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View Full Version : Mobil 1 0W-20 Synthetic review



VividSI
12-05-2010, 07:08 PM
I just switched to this yesterday to see if the mpg claims are true so i will keep you guys posted if i see an increase over my usual numbers. I noticed the motor sounds more quiet so maybe the low friction weight is doing its job. I havent noticed any performance loss either. I have been pulling 26mpg spirited mix driving, and 28 mpg regular mix driving so if this puts me at 30 i will be pleased.

Mechanic
12-08-2010, 03:25 AM
Ordinarily I wouldn't comment on someone's engine oil choice, simply because EP3 owners seem to have fixed opinions WRT their engine oil choices, as reflected by this board. That said, IMHO back-specing an EP3 (or any Honda, for that matter) to a lighter weight oil in anticipation of a potential gas mileage increase may not be such a good idea.

As I'm sure you know, Honda recommended 5W-20 weight oil to ensure its fleet-wide MPG average would meet (and exceed) an EPA standard. Honda did that to receive millions of dollars in Federal funds (tax incentives) and to avoid similar fines for failing to meet those standards. That weight oil is fine if you drive conservatively, as most Honda owners do. (Auto tranny, 2K-3K rpm, etc.) However, as you also likely know, HMC continues to recommend 5W-30 weight oil for all of higher performance K-series motors (and 10W-30/10W-40 for the S2ks). Only the latter weights are HT/HS HTO-06 certified or capable of meeting that standard. Also, going from 26 or 28 mpg to 30 mpg via an engine-oil weight change -- i.e., 5-10% mpg gains -- would be considerably more than what HMC has been able to achieve in the past 10 years with regearing and compression ratio changes. As an alternative, short-shifting will net you what you want without the potential for camshaft galling or, eventually, piston slap.

talonXracer
12-08-2010, 06:31 AM
You will be replacing the engine in short order using that worthless swill!

Onasty
12-08-2010, 06:41 AM
idk i switch from royal purple to mobil 1 and i dont like it i can like feel my engine more it dont feel smooth when i press the gas pedal. :( Im gonna try Eneos next oil change

beechstreet
12-08-2010, 06:43 AM
get a used oil analysis afterwards

talonXracer
12-08-2010, 07:02 AM
I seen and felt a significant difference in engine performance going from a mobil1 to Royal Purple and Amsoil. The Govt may allow mobil1 to be labled as a synthetic, but it is far from a true synthetic.

RedSiBaron
12-08-2010, 11:10 AM
mobil 1 oil is such trash...i run redline and its fantastic

VividSI
12-12-2010, 05:57 PM
nothing bad is going to happen to the motor, and if it does ill get another one. mobil one is good oil, still testing.

Hasbro
12-12-2010, 08:48 PM
nothing bad is going to happen to the motor, and if it does ill get another one. mobil one is good oil, still testing.

To get another 1 mpg are you willing to shorten the motor's life? I'm really big on mpg but I wouldn't use the stuff. You might do a little research first on Honda forums and http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/cms/.

VividSI
12-14-2010, 05:24 PM
The 2011 Acura TSX K series and J series motor has switched to it claiming less friction and +1mpg city and highway. besides that mobil one's website said for my motor 5w20 and 0w20 are safe and it covers warranty protection for Honda. If anything it will increase the engine life as Acura claims but i have yet to prove its worth to permanently switch, its probably not enough of a increase to make a big deal, driving style has more of an impact but i will post my numbers when i get them.

AKEP
12-14-2010, 05:39 PM
muther fuck. i keep clicking the wrong button to post....

anywho, i think someone said that its a flush oil, meaning, to flush out the engine of old oil between oil changes. I ran it once and it would drink it like i drink tea. make sure you check the oil level everytime you drive, just to make sure you dont run too low.

VividSI
12-14-2010, 08:24 PM
yea it did look almost like water, i must have burned some up in the higher revs because it lost quite a bit and there are no leaks.

Mechanic
12-15-2010, 03:23 AM
The 2011 Acura TSX K series and J series motor has switched to it claiming less friction and +1mpg city and highway. besides that mobil one's website said for my motor 5w20 and 0w20 are safe and it covers warranty protection for Honda. If anything it will increase the engine life as Acura claims but i have yet to prove its worth to permanently switch, its probably not enough of a increase to make a big deal, driving style has more of an impact but i will post my numbers when i get them.
You apparently are sitting too low in your chair because the advice you have been given clearly is going over your head.

Of course Honda (and its Acura subsidiary) are recommending lighter weight oils for most (but not all) of the engines the company now manufactures. Honda must do this in order to continue to achieve specific fleetwide fuel-mileage quotas. Failing to meet those federally mandated quotas would cost Honda literally millions of dollars in federal tax credits. (By the way, the credits that HMC doesn't use, it sells for additional millions of dollars. Can you now begin to understand why the company would not be concerned about a few hundred -- or even several thousand -- oil-related warranty claims?) Moreover, to comply with the law, Honda is required to recommend 5W-20 weight oil for specific federally-certified engine series. Don't take my word for this, read the EPA regulations.

