Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Dexos is a synthetic blend oil. Will you car die from not using, no. Will your warranty be voided if you dont use it, yes. (Unless you have a dealer who will work with you.) Mobile should be Dexos approved. I have heard stories about the 3.6 having failures due to not changing the oil at the right intervals, but that may have been when they first came out. Im sure someone will say GM doesnt give a spec for the oil, but the owners manual for my 2 GM vehicles says to use Dexos approved oil, or the warranty could be voided.
Dexos is an oil specification that an oil must meet (and go through the certification process/pay the fee) to have the Dexos label on it. To keep the GM warranty in place, a Dexos oil must be used. But there are a ton of them, most are fully synthetic. I guess when you say "synthetic blend" you were referring to the ACDelco Dexos oil, which used to be a blend, but is now fully synthetic.
The Dexos specification has been updated recently as well, which is likely why ACDelco made the move to full synthetic.
The 3.6 did have some timing chain issues, and they lowered the OLM algorithm as a result.
@sdlife619 used 10w-30, which is not a Dexos approved weight, hence no labeling on the bottle. The 5w-30 version of the Mobil 1 extended life is Dexos certified.
As far as the Mobil 1 comments, I've seen a number of specifications and laboratory tests that don't rate it very highly compared to other premium oils. That said, I've seen a bunch of Blackstone oil analysis reports of Mobil1 after track days, and they are almost all positive and show the oil is still protecting well after a couple of track days. There are definitely other good (or better) choices for the money, but real world usage seems to show it holds up well.
Mobil 1 synthetic filters are different !! I did ALLOT of research and called Mobil labs myself and all said it was NO issue to run it up to 15K miles !!! But since my engine is 16 years old with 245K miles on it, I do keep an eye on it weekly !!
And I check my oil 2-3 times a week and it's still clear like the day it was poured in and my engine isn't making any funny noises either
I’m sure they specify 15k miles when used with Mobil 1 oil
I dug into this fairly extensively. When m dad was working as an Engineer, they did a study of different ouls (Dino oil back then) to see which was the best. they found all the name brands were very good and that of the multivis oils, 10w30 broke down least often/slowest. When multi vis oils break down that become single viscosity at one end of the range, I forget which. (Either 10 or 30 for 10W30 by way of example). They o do not stop working altogether.
I also dug into the synth vs. dino oil. From what i can tell the more scientific opinions are that synth is a waste of money unless you have a small engine working at high rpm. There are a lot of opinions on this, but many are options funded by synthetic oil makers. They all appear scientific, but if you dig into some of the analysis behind the reports (usually in other reports critiquing them), some are actually not very scientific.
One report amused me. It said worrying about oil type is silly because the automatic transmission in most cars or other parts/causes that basically render the car unrepairable, will fail long before the oil type makes any difference, ven when applying the studies that found synthetic is better.
IN other words according to that article, while synthetic is better and prevents some wear on your engine, it will never make any difference for a street car.
Now all kinds of people who spend their life paying more for synth will jump in with anecdotal references (many of which will not be true) about how synth oil got the car to last 400,000 miles. Which means nothing at all, but no one is going to admit they spent their life wasting money on pricey oil that does not make enough difference to matter.
Look how long it too for people to give up their claims on that stuff that supposedly coats your engine parts to prevent wear on start ups after it was proven to be of not help at all. Even now, I see people still claiming it works and their car lasted far longer than it otherwise would have (how could they possibly know that?).
Other parts of your engine or transmission will fail long before anything that can be helped by using oil that provides .2% better lubrication or less wear etc. How often doe oil lubricated parts fail in modern cars before a transmission, head gasket, injectors, Cat converter or other hugely expensive failure take the car out of commission? Back int the 1970s rings failed with some frequency, or valves would stick and bend/break. Now, unless you never ever change the oil, or your oil pump breaks that happens essentially never. Unless maybe if you are foolish and drive around revved out to 7000 rpm on a regular basis. Most cars are limited below that RM anyway.
For most engines, synthetic may not lubricate better, but it’s a fact that it does last longer before breaking down. So, longer intervals are an advantage.
And it’s not just small high revving engines that benefit, any high compression, high performance engine seems to benefit. Car companies do a lot of R&D figuring out the right oil. I’m sure Porsche would love to have 5k mile intervals instead of 15k, but they require synthetic to be used in their engines.
