Group III+

JWB

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Oct 12, 2020
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At a meeting of the Auto-Oil Advisory Panel (AOAP) in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A., on Thursday, a representative from General Motors (GM) expressed concern when a fully formulated oil originally blended with “Group III+” base oil showed a drop in performance when the formulation was switched to a Group III base oil. This was apparently detected in an aftermarket audit of dexos licensees conducted by the U.S. automaker.

“We have seen a pattern that products that are approved with “Group III+” showed lower performance when replaced with a non-plus,” the specification-development body for the API S Service Category was told.

Although no formal request was made to the group, GM’s concern was referred to the API Base Oil Interchange (BOI)/Viscosity Grade Read Across (VGRA) Task Force, who in turn asked the OEM for additional data, especially the base oil formulation.
 
What exactly is a grp III+? Is it a more refined grp III?
 
I’m guessing this is referring to Pennzoil Platinum, as PUP isn’t even Dexos approved. I took that crap out(PUP 5w-30) as soon as I started seeing oil leaking and hearing the rattling in the upper rpm range. Project Farm duped me.

Mobil 1 all the way for me.

Although not referring to any particular brand I think you have it backwards from the AOAP's finding if you read it again.

They are saying GIII+ outperforms GIII.
 
I’m guessing this is referring to Pennzoil Platinum, as PUP isn’t even Dexos approved. I took that crap out(PUP 5w-30) as soon as I started seeing oil leaking and hearing the rattling in the upper rpm range. Project Farm duped me.

Mobil 1 all the way for me.

What was rattling?
 
I guess my initial response was duh, you blend an oil using a base stock that is ultimately capable of meeting a particular standard or approval. Clearly one should test the resulting finished oil to find out if it meets that standard. Are they saying that in this case they substituted up a stock in accordance with API Appendix E and the resulting oil failed a test? Even then if the finished oil has a specific VI requirement the blender should have known that in the beginning.

That’s also a slightly strange statement they made. Industry insiders should have used different technical language than what is written in that statement.
 
Likely a case of the right guy mouthing off … and others reacting like kids running to the soccer ball instead of playing an actual position.
 
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