Clearly the entire automobile industry is going to ever more light-weight oils in order to achieve greater fuel mileage. That's not the issue. The issue here is whether a 5W-30 weight oil provides more protection against camshaft galling, for example, than a 0W-20 or a 5W-20 weight. Fortunately, we don't have to speculate about this fact: Honda continues to specify 5W-30 oils for all of its higher performance k-series engines, and 10W-30/10W-40 for the S2k and 5W-30 weight synthetic oil for the turbocharged RDX). The reason is simple enough to understand: HMC continues to do this is because any 5W-30 weight oil has much greater HT/HS viscosity than any 0W-20 or 5W-20 weight oil.

Can you get away with what you are doing? Probably. It is worth the risk for, at best, one mpg? You apparently think so. You also apparently think that Honda or the Mobil Oil Company will come to your relief if you are wrong and some component in your six- or seven-year-old motor gives up the ghost. Again, you may be correct. Personally, I doubt it. In any event, this seems like a foolish experiment, and from what I've read here I doubt that anyone other than you is interested in the results.

BlownSi05
12-15-2010, 07:14 AM
I can tell you that even when I ran the AMSOIL 5W-20 high end stuff, it did not hold up and I still was changing the oil in 3K miles or sooner. My MPG did not move one way or another and I could tell that the valvetrain noise was louder, so to me it did not seem to be protecting as well. I used the Mobile 1 5w-30 gold cap extended performance for most of the time I owned the car and never had an issue with it. I would just recommend staying away from any of the -20 oils as they are just too light, which has been proven many times. A -30 should be the minimum used.

VividSI
12-15-2010, 09:29 PM
well the motor is more quiet over 5w20 for sure and it idles better. it almost felt like a new car again because i thought the motor wasnt even running at idle. Im starting to think it was a great move.

shanewdude
12-16-2010, 05:13 AM
well the motor is more quiet over 5w20 for sure and it idles better. it almost felt like a new car again because i thought the motor wasnt even running at idle. Im starting to think it was a great move.

Everytime I change my oil with RP 5W30 I notice it runs better... could it just be due to the fresh oil?

VividSI
12-16-2010, 06:53 PM
everytime you change your oil you gain back what HP you gradually lost with the dirty oil

VividSI
12-24-2010, 11:41 PM
i drove pretty hard on a full tank of 89 octane and got 26mpg. then the next tank with the same fuel with conservative driving was 27mpg. I then got 28mpg on 93 octane and im on another tank of 93 again to check the results. the oil level has been the same so i guess i just had to put more in it after the first drive because it went down to the min level once but its fine now.

AKEP
12-27-2010, 09:57 PM
still, keep an eye on it. i find my car feels better when its 1qt low. but obviously if i stayed with that idea, my motor would be gone.

lol, so everytime i feel like im making more power, i pour more oil in to it and we're back to normal =[

oldschoolimport
12-28-2010, 07:53 AM
My legacy gt was fed a steady diet of mobil 1 for 70 something thousand miles by the original owner. I had consumption issues and used rotella for 6k, til it spun a bearing. Every bearing was down to copper. I will never use mobil 1.

Mechanic
12-29-2010, 01:25 PM
Uh, Wes, you're gonna have to help me follow your logic.

You bought a used Roo w/70k miles. It had gone that distance on Mobil 1 (weight? maintenance history?). You decided to change to Shell Rotella, a diesel motor oil -- and I'm going to guess it was 15W-40 weight oil -- glue, in other words -- and SIX THOUSAND MILES LATER, your gasoline-engine Subaru gave up the ghost. And this you attribute to Mobil 1?

Why?

oldschoolimport
12-29-2010, 11:25 PM
the damage was already done, it was consuming oil to the sum of a quart every thousand. I went to a thicker oil, which was suggested on the subaru forum, and the consumption didn't change. dobbs02si is building the engine, and he had 3 mobil 1 engines come in the same week with similar wear. one was a GSR with around 5k on it. if you look around, mobil 1 is losing favor with lots of people/places.

according to shellUS, rotella T is suggested for "Gasoline engines, especially the hard-working engines of pick-up trucks, sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), and mini-vans". yes, its primarily for diesels, but not exclusively.

