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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Bottom line: additives do work and they address deficiencies found in engine oils. Some engines suffer from design and material flaws that can be mitigated by the use of additives.
And they have saved my bacon more than once when something went wrong with the engine / drivetrain, that would have destroyed it if using straight conventional oils without the improved lubricity / heat resistance of Synthetics. (That can be kinda important in aircraft service...).
I too, buy stuff with oodles of miles, but it doesn't come home if the PO wasn't into taking that 'extra-step' for prolonging engine /drivetrain life.
1) Dodge/Chrysler, among other manufacturers, REQUIRE the use of an additive in their limited slip differentials to the GL-5 Gear Lube spec'ed. Yet many other applications using GL-3,4,5 lube do not.
2) Some cars are found to be partial to one engine oil over another due to the specifics of the design and metallurgy in the engine. You have but to research the owner's club forums for various makes to discover what the folk who push these cars to their maximal performance levels are using for engine oil that sets them apart. It is the difference in performance edge that results, and it's not even close in some cars.
3) Similarly, transmissions are sensitive to the various formulations of lubes that meet their specs. For example, many manufacturers specify an oil or lube spec which "meets" their requirements and can be commonly found on the store shelves in various brands. However, the field experience of many shops is that one oil brand may be superior in the wear, shifting characteristics, and so forth. Of significance here is finding that the OEM dealer supplied lube is far superior to anything in the aftermarket; I know some Honda shops that won't use anything but OEM dealer supplied lube in their servicing because they've had to eat a number of transmissions that howled/whined/didn't shift properly after using another product. Porsche-type synchro's in other cars wore prematurely when used with certain lubes compared to others (back in 356 days, we used a lot of molykote additives to preserve these trannies).
4) We saw a lot of BMW trannies and diff's in our shop that developed noises, worn our synchro's, and similar issues. The failures were eliminated by using additives in the spec'ed gear lube; some were helped by using synthetic gear lube compared to the GL 3,4,5 spec lube in the diff's. Some of the manual transmissions were helped with additives, too. BMW's later persistent automatic transmission failures due to inadequate lube supplied to various sections were greatly minimized by using a better spec lube than BMW required.
Again, it's a guessing game as to which oil or lube and it's factory additive pack that will yield the best results in a given application. Field experience has proven to be a good proving ground, and fleets are good at experimenting with various oils and additives to achieve documented results in standardized situations over a lot of miles of service. Sometimes, just changing to a different oil will give better results. Sometimes, using an additive will yield better results. But even an oil engineer cannot fully anticipate or predict every possible combination of use, materials, and design of the engines in the field while an owner can do their own research into optomizing their vehicle. I have in my shop and have found certain additives that are highly beneficial to certain vehicles, so I use them routinely for my customer's benefit.
1) Dodge/Chrysler, among other manufacturers, REQUIRE the use of an additive in their limited slip differentials to the GL-5 Gear Lube spec'ed. Yet many other applications using GL-3,4,5 lube do not.
Case and point.
You can buy gear oil with a "limited slip additive" (I'll use the term additive loosely) all ready in it.
Is it still a additive when you don't have to "add" it to the oil?
Modern engine oils already have "additive" packages in them so adding more additives is not always better.
But then again some people will swear that their car runs better after a oil change.
Case and point.
You can buy gear oil with a "limited slip additive" (I'll use the term additive loosely) all ready in it.
For whatever reasons, Chrysler specifies using GL5 gear lube and then using their additive pack in it. Case in point: Chrysler engineers apparently selected a particular spec lube and prefer to use their proprietary additive pack in it rather than specifying the use of the gear oil "with a limited slip additive all ready (sic) in it". Perhaps the products that Chrysler tested with other additive packs didn't meet their expectations?
Is it still a additive when you don't have to "add" it to the oil?
Modern engine oils already have "additive" packages in them so adding more additives is not always better.
As I've repeatedly pointed out, it's a business of trial and error in the hands of a consumer as to which products added into "modern engine oils" may or may not prove to be beneficial. I've spent way too many hours in consultation with fleet owners/operators, as well as autocrossers, racers, and my clientele of high mileage MB & BMW owners to know that we've routinely reaped benefits from using certain additives.
Agreed, however, that not every situation, every engine, every operator will reap benefits from the expense of using an additive pack.
But then again some people will swear that their car runs better after a oil change.
I can certainly attest to seeing substantial improvement in certain vehicles after an oil change. Oil isn't just a lubricant, it's also a sealant, detergent/cleaner, and coolant. These functions can be very significant in the operation of an engine, especially those equipped with an engine oil cooler; ie, many diesels as well as aircraft air-cooled engines. I know I've changed oil in aircraft engines on schedule where the oil was a very black contaminated looking goo and the engines ran smoother and quieter after the oil change using the same oil as the prior fill.
On other fronts, I know that changing lube in the trannies and diff's in accordance with manufacturer's specs/mileage of Chrysler/Dodge, along with Subie's yields signifcant improvements in performance, longevity, shifting, and longevity. That's just to name two manufacturers product lines where I've personally had vehicles come into the shop that were noisy, shifting slowly, and the change back to original performance characteristics was instantaneous upon driving the vehicle back out of the shop after the fluid change. As well, I've had MB's come in to the shop with 1-200,000 miles that had never had wheel bearings repacked or diff lube changes; these were noisy cars that were in the hands of used car dealers and they asked me to help restore the cars to more normal performance/sounds. Changing diff lube alone and using an additive made huge changes, most times eliminating the sounds from the diff. Repacking front wheel bearings can yield amazing results, too, when the original grease is broken down, black, and not lubricating very effectively anymore.
As for Chrysler, the factory differential fill these days is a synthetic, Valvoline product and guess what it's all ready formulated with the additive in it.
The "black" color of the oil is no indicator that it has failed and is no longer doing it's job.
It's actually a indicator that it is doing it's job, ( so is if is seams to be "goo" when you drain it) cleaning the engine and keeping the soot suspended so when it is drained the soot is removed.
What I have found is if you do your scheduled maintenance you should not see any noticeable improvement in performance.
If you neglect your vehicle you may see a gain by changing fluids but you have done the damage. already .
Why use the proper type and weight of oil just to add a viscosity improver to it? This could change it to a 10w-40 into a 15w-40 or a 20w-40.
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