If you had to choose one...

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Would it be Mobil 1 0W-20, 5W-30 or Amsoil 5W-20 for a car calls for 5W-20 grade?

I live in a colder climate and because my work has no underground parking, my car ends up sitting outside for prolonged periods of time, even overnight often times when I have to pull off allnighters at work to meet deadlines. Sometimes, it'll get as low as -40C/-40F overnight here and the winters here are about 6 months long.

Some might argue that well, duh, since your car calls for a 5W-20, of course you should use Amsoil's 5W-20, but I'm currently using Mobil 1's 5W-30 because its 0W-20 is not available at all in the city. But just found someone who will be carrying it, along with Amsoil's 5W-20.

Now, I'm left to choose and thought I'd seek your opinions from you fella whose knowledge and discussions I really value ane respect.

Someone told me to use Mobil 1's 5W-30 during the summers and 0W-20 during the winters here. How does that idea sound to you? If you had a car that's supposed to use 5W-20, which would you use? M1's 5W-30, 0W-20, or Amsoil's 5W-20? Thanks for your time and courtesy.
 
You're gonna have to give us a bit more information on the car.

Ford or Honda? What engine? Is it still under warranty?

Personally, I use Amsoil 5w-30 (ASL). If I NEEDED a 5w-20, I would use any of the quality 5w-20's available because most, if not all, of them are at least a good blend of group III or IV and should have a decent pour point.
 
Hi medic, yeah, my car's a Honda Pilot, 3.5L 6Cyl 240HP/242LB-ft@4500RPM and it is still under warranty. When I inquired the head service technician at the servicing dealer about wanting to use Mobil 1's oil, he told me to use 5W-30 instead of 0W-20 because he felt the latter would be too thin.

Please let me know if you require more info, thanks.
 
quote:

Originally posted by RipRocK:
Hi medic, yeah, my car's a Honda Pilot, 3.5L 6Cyl 240HP/242LB-ft@4500RPM and it is still under warranty. When I inquired the head service technician at the servicing dealer about wanting to use Mobil 1's oil, he told me to use 5W-30 instead of 0W-20 because he felt the latter would be too thin.

Please let me know if you require more info, thanks.


If the head service guy tells you to run M1 5w30, then go for it, that way if you ever have a warranty claim, then he can't give you hell for your choice of oil can he?
 
If your going to stick with the 20wts, I'd go with Mobil 1 0w-20. Dino 20wt would be Pennzoil.

For 30wt synthetics, I'd go with Amsoil ASL then M1.
 
You may want to give the 5W-20 Amsoil a shot. I know not many have tried it, and it is overpriced for a group III, but you would have zero warranty doubt.

How much does the tech know about oil, or is he just seeing the lower ordinal numbers of the 0W-20 and doubting?

The ASL will work well, but I think a good 0W-30 may be the ticket, too.
 
I'd go with the Mobil 1, 0w-20 or the Amsoil Series 2000, 0w-30. The S2000 is considerably more expensive in Canada than Mobil 1, however you can safely run it 50%-100% longer between changes with full backing by the company....

You will get significantly less valvetrain and piston ring/cylinder wear with the S2000, I believe.

Tooslick
Dixie Synthetics
 
quote:

You may want to give the 5W-20 Amsoil a shot

Why would anyone want to give the Amsoil 5w-20 a shot? It makes zero sense to use this oil.
 
Buster, your choices are not everyone elses choices. Did you read my post?

quote:

You may want to give the 5W-20 Amsoil a shot. I know not many have tried it, and it is overpriced for a group III, but you would have zero warranty doubt.

You write this as if there something technically wrong with the oil. There isn't. Please, buster sometimes not posting is as good as just chalking another post up......WE ALL know the oil is expensive, so please don't say that (again)
 
One simple reason, buster. His manual calls for 5W-20. That's what I posted and it just seems like you overlooked it...I'm not being mean, nasty, etc.

As for comparison, I haven't seen a shoot out in his vehicle of the XL 5W-20 and M1 0W-20 (or any XW-20 for that matter) with factory specified OCI's, to make the type of "factual" claims that you do. Please list the 5W-20's that are better than XL, and provide proof.

I could care less if this guy buys XL from me..my offer still stands. I have refused to make a profit on this oil, so I will even sell it at my cost if the buyer agrees to do an analysis(no takers yet!)
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quote:

Originally posted by PaJohn:
-*-* So, do I use the Pennzoil, or do I use he Amsoil 0W30 or GC 0W30 that I have stocked for my Audi? NOOOOO, I am NOT going to buy more oil, my garage is begining to look like an oil rack at Autozone.
banghead.gif


hey, either use what you have, or buy some (2-3 brands of 5w-20 - and there are some good ones not even mentioned here) and forget about anything other than your own custom UOA's.
Run three UOA's back to back, until you go through your 2-3 (or 4) selected oils, and select the winner, and you can be the one to call the shots to determine the method of deciding exactly what your winner will look like, ie best in cost, or performance or a MIX...
 
