New Mobil 1 Sythetic Oils?

Amsoil guarantees their oil 100%, no small writing about voiding warranty like mobil one.

 

Have to decided if your gas mileage is any better with amsoil?

 

When do you recommend switching to amsoil when buying a new prius?
I assume you should use the first factory oil and let it get the main bulk of the engine dirt or particles during breaking before switching?

 

The dealership tech said I should change my oil/filter at 5000 and then 10,000 miles to start withand then I can extend the interval to 7500 miles. If I want to switch to synthetic, what do I tell them to use and when do I make the switch?

 

I assume your Prius is an 05 still under warranty? If that is true I wouldn't try to stretch the oil change interval. The factory recommends (requires) a 5000 mile interval for both oil and filter changes. If you had an engine problem and were changing oil only every 7500 miles they would have good reason to refuse your warranty claim. Ask the tech or the dealer if they would put that recommendation in writing stating that your warranty would not be voided by using 7500 mile intervals?

Other than the warranty issue my non-professional opinion is that it would most likely be just fine, in fact I may do just that after my warranty has expired.

 

I switched to Mobil 1 on my Gen 1 for two changes. Experienced no change in performance, incl. MPG.

Switched back to regular oil. I think the engine's good for 200K+ mi. with regular, if your replace filters (incl. air) regularly.

My oil is almost as clean when I change it as it was when I put it in.

 

Most of Amsoil's tests are based on either outdated data, or are performed by an in-house lab. I've never been a big fan of Amsoil's products as they are very overrated.

Most of their oils (at least in their previous formulation, do not know about now, they just reformulated two months ago and I haven't seen any results of their reformulated oils) suffered from oxidation problems, and would have issues thickening out of grade. In addition, they never lasted the full 25K they promised, even with the filter change and top-off at 12.5K/6mo to boost the add pack. Thus, I'm wondering how they're going to accomplish a full 1-yr/25K service interval without filter changes midway, as they are launching a new type of filters on Nov. 1 that allow for longer service intervals, which will eliminate the need for a midpoint filter change. I guess they're field testing showed that the new reformulated oils combined with the new Donaldson Ea filter can go 1-yr/25K????

Mike

 

I just put in the new 15K mobile one.. I have 3900 miles on it so far..
I plan on going to 12K.. (which is 3 months worth of driving for me..)

I then plan on doing my own oil analysis on it.. to see if the oil is still good.

Will report back my findings..

Scott
04 Silver #5 39K miles

 

Speaking of oil analysis, I did mine when I changed the oil about a week ago. The oil had 8,300 km on it and the lab called today:

Limit on Na is 35 ppm, mine had 75 ppm. Everything else looked good. They want me to do another sample at half-distance (4,000km) to see if the results repeat.

FYI a high Na count usually points to a coolant leak! Note this is still considered a very very very small leak and the Red Alert siren isn't going off. If it was something like 900 ppm Na, then it would be.

See, this is why used oil analysis is important. I don't care if you change the oil every 1,000 miles, something like a coolant leak will first destroy the bearings, then destroy the motor.

The important point also is that a good synthetic motor oil can handle minor amounts of glycol and water. A conventional motor oil turns to sludge.

 

Na will show up on an oil analysis report for three reasons:
1) Coolant ingestion
2) Dirt Ingestion...Sodium is from road salt
3) Usage of Mobil Clean 5000/7500 or Exxon Superflo; all of these oils consider Sodium Sulphonate in its virgin state as an additive, which will show up in an analysis report. The oil starts out with 200ppm or so, but may become depleted with use.

Post the report, I could probably understand the results.

Mike

 

I asked my dealer's service department about switching to a full synthetic oil. They said it would not void the warranty, as long as it's 5W30 or less. Surprisingly, they actually suggested I buy the oil at a store and bring it to them, because they'd charge a lot more for it.

 

I should have mentioned but I'm stuck until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week on business-related travel. I should have posted results from my oil analysis but it slipped my mind.

AFAIK the results were VERY good, with the exception of higher Na levels. The wear metals were extremely low, and the TBN was around 8 or so, suggesting a lot of life left in the motor oil. At least for Mobil 1 0W-30, YMMV.

As Mike suggested, some passenger car motor oils contain naturally high levels of sodium sulphonate as a replacement for ZDDP - zinc additives may harm the long-term performance of catalytic converters and O2 sensors.

I used Toromont Caterpillar's in-house lab, so naturally they're used to readings from heavy commercial and trucking fleets, along with commercial HD diesel motor oils. I did mail off a virgin sample of Mobil 1 0W-30 on Friday, so once I get back to Winnipeg I'll post all the results.