Amsoil testing

[Built_Well]

On the SSO page, it says the 4-ball wear test (ASTM D-4172) was performed by an independent lab. It's nice to see that an independent lab did the testing.

I guess it costs too much to be certified by some auto makers like VW, but did a less-costly independent lab also test SSO to be sure it met the tough VW 503.00 standard? (Not even deep-pocketed Mobil 1 shows the VW certification on the back of its 5w30 bottles.)

If an independent lab did not test for compatibility with VW 503.00, what makes Amsoil confident it can recommend SSO for that 503 standard? Thanks.

 

[JohnBrowning]

Preety easy you run other industry standard test's on approved oils. Then you test yours against it. Then you test it in a vechile requireing that spec. oil and do some UOA. Add that data to what you already know about the oil and you can then make a reasonable recomendation that it will function in an engine requireing an oil that meets that specification. Test's and certifications are not always going to give you the best product or protection. Sometimes meeting a standard is actualy a step backwards! All a certification tells you is that a product meets X minimum requirements it does not tell yout hat it is going to actuly do a better a jobe then oil not meeting those requirements.

A good example is what happened when SM and GF-4 oils hit the market. It sucked the life right out of M1's line up of at the time excellent oils! They had to lower the AW additive packages to meet the standard. It did nothing the make M1 a better product!!! In fact it made their products less then what they where prior to that. But ont he other hand SM and GF-4 forced conventional oils to use better base stocks so it helped them in spite of the lower additive package.

 

[Gary Allan]

Also consider that even oils that meet equal spec's ..aren't equal in performance. Schaffer's apparently showed far better in the Sequence IIIG PASS:FAIL test than other oils (pulling some memory from one post on "certs").

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Built_Well
On the SSO page, it says the 4-ball wear test (ASTM D-4172) was performed by an independent lab. It's nice to see that an independent lab did the testing.

I guess it costs too much to be certified by some auto makers like VW, but did a less-costly independent lab also test SSO to be sure it met the tough VW 503.00 standard? (Not even deep-pocketed Mobil 1 shows the VW certification on the back of its 5w30 bottles.)

If an independent lab did not test for compatibility with VW 503.00, what makes Amsoil confident it can recommend SSO for that 503 standard? Thanks.


OK, here's what I found:

So, 503.01 is "more strict" than the 503.00, and they both spec a 0w30 oil.... 503.00 is for engines over 180HP, 503.01 is for those same engines over 180HP including the TT and RS4.....BUT

The Mobil 1 0w40 grade meets: VW 502.00/505.00/503.01

and is not a 0w30.........

So I guess that's your answer.

My understanding of AMSOIL's testing is that they are aware of the test procedures or the requirements to meet the tests, but don't have pockets as deep as EM's, so will test to meet the specs, but do it on their own or via a 3rd party lab, and simply not pay out to be officially certified for the spec.

In these instances you will see the "recommended for" and then the spec listed. This means that in Amsoil's opinion and testing, that they have found that the lubricant meets or exceeds the requirements for that application, it just does not have the actual manufacturer's approval on it.

 

[Turk]

Calling Pablo or Gary.....

 

[digitalSniperX1]

The real issue here are warranties. While Amsoil's SSO for example may meeet HTO-06 standards, if it's not been tested by Honda, and there is an engine failure, the manufacturer may void your warranty ...even if the SSO actually would perform or performs better than the HTO-06 compliant Mobil 1 5w30.

I know I'll be told it is incumbent on the MFG to prove that a failure was due to non-compliance. I'm sorry, but I don't dare to get in that battle with a billion dollar company, so it's doubtful that I'd use it unless I understood fully Amsoil's warranty, which appears to be restrictive. Also, Amsoil may claim, and rightly so, that the failure was not the oil, while the manufacturer hides behind a non-compliant product claim, leaving the owner in a situation where a 15,000 dollar engine in a 40,000 dollar car is at stake.

I won't be paying more to take that gamble. It's just not worth it.