Castrol Syntec or Mobil 1-Which one/Why?

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I've run both M1 0w40 and Syntec 5w40 in my GTI 1.8t. Those are the VW-approved weights for those particular brands in the car. My preference has been the Syntec. It's completely just a seat-of-the-pants "feel" thing, and not based on any science. The car just seemed/felt to run smoother with Syntec. Fwiw, my local shop uses Syntec, too.
 
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Mobil 1. Even if Syntec were a better oil, Castrol's whole marketing of it as "synthetic" years back really set me off. And that opened the whole can of worms with hydro-cracked oils being labeled as syn.


And now Castrol (BP) has been called out on their apparently untruthful advertising on GSK (that it has 57% better sludge protection yada yada).

Castrol needs to start playing straight pool for a few years before I'll fully respect them.
 
I've never really liked Castrol (mainly due to those dumb Syntec/Charger test commercials and the sludge drop commercials) but after seeing how well it did in my mom's Malibu, I've decided to use it in my car. Even with their cruddy marketing, it still seems to be a great product.
 
Firemachine69 wrote: "Free oil, where?"

When Castrol sponsored BITOG, they had a drawing. I was one of the winners (not first place). I think that the first place price was a Mustang.
 
Originally Posted By: ericthepig
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Mobil 1. Even if Syntec were a better oil, Castrol's whole marketing of it as "synthetic" years back really set me off. And that opened the whole can of worms with hydro-cracked oils being labeled as syn.


And now Castrol (BP) has been called out on their apparently untruthful advertising on GSK (that it has 57% better sludge protection yada yada).

Castrol needs to start playing straight pool for a few years before I'll fully respect them.


How do I write GSK when I meant to write GTX ? I do contract programming for GlaxoSmithKlein (GSK) - that's how.
 
Originally Posted By: ericthepig
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Mobil 1. Even if Syntec were a better oil, Castrol's whole marketing of it as "synthetic" years back really set me off. And that opened the whole can of worms with hydro-cracked oils being labeled as syn.


And now Castrol (BP) has been called out on their apparently untruthful advertising on GSK (that it has 57% better sludge protection yada yada).

Castrol needs to start playing straight pool for a few years before I'll fully respect them.

We agree: Castrol's advertising stinks. I assume the company is trying to find some means of drawing attention to their products in a sea of competitors, and they must think it's working. Too bad.

But, push that aside and focus on the product. As another gentleman suggested, a better match-up would be Edge vs. M1, rather than M1 vs. Syntec. Between the latter two, I'd choose M1. But, now that Castrol has cut the price on Edge by roughly a third, if the match-up were Edge vs. M1, I'd go with Edge.

More interesting yet will be whether Castrol pulls Edge from the U.S. market or, perhaps, replaces Syntec with Edge.
 
What is even worse are the young dopes that fall for their marketing. The fast and furious nit wits who think it's cool to send a sludge photo to a friend or take an engine and blast it with fire. LOL.
 
Quote:
Where did you hear/read that Syntec was Group III+? I'd be happy if it was (as I bought a load of it), but I'd always been lead to believe it was Group III stuff.


When Castrol reformulated Syntec in the mid-1990's with Group III, they used the Shell GIII, which is a wax-isomerate GIII+.

Quote:
zddplus.pdf

In 1999 the Mobil Oil Corp. lodged a complaint against Castro/Shell with the NAD (National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus). Mobil's claims were that Castrol had changed the formulation of its "Syntec PCEO from a nearly 70% PAO Group IV base to a 100% mineral oil Group III+ base, and yet still misleadingly advertised the oil as synthetic. (Mobil itself had been marketing VHVI Group III based oils in Europe at that time and had advertised them as synthetic). It also charged that Castrol had changed Syntec to a "degraded" product to the detriment of the consumer, yet was advertising the oil as "superior" to all other motor oils, both synthetic and conventional.


… On the charge of "degraded" performance, the NAD found the 100% mineral-based Syntec actually performed as well as, and in some ways better than the previous PAO-based formulation in a PCEO application, …


The Syntec GIII+ was overall a better motor oil than the previous PAO one. Likely Castrol is still using that GIII+ (although, one can't discount the possibility that some modern all hydroprocessed (severely hydrocracked) GIII base oils are being blended with the GIII+ these days).
 
go with the BEST as the m1 techs say..take M1 but would it really matter?
 
buster is right about the marketing, unless the engine is specd for synthetic you will be fine with any store brand oil
 
I too prefer Mobil 1 also but in some circumstances like my brothers Cadillac CTS the dealership uses NOT Mobil 1 as the standard oil BUT instead they use Castrol "Syntec" in the same weight.

My Chevy dealership uses NOT Mobil 1 in their Corvettes sold BUT instead uses Chevron oil products. Go figure? When it's time for my newly bought Impala SS I'll switch over to Chevron's synthetic oil used at the dealership.

Of course I prefer M1 but as long as the cars under warranty I'll use what the delaer uses.

In the real world Syntec can't be all that bad.

Durango
 
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