PaJohn,

After running 5w-20 and 0w-20 synlubes in my Tacoma and seeing five times the rate of bearing wear with both of them, I will no longer recommend anything thinner than the Amsoil 0w-30 or the GC, 0w-30 - both of which are thick enough to meet the ACEA "A3/B4" specification. Both these xw-20 oils had HT/HS viscosities of at least 2.9 Cp, which is the lower limit for xw-30 grades. So you should take that into consideration as well ....

I did pick up about 0.5 mpg with both these oils, compared to running a 5w-30 synthetic, however I don't think the increased bearing wear and valvetrain noise is a good tradeoff.

If anybody is considering using the Amsoil 5w-20, I'd strongly recommend their Series 2000, 0w-30 instead. If the Series 2000 is too rich for your blood, you should find some other oil to use. I specifically tested the 5w-20 to make sure it met my standards and it did not.

Tooslick

[ February 15, 2004, 08:28 AM: Message edited by: rugerman1 ]
 
I use Amsoil 5w30 ASL in a '92 Protege with the 1.8L engine. She has started at -30F without the aid of the block heater. Amsoil seems to function well in the cold.
 
Pablo,

I just booted the 5w-20 and 0w-20 analyses to the top ....Keep in mind these were both PAO and/or Ester based synthetics. The XL-7500 product I used was the original non-licensed PAO based stuff with plenty of ZDDP. I have not done a VOA on the GP III oil, so I don't know if they are using the same borate ester as in their xw-30 formulations.

Valvetrain wear was excellent with both these oils, but they were simply too thin for my truck.

Ted
 
In any case, and I have been a loooooong time M1 user for the last 10 years, I would choose the Amsoil over the M1.
Amsoil just seems to have the better additive package and the UOAs are coming out excellent.
 
quote:

If anybody is considering using the Amsoil 5w-20, I'd strongly recommend their Series 2000, 0w-30 instead. If the Series 2000 is too rich for your blood, you should find some other oil to use. I specifically tested the 5w-20 to make sure it met my standards and it did not.

Try running Mobil 1 0w-20. Have you Amsoil guys been paying attention to the UOA's it has put up? I suggest you take a look. It's a well made 20wt oil. More Moly and Bron. crossbow's UOA's with some racing miles is excellent. One was even in a V10 Ford. I don't understand why this oil is out performing M1 5w/10w-30? Makes no sense but it's true so far. Pennzoil has a decent 5w-20 grp III for $2qt vs Amsoil's $4 or $5 or whatever it is. Sorry but that oil is a waste of money. Amsoil makes excellent oils but I ZERO reason to use that particular one.

[ December 21, 2003, 10:44 PM: Message edited by: buster ]
 
Wow, thanks for all the replies, guys. I really appreciate them. What's rather perplexing to me is that, over at amsoil's site, they show all sorts of tests having been done with its oil and others, such as M1. The amsoil always seems to come out ahead in every tests, such as http://www.amsoil.com/performancetests/amsoil_vs_mobil1.htm (testing 5W-30) and also http://www.amsoil.com/performancetests/g1971/index.html (testing 10W-30).

Can these test numbers alone suggest that Amsoil's oil is indeed the best or since 5W-20 wasn't tested, the same conclusions can't be drawn about it?

Also, what's the difference in Series 2000 oil and the XL-7500 oil besides the grade/weight? Then I noticed that there are SAE 5W-30 & 10W-30 and there the same greades in the XL-7500 series. I'm rather confused about this. Why does Amsoil have same grades in different series?

Once agian, thanks for your time and courtesy.

[ December 21, 2003, 11:13 PM: Message edited by: RipRocK ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by RipRocK:


Also, what's the difference in Series 2000 oil and the XL-7500 oil besides the grade/weight? Then I noticed that there are SAE 5W-30 & 10W-30 and there the same greades in the XL-7500 series. I'm rather confused about this. Why does Amsoil have same grades in different series?


I won't touch the Amsoil vs Mobil part, but to answer your question about the different Amsoil oils, in simple terms, the Series 2000 is FULL synthetic, the 7500 is not. The difference in price refelcts this as well. Others will probably chime in with more technical explanations.
 
I have the same dilema, with the wife's 02 MDX. There's been some controversy about oil weight in these cars becasue the manual call for 5W20 while the oil cap say 5W30
dunno.gif
. Apparently, Acura has stated that the 5W20 was a misprint for the 02, but the newer cars, like your Pilot, still call for 5W20 even though it's the exact same internals (I think).
So, I'm about to change out the M1 0W30 that's been in there for 4k and I bought some Pennzoil 5W20, but now I found out that Acura says to use 5W30 in this MY. So, do I use the Pennzoil, or do I use he Amsoil 0W30 or GC 0W30 that I have stocked for my Audi? NOOOOO, I am NOT going to buy more oil, my garage is begining to look like an oil rack at Autozone.
banghead.gif
 
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