Mechanic
12-30-2010, 03:52 AM
Wes, you know, I'm sure, that Exxon-Mobil -- and, specifically, Mobil 1 -- has roughly 60% of the synthetic oil market. No other oil company comes close. Shell/Pennzoil has about 20%; BP 10%, etc. And a host of major engine manufacturers recommend the stuff specifically by name. (Porsche, Mercedes, Honda, GM, AMG, etc., for more than 40 types of vehicles of all sorts.) It's not an exaggeration to say there are literally millions of cars running on Mobil 1 worldwide (and probably a few thousand running flat out on M1 while I'm typing this). Thus, when someone offers an anecdotal example of an engine problem that his mechanic has tied that a particular oil, any oil, it's difficult (for me at least) to conclude that the problem is just the oil. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say its rarely the oil.

But everyone it seems has a favorite oil or one that they detest. Me, I start with viscosity -- specifically, cSt @ 40C and cSt @ 100C. Then I look closely at the HT/HS specifications. And finally the NOACK %. If you do that, I think you'll find that these days all the majors have very similar specs and chemical composition. When I've done it, I can't find a basis for singling out Mobil 1 or Pennzoil Platinium or Castrol Edge or . . . what's your favorite? . . . as either "the" best or clearly one to avoid. Specific weights to avoid in a particular application, yes. But by major brand, no.

But I don't think that M1 did in your Roo. The prior owner might have, but it's hard to say without knowing what weight oil he used, how often he changed it, how he drove the car, etc. But that still doesn't account for the failure you described -- every bearing down to the copper -- after 6k miles on Rotella T. Just a hunch, but I think you also had a fuel/oil dilution problem, or worse, periods of outright oil starvation, that ultimately did in your engine.

oldschoolimport
12-30-2010, 06:15 AM
Either way, I knew I was headed for a rebuild, just off the oil consumption. I was trying to postpone the inevitable. The 15-40 is a recommended alternate weight for subarus with oil consumption issues. Oh well. Either way, its being rebuilt. I guess its just coincidental the other mobil 1 engines puking the same week. There are more opinions on oil than there are brands and weights. I just know what I will and won't buy.

VividSI
12-30-2010, 05:17 PM
last fill up with 93 octane was 26.78mpg with normal driving conditions. Shell 93 granted me slightly better mpg than chevron 93 a little over 1mpg when comparing 2 fill ups of each brand. I still managed to hit 28mpg on M1 5w20 synthetic so im betting 0w20 has little to no advantage other than smoother operation for the K20A3. and the fact that its a rare oil and hard to find makes it easier to go back to M1 5w20. Now I know what its all about. Acura is also saying its not just the oil that has changed for the TSX but it has different piston rings and more under body panels for aerodynamics so im sure that is what help makes the +1 mpg increase. Man,, a 2011 TSX V6 Tech sounds pretty amazing but the price is another story.

sleepy ep3
12-30-2010, 10:49 PM
5w20 is for fuel economy only. Crap for protection. I use Amsoil 10w30 year round. Or eneos. Whatever I can get my hands on easier.

Paul 631
01-09-2011, 12:15 PM
subscribed... I'd love to see a oil analysis of the 0w20 when it's at the end of it's run.

Vivid, original owner? What year, miles & mods are on your EP3?...

EPo3Hatch
01-09-2011, 05:21 PM
I have been changing my oil every 3k with mobil 1 5w20 and just changed it today with royal purple 5w20..should I notice a difference? If so what kind? I don't push my car hard and use 89 octaine.

VividSI
01-11-2011, 08:30 PM
subscribed... I'd love to see a oil analysis of the 0w20 when it's at the end of it's run.

Vivid, original owner? What year, miles & mods are on your EP3?...

im not doing an oil analysis, yes, 04, 115,000, hondata reflash, CAI, Comptech header, High flow cat, tanabe exhaust, denso spark plugs, hondata heat sheild.

VividSI
01-11-2011, 08:33 PM
I have been changing my oil every 3k with mobil 1 5w20 and just changed it today with royal purple 5w20..should I notice a difference? If so what kind? I don't push my car hard and use 89 octaine.

i think that too often, 3,500 should be min and 5,000 should be max especially if you using mobil 1 because its really good oil.

AKEP
01-12-2011, 12:43 AM
man, i hate to say it, but i got 29.44 mpg on like +20,000mile oil with whatever i felt like throwing in and filling up when it got low, the other day, and a little over 34mpg on the road trip before that, on a (very rough) street tune. along with a bunch of 2nd and 3rd gear pulls. i think most of the oil in the motor is either 5-20 or 5-30...lol...

i stopped caring for the motor, since i figured out i was going to do a swap.

i think that too often, 3,500 should be min and 5,000 should be max especially if you using mobil 1 because its really good oil.
I'm pretty sure i've read somewhere from mobile 1, that you cold def run about 10k on the oil before they recommend a change. but i guess the way we romp on the eps all the time, 5 would be a good time to change.

i think i've done everything that you wouldn't want to do with oil and engines...and i stilll see normal oil consumption at 3-5k intervals, still good on gas and all that. no leaks. 106k miles on the engine. idk, i dont see the big thing about oil in an a3.

