Mobil 1 Noisy? Audio Recordings!!

[moving2]

Here's something I posted a while ago:

427Z06 said:
"I have to say I'm stumped with all the complaints of "excessive engine noise". I even tried measuring it with a sound level meter sensitive to 0.1 dB and have yet to measure anything."

I agree- this "noisy M1" thing has me stumped, and makes me wonder if people are just jumping on the bandwagon because they expect the noise after reading threads here and are then overly sensitive to the noise when they use M1.

I have a challenge for those of you who get defensive when questions like this are raised: SOMEONE PLEASE record your vehicle's engine noise in the same environment, same placement of microphone, etc. with M1 and with whatever oil you think makes your engine quieter. Then post links to some sound samples.

I would LOVE to hear the difference, if there is any. The way people describe the "horrible noise" from M1 vs. the "smooth, quiet" operation of other oils, surely this great difference in engine noise must be something that will come through on these recordings.

(I'm an M1 0W-40 user, just as quiet as everything else I've tried-- PP, Quaker State Synth, Havoline, Mobil Drive Clean, GC, etc. all in various viscosities)...

Who will be first? The more samples from people, the better. Something tells me we will get few to no takers on this...

Not surprisingly, I got ZERO takers. After dozens upon dozens of people posting about how horribly loud the valve train noise was using M1 and then how much it quieted down when using other oils, NOT ONE PERSON posted an audio recording to prove their point. Hopefully putting this in its own thread will encourage those people to come forward.

One request: NO EXCUSES, just recordings, please. I'd like to keep this thread on-topic, so either STEP FORWARD and offer to do a test, or please DO NOT REPLY.

 

[Greaser]

If I knew how to do the sound recording on the computor I would.My fathers 2005 Colorado 4 banger developed a slight knock at idle when he went from Pennzoil dino to Mobil 1...sorry

 

[427Z06]

quote:

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Originally posted by Greaser:
If I knew how to do the sound recording on the computor I would.

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Do you have a sound card with a "MIC" in jack? Or if it's an all-in-one motherboard, maybe there's a "MIC" in jack on the back? Do you have a microphone? If yes, plug it in and look in the Programs->Accesories->Multimedia folder for SoundRecorder App. That is, assuming you have M$ as your OS.

 

[Auto-Union]

It should be done inside a private garage. Cold idle and hot idle. My M1 was noisiest under acceleration.

 

[bighead]

Sure there's gonna be bandwagon jumpers when it comes to certain things, but I don't think this is one of them. There was a noticable difference in how my engine sounded going from M1 to GC, and it was pretty much instantaneous. I think for those who have noticed a change, some don't feel like we need to justify it. Hey, you can believe me or go on with your life. I'm not jumping on any bandwagon here....ok, so I did it with GC and Havoline

...but not when it comes to the noisy M1 issue. I'm not THAT concerned about proving a point that I'm going to go thru all the hubub involved with trying to capture an audio sample. Not to mention the fact that in proving my point, I'd either have to A) dump the fresh M1 out after taking the recording (which I wouldn't do) or B) live with whatever noise increase was present for at least 5K miles (which I don't want to do), just so I wouldn't feel my money was wasted. Sorry buddy, I know you didn't want any non-conformist replies to your thread, but I just couldn't help myself. Here, I'll buy you a cold one

 

[moving2]

Wow. Excuses GALORE, not one who agrees to even give it a TRY. Surprised? Not me. The M1 noise crowd backs away from the plate yet again. Nice.

 

[Zaedock]

quote:

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Originally posted by moving2:
Wow. Lots of excuses, not one who agrees to even give it a TRY. Surprised? Not me.

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Why does everyone have to PROVE the noise by recording it? No one wants to cooperate with an aggressive thread. Maybe if your tone was better...

 

[bighead]

I was wondering how long it was going to take you to make your little "we must be chicken" comment. The truth of the matter is, you nay-sayers are so determined to show us how full of crap we are, that you'd be the first one to call the test rigged, or call B.S. if it were able to be documented through an audio recording. Basically it's like you're calling us liars and that's why you don't have anybody that eager to help you out with your nay-sayer experiment.

