API finds nearly half of certified oils have issues

[Foxtrot08]

Integrity takes courage. The only thing you take to your grave is character - honesty, integrity, consistency, and loyalty. We need more like you in this industry.

There’s a lot of incentives to cheat. Very few incentives to have integrity. To me, it’s just a matter of personal pride.

(Tom does know who I am / my company too.)

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

I've been saying that for over 20yrs here. On a product like motor oil that basically has limited regulation, you'll never know exactly what you are getting in each bottle, jug, box, barrel, etc.

I love seeing VOA and UAO data just like most of us on BITOG, but in reality, the data is going to change with every single oil change even with the "same" oil. You get a data point on engine health and how that specific ~5qts of oil look. That's it.

Change it at a reasonable interval for your engine and your usage and you are not going to have an oil related problem.

There’s a brand on here that will have much less variation than most brands, because they measure all incoming product for accuracy, and blend the final product by weight, not volume. Then they also test the final product to ensure everything is within a tight tolerance.

This ensures bottle to bottle, batch to batch variation is likely less than the measurement accuracy of the testing equipment. They’re certainly not the only place to take this level of care, but they hang their hat on delivering exactly what they promise. To me, trust is worth the couple extra bucks it costs for their products.

 

[mt23]

Makes me wonder what kind of oil was being purchased at a shop I used to help at. Shop owner bought "cheapest conventional 5w30 diesel oil money could buy" for every vehicle serviced, because he didnt believe in "that synthetic stuff". His bulk tanks are the ones that come to mind. Every car had heavy varnish visible from oil fill holes. Customers lined up to pay top dollar. Bulk tanks only filled when a special price was available

 

[Foxtrot08]

Makes me wonder what kind of oil was being purchased at a shop I used to help at. Shop owner bought "cheapest conventional 5w30 diesel oil money could buy" for every vehicle serviced, because he didnt believe in "that synthetic stuff". His bulk tanks are the ones that come to mind. Every car had heavy varnish visible from oil fill holes. Customers lined up to pay top dollar. Bulk tanks only filled when a special price was available

Thus my post. Most people here can probably think of at least one shop / quick lube like that. The “ooooohhh…” suddenly happens.

Why would they want to buy from say, a distributor like me, that might be possibly $2-3 a gallon more expensive? They don’t care about quality, they don’t care about brand, they don’t care about service. They just want cheap.

200 gallon fill up on a bulk tank… they’d rather make that $400-600 more. And chances are their customers will never test and find out. Plus there is almost no enforcement mechanism to levy anything against the installer. “Oil change special - $21.99.” Yeah, doesn’t tell you what sort of oil you’re getting. So now it’s on you for the burden of proof. Not the installer or distributor.

 

[Pablo]

How would you know since the story doesn’t list brands?

And what about the ones that don’t have an API license? I suppose those don’t violate it by definition.

Amsoil has not and will not cheat such things.

Amsoil does make mistakes like any human organization on paper and on the website, very infrequently. Sometimes the first line CS can be a bit goofy (and slow). But not once have we seen them straight cheat defined as claim to passing a requirement that never was tested or actually fails that testing.

 

[Bill Judson]

How would you know since the story doesn’t list brands?

And what about the ones that don’t have an API license? I suppose those don’t violate it by definition.

Lots of independent labs and research groups have tested Amsoil over the years and they consistently out rank the competition.

Plus Amsoil gets all the major certifications each time they produce a new blend.

So, more food for thought and why I say BITOG posters have “blinders” on.

Yeah man, ya gotta keep an eye on those BIGOTS ya know.

 

[kschachn]

Lots of independent labs and research groups have tested Amsoil over the years and they consistently out rank the competition.

Plus Amsoil gets all the major certifications each time they produce a new blend.

Performance testing, right? The API tests compliance with license requirements.

And for that second one, I'm not sure what that means.

 

[kschachn]

Yeah man, ya gotta keep an eye on those BIGOTS ya know. View attachment 207284

What was that user's name? I forget.

Perhaps he's returned.

 

[subyski]

I guess the moral of the story is no matter what brand name oil it is, it has a limited use and shelf life period. Stretch out the OCI and it could be costly but I'm still not a 3K oil changer.

And yet within this statement is a bunch of recommendations, assumptions, vagueness, astrix, marketing, and conspiracies. Not a single one size fits all approach or answer.

And outside of that, a bunch of "rebels" that do what they want or feel like is better.

 

[Bill Judson]

Performance testing, right? The API doesn't test performance it tests compliance with license requirements.

And for that second one, I'm not sure what that means.

Amsoil does get API certifications (and other industry certs), and their stuff gets tested for performance

Certifications are useless if a products cannot be proven to be reliable and perform well under extreme service.

 

[kschachn]

You missed my point.

 

[Bill Judson]

You missed my point.

I was working my point...

I figure you'd work your point over on your end.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Certifications are useless if a products cannot be proven to be reliable and perform well under extreme service.

What use is a certification if a product isn’t reliable to deliver what the certification process promised??

 

[kschachn]

I was working my point...

I figure you'd work your point over on your end.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[kschachn]

What use is a certification if a product isn’t reliable to deliver what the certification process promised??

Yes. The statement is typically used by those who don't understand a certification process.

 

[Bill Judson]

What use is a certification if a product isn’t reliable to deliver what the certification process promised??

Exactly. The pencil pushers don't know nuthin bout this.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

None to worry... I'll all come out in the wash ya know

 

[Bill Judson]

The statement is typically used by those who don't understand a certification process.

Big difference between what a product appears to be on paper... verses putting the product to work in extreme service environments to put it to the test to see how it actually performs in the real world ya know.

 

[kschachn]

Big difference between what a product appears to be on paper... verses putting the product to work in extreme service environments to put it to the test to see how it actually performs in the real world ya know. View attachment 207304View attachment 207303

Oh I do know. I spent a good portion of my career performing materials tests.

One thing I know is that the vast majority actually are representative of "real world" conditions despite the notion that they aren't. That's something which is a popular misconception.

 

[The Lube Guy]

Tom does know who I am / my company too.

Tom?

 

[Foxtrot08]

Tom?

Op of this thread / who I quoted.

Edit:

Tom Glenn of PQIA does too. I normally see him a few times a year.