I’m sure they specify 15k miles when used with Mobil 1 oil
Ya that's true. I'm only running the M1 filter for around 7K miles or so since i'm NOT using M1 oil and engine has HIGH miles, Just using a low grade (Citgo) synthetic blend for winter driving
Dexos is an oil specification that an oil must meet (and go through the certification process/pay the fee) to have the Dexos label on it. To keep the GM warranty in place, a Dexos oil must be used. But there are a ton of them, most are fully synthetic. I guess when you say "synthetic blend" you were referring to the ACDelco Dexos oil, which used to be a blend, but is now fully synthetic.
The Dexos specification has been updated recently as well, which is likely why ACDelco made the move to full synthetic.
The 3.6 did have some timing chain issues, and they lowered the OLM algorithm as a result.
@sdlife619 used 10w-30, which is not a Dexos approved weight, hence no labeling on the bottle. The 5w-30 version of the Mobil 1 extended life is Dexos certified.
As far as the Mobil 1 comments, I've seen a number of specifications and laboratory tests that don't rate it very highly compared to other premium oils. That said, I've seen a bunch of Blackstone oil analysis reports of Mobil1 after track days, and they are almost all positive and show the oil is still protecting well after a couple of track days. There are definitely other good (or better) choices for the money, but real world usage seems to show it holds up well.
Yup, that's what I meant, but I didn't know it was changed to a full synthetic. When did that happen?
Yup, that's what I meant, but I didn't know it was changed to a full synthetic. When did that happen?
I noticed it in January of this year, so it is a pretty recent thing. I think the Gen 2 Dexos spec was announced in 2015, but not required for GM cars prior to 2018 model years.
Anyone have one of the Audi/VW 1.8T engines that died of oil sludge from a bad filter design in the early 2000’s?
My parents had the A4, died at 95k miles with a goodwill engine/turbo replacement to the tune of $12,000.
The 1.8T was a fine engine when mounted transversely in the GTI and Jetta GLI.
But when mounted longitudinally in the Passat or Audi A4, there was not room for the same oil pan, so a smaller one was fitted. Total oil capacity less than 4 quarts, or about 1 quart less than in the GTI and GLI.
Also, the original owners manuals did not state that synthetic oil was required.
Almost all the 1.8T engines that died from sludge had been lubricated with conventional oil. And almost all were Passats or A4s.
Normally I've just gone with the manufacturer recommendation, which on many of my cars has been Mobil 1.
I now own a modified car with an aftermarket supercharger that gets fairly regular track use, and have decided to try Motul 8100 due to good reviews and specs.
What's your favorite, and why?
Man, Mod: you're brave. Oil thread devolve quickly into opinion presented as fact. "Facts" involve oil testing from Blackstone or various others, when it really matters (determining engine and oil wear very precisely for aviation, marine, other applications where it truly matters).
Three vehicles, in my case: one supercharged truck, one high-performce sports car, one high-perfomrnace motorcycle.
The truck has 114K miles or so. I've been putting whatever full synth they have available in, every 10K miles or so. Truck has not blown up, makes great power, burns zero oil, ergo whatever I'm doing is not specifically causing destruction to the engine via oil choice.
Anything else is speculation. I'll pass on that.
The car is normally aspirate and makes 112 hp per liter of displacement. The go-fast guys have me on Motul 8100, "I think" same as what you mention. I ran-same in my Porsche Turbo for years. Interval for all is 10K miles. Nothing blown up yet. Interestingly, my Turbo burned less oil on that Motul than other brands, the first time in a long time I've seen any oil show a quantitative difference from another.
Oil changes are a bloody PITA and require a lift (or rather, really helps) thus cost me about $200. Meh, it's every 10K miles, less than yearly.
The bike takes whatever full synth the dealer has. Oil changed once, at 600 mile service. Next is 10K, I believe. See the pattern? Never had any oil problems with this bike, last time went through that was in the 1990s when Mobil 1 was somewhat new. That product cured so many problems, we all used it on the grid back in the day. Times change, but rather superstitiously I'm a Mobil 1 fan for the very rare times I do my own oil change on bikes (have not done so in seven years).
There we go: opinion and conversation, I claim no special fact-based, oil analyses knowledge. If others do, should be an interesting read.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