Draw7Seven
01-12-2011, 04:27 PM
Yeah, there are plenty of drivers out there who show intervals as high as 10-12k miles being acceptable even by oil analysis. BMW only changes mine every 15k. If you're full synthetic, I think it's sort of silly to change every 3k. But I'm probably underqualified for this conversation.

Paul 631
01-20-2011, 04:09 PM
Yeah, there are plenty of drivers out there who show intervals as high as 10-12k miles being acceptable even by oil analysis. BMW only changes mine every 15k. If you're full synthetic, I think it's sort of silly to change every 3k. But I'm probably underqualified for this conversation.

Possibly underqualified, but still correct.

relativelyprime
01-23-2011, 10:00 AM
I've been running 0W-20 since this December. Makes a HUGE difference, IMO, when starting the car when it's -20F to -35F out. When it's that cold I'm happy to get 25mpg around town and 30mpg interstate. When it warms up I plan on splitting the difference (from the specs I've looked at) between 5W-20 and 5W-30 by running 0W-30. Had my cam replaced last summer on a steady diet of 5W-20 but the more I've read from people on which cam (exhaust or intake) and which cylinder the lobe went bad on, I can't imagine it's an oil issue. I had one lobe go bad on 2 cams. And that lobe was TOAST. If it was the oil, and not metallurgy, wouldn't more than one lobe have had at least some scuffing or marks? That's why I'm not totally sold on oil being the culprit.

beechstreet
01-23-2011, 10:08 AM
im not doing an oil analysis, yes, 04, 115,000, hondata reflash, CAI, Comptech header, High flow cat, tanabe exhaust, denso spark plugs, hondata heat sheild.

tsk tsk tsk

Mighty_Mouse
01-31-2011, 06:43 PM
Anyone wanting to run 0w20 in their A3 would be well advised to run Eneos, Amsoil, Redline or Fuchs. Those are the top 0w20s available. Fuchs is tough to get in North America and not worth the expense here. Eneos used to be available at Toyota dealers but they switched to Mobil a few months ago.

Paul 631
02-20-2011, 05:41 PM
Any updates on oil consumption, mpg, engine replacement? ;)

Mighty_Mouse
02-20-2011, 07:33 PM
No oil consumption, more mpg and no engine replacement if using a quality 0w20 like Eneos, Amsoil, Redline, etc.

Paul 631
02-21-2011, 07:01 AM
No oil consumption, more mpg and no engine replacement if using a quality 0w20 like Eneos, Amsoil, Redline, etc.

Was actually refering to the OP, but what testing have you done to come to that conclusion?

Mighty_Mouse
02-21-2011, 07:29 AM
Was actually refering to the OP, but what testing have you done to come to that conclusion?

1. drive car
2. check oil
3. check mpg
4. check VIN tag on engine
5. LOL at ricers running 5w40 in their 160HP engines

Paul 631
02-21-2011, 07:48 AM
4. check VIN tag on engine

High theft area eh? just messing with you.

Anyway, thanks for making that important connection between horsepower output and proper oil grade. ;)

Mighty_Mouse
02-21-2011, 07:49 AM
Nope. Read the post a few more times.

Paul 631
02-21-2011, 08:18 AM
No use arguing over your ignorant comments, go to http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=3&page=1 , read over what has worked & what hasn't...

Mighty_Mouse
02-21-2011, 08:27 AM
^^^ Way over your head, I guess. LOL

ImportCustomx
03-02-2011, 09:38 AM
i drove pretty hard on a full tank of 89 octane and got 26mpg. then the next tank with the same fuel with conservative driving was 27mpg. I then got 28mpg on 93 octane and im on another tank of 93 again to check the results. the oil level has been the same so i guess i just had to put more in it after the first drive because it went down to the min level once but its fine now.

what about air temperature? humidty? tire pressure? are you driving the same route? elevation changes? these are all factors in gas mileage also. youll never get 100% results unless in a controlled environment..like a dyno.... go sit on a dyno till the car runs out of gas driving one way..then drive conservative next time.

VividSI
03-03-2011, 08:21 PM
i drive the same. my last tank was 28.75 normal driving with one redline.

VividSI
08-25-2014, 08:02 AM
I just changed my oil last night and I felt like posting to my thread, 0W20 Mobil 1 again and I'm creeping up on 180K but it's no longer my DD just my weekend sports car. The timing chain was recently replaced and the shop says my engine still looks brand new and I believe them because it still runs great and pulls strong, sometimes I forget how sporty it is when I don't drive it for a few weeks.

VividSI
08-25-2014, 08:05 AM
Also I swapped the drain plug out for the Spoon one with the magnet and I went with the green HAMP oil filter which I suspect is slightly changing the sound of the motor at idle but it still sounds pretty smooth.