Synthetic Blend vs Full Synthetic Pro and Cons

With Mobil1 any of their products labeled "Extended Performance" and all of their Zero weight oils are true full synthetics.

You mention 10W30 in your Suburban. The recommended oil is 5W30 for that engine. Personally, I went the other direction in my 98 K1500. I run Mobil1 0W30. No oil pressure or leaking problems.

 

0W/5W/10W-30

I thought the first number relates to the cold start and the latter number (30) relates to at-operating-temperature viscosity?... So I don't think Charlie should be seeing pressure difference due to the 10W30 oil at high temp. Maybe due to something else?

 

I've used Mobil 1 in a previous vehicle I had and wasn't impressed. It didn't leak or anything , but the top end was noisy with it. I'll probably go with the Castrol Magnatec in my Dodge. Due to the cost and it's only available in full synthetic in my area.

 

I use Mobil One 0w20 full synthetic oil in our 2010 Prius and I still change by myself the oil and filter every 10,000 miles, 4 quarts out and 4 quarts in. The Prius is nearing 160,000 miles and it still uses no oil during that 10,000 miles, amazing. I had my doubts at first that a light oil may cause the engine to use oil, but with todays engines, or at least this Prius' engine thats not the case.

I plan on using Mobil One 0w20 "Extended Performance" in our 2016 Volt, it may be a while as the oil life indicator reads 45% oil life with the odometers nearing 22,000 miles, that also amazing.

Wayne, based on the above stats for the three major brands of motor oil, is there any clear winner?

 

Hey , does my 2015 Prius Liftback have an oil life indicator ? I haven't seen one. I also have been changing at 10K miles, but for me it's about every five months. No oil consumed so far.

 

Nope. Toyota prefers their simplistic fixed-mileage "oil maintenance required" reminder.

 

08ESCAPE
The suburban 234000 miles,
I think waaaay back when-2008-I decided I wanted-for no good reason-slightly higher warmed up idle pressure
In heat of summer it would drop to 16 psi-fine according to GM-this is with 5w30 Mobil 1
I also have a leak-actual leak-not dead sure-but my suspicion is front of oil pan(long story-jack legged mechanic cross threaded several-many-screws-at least 3 oil pan)
Anyway I switched to 10w30-couldn't measure any drop in FE-and NOLA is so hot-the tiny increase in viscosity during warm up-who cares.
So just "old engine"-and occasional overheating problems-coolant leak-screw up
so for my purposes-maybe 2500 miles year- 10w30 better bet

I'm assuming that at the margins- a 10w30 might be a slightly better lubricant than 5w30-should have fewer "not pure lubrication molecules-meaning fewer viscosity modifier- shape changing -molecules)

In truth-probably doesn't matter much either way-just habit now

 

Its seems like the price of 100% synthetic motor oil is nearing the price of conventional motor oil, when you include sales and rebates. Napa at times has their 100% synthetic motor oil in various grades for under $4.00 / quart, I understand their oil is Valvoline with their, NAPA, name on the bottle,everything else is the same as Valvoline's 100% synthetic motor oil.

 

I seem to remember that perhaps 20 years ago there was some sort of LAWSUIT
fighting about exactly WHAT synthetic meant.
The "suit" decided that full synthetic could mean that petrol based oils-could be called FULL SYNTHETIC
I seem to remember that MOBIL ONE changed their formulation-to a cheaper to make formula-after that.(maybe it was CASTROL vs mobil one with the CASTROL PRODUCT being not as full synthetic)
Anyway probably doesn't matter now
but that MIGHT explain WHY "full synthetic" is not much more than "plain oil" (just bought 5 qts MOBIL 1 EXTENDED SERVICE FOR $26 5 QTs delivered+$2 tax-so $28 dropped on my doorstep)
Anyway-oils are awfully good now-and engines are so much cleaner( less soot no lead better air filters so less "sand/grit " water is boiled off etc)
My guess any name brand full synthetic-probably pretty good

 

A few weeks ago I went on line and purchased through Walmart Mobil One /Extended Performance 0w20 2, 5 quart jugs for about 25.00 each. I thought that was a good deal as our 2016 Volt and 2010 Prius only use 4 quarts with filter per change, and I can use 0w20 oil for each car. I noticed that Mobil One's rebate currently in effect does not include if you purchase from Walmart only certain stores. This is the oil I will use for our 2016 Volt when I change it. Maybe it will give me .5-1 mpg more when running on gas engine only. I believe GM factory fills with 5W20 semi synthetic oil.

 

The reason the "conventional" oils are so expensive is that the new API SN and ILSAC GF-5 classifications are so tough to meet that blenders have to use some percentage of synthetic basestocks pass.

In 1999, Castrol was calling their Castrol Syntec group III hydrocracked petroleum basestocks "synthetic". Mobil1 took issue with that and filed a complaint with the BBB's National Advertising Council. Mobil1 was using group IV polyalphaolefins which are true synthetics chemically synthesized from ethylene. Despite the chemical definition of "synthesis" meaning "a reaction of two or more chemical species combining to form a more complex product", the NAD sided with Castrol deciding that group III basestocks were close enough in performance to group IV to be called "synthetic".

Consumers don't really know what's in a certain oil brand. We try to grab on to something, usually basestocks, to differentiate one brand from another but it's almost impossible to objectively say one oil has better ingredients than another. I think a better approach is to look at the published specs and go with oil analysis.

 

Jay is correct. Mobil, having lost that semantic argument, went with the old adage of "if you can't lick 'em, join 'em," and proceeded to label Type III-based engine oil as full synthetic, too. The real price of "full synthetics" dropped accordingly.

 

Ahhh-thanks Jay
Yeah that is it-
explains the price drop of FULL SYNTHETICS
My memory was back then
MOBIL 1 was $4 qt
Regular oil $1 qt


so just what is the origin of current Mobil 1 -the cheaper stuff right-starting with some purified product from "oil"
Where does the ethylene come from??
Maybe from ethane-NG?
or maybe from plant origin sugar then ethanol
Guess it doesn't matter, since the cheaper to make stuff-works just as well apparently
Amazing oil used to have to be changed every 3 months-3000 miles(this was when people didn't drive 1000 miles/mo-so 3 months might have been 1000 miles)
Now we have 1 YEAR 15000 mile intervals

 

I'm about to show my age here... but when I started driving in the 80s we did at least 2 oil changes/yr on our family cars. 10W30 in the winter and 10W40 in the summer. When I was about 21 or 22 I decided I would just use 10W30 year round. In the late 90s I switched all my vehicles to 5W30. When I purchased the FEH I fell in love with Zero weight oils. 0W20 for the FEH, and 0W30 in the truck. The Buick is still on 5W30 as it does have some oil seal leaks, and I really don't want to make them worse.