This is nothing more than one of those “here’s some cash and the results we’re looking for” testing procedures.
You see the same thing on late night TV. Buy these diet pills which “have been confirmed by independent laboratory testing to work” for example.
Amsoil is not going to make an engine run one inch further than any other API branded oil if driving habits and maintenance are equal.
You know, I’ve used Wal Mart branded oil for 20 years now as my wife used to work for WM in the office. As an employee we got an additional 10% off the shelf prices so this is the reason why I started using it on my cars and all of my family members’ cars.
These vehicle all go to high mileage with no oil related problem. Just some examples.
Chevy 300k miles
Chevy 240k miles
Subaru 300k miles
Mercury 420k miles (and only using a quart per 600 miles due to a main seal leak)
Mitsubishi 155k miles
SAAB 150k miles
Current Lincoln at 240k miles plus and has no noticeable oil consumption between changes.
So how would Amsoil improve on any of those? Answer. It won’t. Not one iota.
There’s a number of reasons why some newer cars may smoke. Clogged PCV valve, lack of oil changes, overheating which in turn can ruin piston rings, or even a faulty injector or leaking fuel pressure regulator depending on what type of smoke you’re referring to.
I do wonder, though, about those cars of fairly recent vintage that smoke like crazy.
Seriously, what causes that?
Probably owned by someone like my neighbor. He leases a new car every 2 years…and NEVER EVER changes the oil. He figures why should he since he’s only keeping it 25k miles and buys a new one.
For the sake of argument…let’s just way that Amsoil is FAR FAR superior to any other motor oil in the world.
The problem is…MOST people do NOT want to keep their cars that long. The get bored…or other problems occur besides the engine or tranny that can also be expensive…Here in the North East…RUST is a HUGE problem for cars 15+ years old. Something like 80% of all car owners sell before the car reaches 100k miles. Of those 20% that keep their car past 100k miles 80% of them never go past 200k miles. If you do the math…that means that less then 4% of all new car buyers keep their vehicles past 200k miles.
For whatever it’s worth in this context: The air-cooled mechanic who rebuilt my '67 Bug engine swears by Shell Rotella-T 15W-40. This oil seems to have been formulated for diesels, although it appears online that bikers like it, too. Anyone know anything about it?
Since the ol’ Bug doesn’t have a filter, and takes less then 3 quarts, I change it real often anyhow.
Diesel truck oil usually has higher viscosity (thickness) than oil used in gasoline engines. That would make it great for an old air-cooled Beetle engine and air-cooled motorcycle engines.
You are right. Any brand that meets the same API standards and meets the specifications for the car will give the same results. Consumer Reports in a test of motor oils some years back found that oil purchased in one part of the country under a particular label differed slightly in formulation from the same brand bought in a different part of the country. I would bet that a specific refinery puts out oil under several different brand names. This reduces shipping charges.
My Dad had a 1954 Buick that he really liked. The mechanic where he traded convinced him that he should use MacMillan Ring Free oil and this would really make the engine last. Well, when the Buick had 80,000 miles or so, the mechanic closed his business. THe next mechanic put in Quaker State. We worried that the Buick engine probably wouldn’t hold up. Well, it was still going strong and not using oil at 160,000 when the car was sold.
I buy whatever oil is on sale that meets the specifications for my car. I have a 1978 Oldsmobile with 240,000 miles and has never had major engine work. It has had about every brand of oil in the crankcase. One time, I purchased Citgo oil and with the rebate, the cost was zero cents a quart.
Hi, I’m new to the forum. I have always used regular motor oil in my cars. I have a 1997 Toyota 4Runner with 130,000 miles, 2003 Nissan Maxima 65,000 miles and 1966 Mustang coupe High performance. I use a thicker grade in the Mustang, but it is not synthetic. I keep my cars till they die,at least 10+ years. If you change oil every 3,000-4,000 miles, you will have no issues or engine problems. If you don’t do anything else to your car, at least change the oil regularly. It’s like blood for your body to live.
Yeah, fluids, filters, keeping up the routine maintenance, keeping a general eye on things, and fixing things when they begin to exhibit symptoms are the keys to longevity.
Buying cars with a reputation for longeveity helps too. A bad design cannot be compensated for by good maintenance.
“camshaft with worn lobes around 470,000 miles.” While that’s a lot of miles, that kind of sounds like an oil-related failure. (unless they didn’t harden the lobes correctly at manufacture)
Amsoil oil, does not even meet standard specs as the company is too cheap to test it. It could be a door out for a car company on a warranty claim. No thanks I’ll stick to my Mobil 1 available widely and relatively inexpensively in environment friendly 5qt jugs.
If I’m reading this correctly, it sounds like Amsoil doesn’t carry the API standards certification? Does that mean it doesn’t meet new car auto warranty requirements? Will there be any pushback from the manufacturer in the event of any engine problem?
If it’s not certified to meet API specs, how do we know it does? Do we take the word from those selling to us?
Also, I just noticed in the oil discussion on carbibles.com, they mention Amsoil as using a “fake looking” API symbol on their containers. Here’s the quote from that site:
Some unscrupulous manufacturers (and there’s not many left that do this) will put a symbol on their packaging designed to look like the API symbol without actually being the API symbol. They do this in an effort to pump up the ‘quality’ of their product by relying on people not really knowing exactly what the proper API symbol should look like. To the left is an example of a fake symbol - it looks similar but as long as you remember what to look for, you won’t get taken by this scam.
Amsoil are one of the biggest inadvertent offenders of the fake API symbol.
This doesn’t address the fact that friction-reducing zinc and phosphorus additives have been cut in nearly half for the last two years in order to meet new EPA regulations. Folks with newly-restored classic cars began to experience severe camshaft wear problems. This link came from the old Porsche community and explains oil selection for older vehicles in great detail. I use Swepco 306 in my 40 year old MG based on this article. http://www.lnengineering.com/oil.html
I only use Mobil. I’m at 498K now knock on wood. Enough said. Only time I ever had a problem was with Pennsoil in my diesel that died at 200K. Switched to Rotella. Blah blah blam Amsoil, Amway, Mary Kay, etc. etc.
I’ll have to actually study your link more, but there are a number of glaring items…
Lucas Oil, Cheveron, Texaco don’t even make oils that make the list??? Come-on!
I checked one of my Mutual Funds. I own stock in almost 100 oil companies. I never heard of almost all of the ‘recommended’ oils on your link’s list of recommended oils either.
Maybe the clue is in your post; "This link came from the old Porsche community…"
I suspect, some of that ‘old’ may have rubbed off on their thinking.
Is their purpose to keep everything as ‘original’ as possible; cloth tires, asbestos brakes, obsolete oil?