Re: Oil trivia

["Graydon D. Stuckey" <graydon@apollo.kettering.edu>]

On Sun, 20 Sep 1998, Michael Murphy wrote:

> He is in Marine Lube Sales Management for Mobil so he does have a good
> bit of knowledge of Mobil syn lub products, before you say ... marketing

Ah, great, the horse's mouth so to speak. :-)

> hype ... he holds a BSE from USNA, 1980.  BTW, he admitted partial blame
> for the high price of the Mobil 1 filter.  Some of his comments:

Was that marketing or real content that pushed the price of that filter up?

> Oil/filter change intervals - no surprises here
> "follow engine manufacturer's recommended interval for driving
> conditions."  Shorter change interval is a waste of money/time/natural
> resources, especially if you use a synthetic oil".  He uses Mobil 1,
> changes oil every 12-15K miles w/filter change at ~6K miles.  His
> reasoning, "hey, I've had my car's oil tested in the lab so I know when
> its 'wearing out'".

I have also followed this basic schedule and on a couple previous cars, I 
had the oil analysed at a lab in GA with no problems found so far.

> Mobil 1 filter
> Neat filtering media and good multipass test results.

ANy detail on this product?

> Synthetic oils, which is best?
> he laughed saying, ". . . the fact is 95+% of the base stock for these
> oils is produced by Mobil.  The difference is in the additive packages".

You can tell the difference in the price too.  The 5% that Mobil doesn 't
make are probably the real racing synthetic lubes and are 7 - 8 bux/qt
while the consumer grades are less than 4 bux/qt. 

> Syn/mineral blends - "why? kinda defeats the purpose".

Agreed.

> Jiffy Lube
> "don't even think about it" in addition to sub par filters,
> there is proof that some (not all) locations do not use proper viscosity
> oil for the car and may substitute single weight when multi weight oil
> is manufacturer requirement.

On a purely safety issue, I don't trust dealership mechanics who are paid 
20 bux/ hr.  I certainly won't trust my car to a grease monkey being paid 
minimum wage in an establishment that services nothing but "appliance" 
type cars.

> Then beer started to flow more freely and coherent conversation ceased.

Wow, I've never tried beer in the sump...  :-)  Is that Mobil 1 Lager or Ale?

Good post, Michael.  Thanks.

Later,
Graydon D. Stuckey

"There's alot more to Jazz than just wrong notes"