Has Mobil1 changed?

[Brett Dikeman]

At 6:16 PM -0500 4/29/02, Rob Andrews wrote:

>http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=313674
>Looks like it has :(

Not really IMHO.

The only real issue I saw(aside from people getting confused between
the new BLEND and Mobil1, and the fact that  Mobil accidentally
listed M1 as a semi-synthetic; I bet someone at Mobil got confused
about M1 verusus the blend TOO) was that supposedly they changed base
stocks, and a couple of specs and the pour-point.  Looking at a
bottle of M1 10w30 that has been tucked away for at least 6 months,
it lists a "pump point" of -49 degrees F.  The new bottle of 10w30
w/SuperSyn lists a "pour point" of -49 degrees F; website says the
cold pumping limit(same thing as pump point) is -42 degrees F.  The
differences are probably because of the additive...

There are also a few minor little changes....I'll summarize all that
I noticed here.

					Old		New
Pump point				-49		-42
Pour Point				not marked	-49
markings in SAE circle, "API Service"	SJ/CF		SL/CF
"Exceeds API service" on label		SJ, SH/CF	SL, SJ/CF
Meets European ACEA...			A1/B1-98	A1/B1&A5/B5
GM certifications			GM4718M		GM4718M
ILSAC(whatever that is)			ILSAC GF-2	ILSAC GF-3


Looks like they did a little mixing+matching etc with where specs are
listed, mostly...and it looks like standards were updated(ILSAC GF-2
versus ILSAC GF-3?  Sounds like a new version of the test/spec or
something.)  I don't see anything major here.  Bunch of shifting
around on the API service levels, not sure what's up with that...

There's slightly different wording, too.

Old:
"[meets]...Japanese valve train wear and engine performance
requirements of BMW, MB, VW, Porsche, Volvo."

New:
"[meets]....Japanese valvetrain wear requirements."

...then the new label, in the bullet list of features however, says
"Also recommended for European and Japanese Vehicles"  Not quite the
same as "meets specs for Volvo, MB, BMW, VW"...ooo, conspiracy
theorists eat your hearts out!  Volvo, MB, BMW, VW yanked their
approvals!

But, wait, what's this?   Remember how Andrew Duane mentioned 0W-40
is now recommended in the newer engines?  Well, guess what the
website says under the specs for 0W-40 Mobil 1 w/Supersyn:

"Meets ACEA A3/B3/B4-02 and the performance specifications of
European automakers, including Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and BMW."

EXACTLY the same phrasing as the old bottle of 10w30, except VW/Volvo
aren't mentioned.  Mobil 1 just had to move the labelling because
European manufacturers changed from 10w30 to 0w40...Japanese
manufacturers didn't, hence they're still listed on the 10w30.

What explains a lot of the shuffling around as far as the other specs
go...is that they had to squeeze more stuff onto the new bottle
label...comparing the two directly side to side, you can see someone
tweaked the positions of various blocks of text...and the bullet
lists are different for the most part as far as features go.

Visually, they're slightly different...I did notice this when pouring
it, that it seemed darker in color.  Doing my incredibly scientific
test of putting both bottles under the deck lamp, caps off...the
older stuff is much clearer, the translucent level strip shows more
light.

And, as proof that I've taken this REALLY too far, they smell
different.  The old stuff has that characteristic M1 smell that,
sadly, most listers could probably recognize.  The new stuff seemed
to be missing that smell...sorta smelled like there was a teensy bit
of denatured alcohol in it or something.

I'd be willing to bet both are caused by this "Supersyn" additive.

Both carry the same UPC symbol, but have different part numbers.

My gut reaction is that I don't really appreciate them just adding
some goofy additive to "my oil"...but in all reality, it'll probably
be just fine.  So maybe they changed the stocks.  So maybe the pour
and pump points have gone up slightly.  Big whoop-de-do :-)

Brett
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