paranoidTSi

9d2TSi

Defiant

toojung2die

cfisher

98RedGs

tylerk

GSX0TIC

Defiant

toojung2die

97spydagst

c5chris

Justin_Bailey

IMMORTALSPYDER

Tallen

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