How does Amsoil 5W-30 synthetic motor oil compare to conventional 5W-30 oil?
According to the brochure you can run Amsoil for 25,000 or one year of drain intervals, which sounds like a long time for the oil to be in the engine - what is your opinion compared to conventional oil changes every 3-4,000 miles. Amsoil is much more costly so is it really worth the cost - in the long run it would get cheaper because you would not have to change it as much? Anybody have any experience with Amsoil?
I don’t care what their claims are, I won’t risk a $4,000 to $6,000 engine on an experiment to see if I can save $100 a year on oil changes. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
No matter the oil you use, stick to the severe duty oil change schedule in the owner’s manual if you drive it every day to work.
Amsoil is more marketing than engineering. Pretty much any synthetic oil will last as long as Amsoil claims theirs will, the trouble is that you also change your oil to get all the grime and sludge out, which is going to build up no matter what kind of oil you have in there. Now, granted engines run a lot cleaner than they used to, and there’s plenty of people who swear by Amsoil and don’t seem to have any major problems, but I still wouldn’t personally be comfortable with such a long change interval. Besides, I like changing my oil!
Amsoil’s claims may actually be valid. I don’t know that anyone has ever refuted them. Also to the point is that no one really knows precisely when an engine’s oil has reached a point where continued use is harmful.
We are all told to change the oil at some arbitrary time or mileage point that ought to be well ahead of when that risk might possibly occur – and many folks make oil changes even far more frequent than recommended just to sleep well at night. Maybe there is another 10,000 or 15,000 miles of usable life left to the oil in our crankcase. Even the chemists who do oil analysis can only tell us about the oil – not its effect on the engine.
You ask if anyone has had experience with Amsoil. Well, suppose someone said he uses it regularly and has never had an engine problem. Isn’t that the best anyone can do? What more can anyone say about a product that quietly, invisibly, does exactly what every other lubricant does?
So maybe Amsoil works, maybe it actually lives up to its claims. So does old-fashioned crude oil, and that’s good enough for me.
I ran Super-tech synthetic from wally mart for 3000 miles. Then I used Castrol Syntec for 3000. I just had Goodyear change the oil for me because it’s cold and I’m lazy. They used Kendall and I don’t feel bad about it. I’ve known somebody who sells Amsoil for thirty years and I keep saying that someday I will get some. I think you can stop at Castrol and still be happy. Stretch the oil change to 6000 miles if you are supposed to change it at 3000. Some people change their regular oil once every two years. I think you could change the Amsoil once every year and get away with it. Just do yourself a favor and run Castrol for 3000 miles before you start on the amsoil. Or Mobil 1, or Shell synthetic. Have you ever wondered why Consumer Reports doesn’t evaluate all brands of motor oil every year? They have tested some oil additives and maybe some synthetic oils but their conclusions didn’t rave about any one of them. They talked about oil tests in NYC taxi cabs. I forgot how they did, they were so unremarkable.
Amsoil is no different than any other synthetic oil. It will retain certain of it’s charteristicts longer than standard oils, but not all. Your car’s manufacture has indicated a change interval in the owner’s manual, follow that.
No matter the oil you use, stick to the severe duty oil change schedule in the owner’s manual if you drive it every day to work.
Why? Now if that drive is short not allowing the car to warm up, or a lot of stop and go, I would agree, but for many people that drive to work in not severe duty. I do agree that any driver who fits the severe duty description should follow that maintenance schedule.
Read the description for severe duty in the manual. The one’s I see describe stop-n-go traffic and lots of city driving. Normal duty includes a lot of highway travel. If you drive your car to work everyday, severe duty is a better description. When I was in TN, my travel to work was 50% highway and 50% surface streets by time. I felt the severe duty schedule was a better fit, because there was a lot of run-time on the oil that was not covered by the miles.
For a lot of people that do not pay attention or lack expertiese, the regular oil change gives someone that is knowledgeable a chance to look over the car and spot possible trouble. I know this can be a nuisance to have the technician point out other work that needs to be done, but it does serve a purpose and is free.
I would not risk my engine for the sake of saving a few dollars! As others point out, draining the oil to get all the undesirables out of the crankcase is cheap insurance.
I still have a brouchure on the Frantz Oil Filter, which used a roll of toilet paper and supposedly did away with the need for oil changes. The fine print said to change the filter at least every 1000 miles, and top the oil up with 1 quart of fresh oil. In effect you were changing oil every 4000 miles if you had a 4 quart oil sump!
Still the guck accumulating in the crankcase was never flushed out.