Ever hear of Coastal oil?

[Cogito]

I called a small independent garage near my home today to ask about an oil change for my Civic. The guy said they charge $22, and use 'Coastal' oil and 'Group 7' filters. I have never heard of either one of these brands. He said they charge $12 labor to change the oil and filter, if I bring my own. I'm thinking 4 qts of Pennzoil, Havoline, or Valvoline and a decent filter probably won't cost much more than ten bucks or twelve bucks. What do you think?

 

[The Critic]

Group 7- Purolator whitebox filter.
Coastal- AutoZone in-house brand

I used Coastal oil once in the Saturn. 10w40 grade. I ran it for nearly 10k miles with a few quarts of make-up oil. The car still runs fine.

 

[tdi jerry]

coastal is a small company that buys oil and puts the coastal name on the products just as wal-mart or other private lables.it is cheaper than some other oils on the market.i dont know how good it is but it meets some oil specs but i would not use it my self.it may be just fine and it has been sold under that brand for many years.you see a lot of it in the south and it is used a lot by logging equiment operators that have a lot of oil leaks on the logging equiment.

 

[ziggy]

The autozone in my city, has coatal signed/advertised as re-fined and re-addiive oil...
yuck!

 

[eshishlo]

If it is rerefined, wouldn't it be cleaner and better than oil that is refined from crude that came out of the ground.
Water from the lake is rerefined and runs in your tap...

 

[Ray H]

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coastal is a small company that buys oil and puts the coastal name on the products just as wal-mart or other private lables.

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Correction: Warren-Unilube is an independent finished lube formulator-blender and bottler (not a reseller of finished motor oils procurred from other blenders as you stated). Warren-Unilube's "Coastal" motor oils are formulated to meet or exceed current API SM and ILSAC GF-4 certification standards. Warren-Unilube is an entirely seperate company from Warren Performance Products which is also an independent formulator-blender who supplies WalMart SuperTech and Sears Spectrum motor oils among others.

 

[3putter]

Ray H hit the nail right on the head. Coastal carries a full line up ranging from dino to synthetic and high mileage in a variety of commonly used weights. I've only seen it at Auto Zone. It's SM/GF4 rated, just like the "name brand" stuff costing far more. Use it and sleep well.

 

[Hootbro]

Coastal is a good oil that meets "spec". Nothing more or nothing less. I have used it for 15+ years with 3K-5K OCI with no issues. As other have said, it is used as a house brand or sold cheaper under the Coastal name. Coastal does not advertise on a national level or have a NASCAR with their name plastered allover it. This allows them to have a lower overhead and to sell the product at a lower price structure. Some brands snobs will throw out how Coastal had a bad batch a few years ago but the truth was that a batch of 10W-30 got sent out as labeled 5w-30. Use it and do not loose sleep over it.

Hootbro

 

[Jimbo]

Coastal "Full Synthetic" 5W-30 is in the Tundra right now. It was $1 a quart at AZ.

 

[2oldtommy]

Coastal Oil Co is headquartered in Houston Texas. At one time they owned and operated the refinery on the island of Arurba. THis refinery was built in the 1920's by the Lago Oil and Refining Co and subsuquently purchased by ESSO. During WWII. they produced millions of gals. of high octane aviation fuel for the US war effort. It was closed cir. 1988 and Coastal bought it and started up again in 1992. About 4-5 yrs. ago Coastal sold this refinery to a foreign company whose name I can't recall. Aruba is a great spot for us snowbirds to have a winter vacation.Try it.

 

[Mokanic]

In my erea,Coastal is priced so close to Havoline it's not worth trying. It's only about 20 cents a qt. cheaper than Havoline and to me,the good UOAs that Havoline consistantly puts up in 3-5K intervals would be worth the difference. If you catch Havoline on sale it makes it even better.

 

[Whimsey]

While I haven't used Coastal motor oil I've used Coastal ATF in my PS system and their DOT 3 brake fluid with no ill effects. As others have said if you don't abuse the OCI you'll be fine. Whoever said it's popular down South is right. In my travels I've seen LOTS of Coastal motor oil in many different branded gas stations. Here in NJ it's the house brand of Advance Auto.

Whimsey

 

[Cogito]

Thanks for your replies. Sounds like Coastal is OK....

 

[dave1251]

The only problem is that a few years back Warren mislabled 5W and 10W 30 oils. Meaning that some 10W30 was put in 5W-30 bottles. Leading you to question their quality control.

 

[Cogito]

And as far as the Group 7 filters go, they are just regular Purolators in a different box, right? The filters themselves are the same?

 

[Ray H]

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And as far as the Group 7 filters go, they are just regular Purolators in a different box, right? The filters themselves are the same?

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I remain unconvinced you can support that leap of blind faith, but I doubt you'll have any issues, regardless. Purolator, as other filter makers doing private label contract work, will price down for custom brand volume orders, but this could also imply "building down" slightly to achieve that price point subject to buyer acceptance during negotiations - but never below what the automakers specify as their minimum acceptable specifications for the recommended OCIs. (Remember if a private label oil filter fails and takes out an engine, it's the filter maker (Purolator, here) whose rear-end's on the line, not whoever contracts for and distributes the "Group 7" or whatever private label filters furnished by Purolator. The contract buyer/distributer merely refers loss claims right back on the contract manufacturer (Purolator in this case) for fault determination and final settlement where applicable.) So the Purolator-made "Group 7", "ProLine", etc. filters may not be quite up to exactly the same standards as labled Purolator PremiumPLUS filters (for instance - perhaps slightly less filtration media area as reserve capacity and/or slightly thinner metal for the "can" - but still fully capable of meeting automaker specs for burst pressure, bypass opening pressure, minimum acceptable filtration efficiency, etc.) for the applications they're intended for. (I used Pep Boys' Purolator-made "ProLine" 14459 oil filters for nearly seven years on my '96 Accord without any leakage, startup noise, or UOA measured wear metal and particulate issues. Good oil filter at honest pricing. I wouldn't hesitate to mount "Group 7" filters on my '03 Hyundai V6 if they're available in SoCal, either.)