 

[AstroVic]

quote:

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Originally posted by moving2:
Wow. Excuses GALORE, not one who agrees to even give it a TRY. Surprised? Not me. The M1 noise crowd backs away from the plate yet again. Nice.

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I'm failing to understand this thread.

Who really cares if the perceived noise is audible to a recording device? And does it really matter anyhow?

I have used Mobil 1 in the past for 10,000 mile OCIs in a Honda Civic and had no issues over the course of 70,000 miles. (Does this prove anything? No.)

But if I thought Mobil 1 was making my car noisier, I'd change to a different oil.

Who cares? You must have stock in Mobil or something.

 

[bighead]

My point exactly AstroVic. If he's not one of the noise victims, more power to him. But don't sit there and think for one second that just because there's not increased noise in one particular application, that it just couldn't possibly be noisy in anything else...there's just no way...

 

[moving2]

Astro- nope, no stock. Just a lot of people complaining about noise without even a semi-objective test. The one person who did a semi-objective test with a noise meter showed no difference between Mobil1 and another oil in his vehicle. Lots of people complaining about noise, not even ONE SINGLE person willing to tape it for the benefit of the rest of the BITOG forum. Maybe the noise thing is all in the head? The way the dozens upon dozens of noise complainers suddenly clam up, run away, or make excuse after excuse when asked for a recording without even ONE person agreeing to give it a TRY sure makes it seem that way.

As for "who cares"- certainly BITOG readers do! We have mile long threads about much more trivial topics all the time. If a particular oil causes as much valve train noise as people claim compared to other oils in some applications, BITOGs want to know about it and hear it for themselves! Posting audio samples would not only prove a point about noise with M1, it would also be interesting and educational to BITOG readers.

As I said in the first post of this thread, if you're not going to TRY a recording, DON'T POST to keep this on-topic. Not surprisingly, lots of talk and no action from the M1 noise crowd.

 

[Greaser]

I was going to say the same thing AstroVic...why would alot of people say such a thing about a certain type of oil unless some of it was true

...960,000 Toyotas on recall for defective steering componant...this is true with no sound recording...sorry

 

[bighead]

quote:

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Originally posted by moving2:
...nope, no stock.

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Are you willing to prove that? I think for the benefit of the forum, we need proof...

 

[Zaedock]

quote:

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Originally posted by bighead:

quote:

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Originally posted by moving2:
...nope, no stock.

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Are you willing to prove that? I think for the benefit of the forum, we need proof...

---

 

[moving2]

bighead and greaser- start your own threads about steering failures and stock. Your sad excuses only play into the "it's all in your head" idea a lot of BITOG'ers have about the whole M1 Noise issue.

As I said, if you don't want to do a recording for whatever reason, no need to post to this thread- otherwise this thread will just end up being a list of EXCUSES by M1 noise critics instead of actual recordings. Just imagine all the M1 no-noise folks who come to read this thread and all they find is EXCUSES for why various M1-noise folks won't do recordings in a thread SPECIFICALLY asking for recordings only and no excuses. Makes things look pretty bad for you M1-noise folks whether or not you care.

Less talk, more action, guys. Seems to be a tough concept for most in this thread.

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

I've never heard noisy valves from M1 in my dinky little Hyundais, but did with conventional oils (too thick ones, 20W50s, 10W40's with the Frams. M1 over came the crappy-Frams, but I thought it was the oil, didn't know the Frams aren't so good. I'm still on M1 to this day, but fixing to move on to Havoline 5W20 (M1@ 6.38/qt. has become too expensive here).

But if folks with certain cars have weird noises from a particular oil, or grade, or with a certain filter, I can't imagine having to post "certain" results via audiotape for anyone to believe it, and I've been as staunch a supporter of M1 as anyone, and poked as much fun at the concept. But "proof"? It's all seat of the pants anyway, unless of course someone is gonna produce a UOA showing that noisy M1 grinding the cams to dust. Meanwhile they're peaceful anecdotes.

Moving, who and why are you tryin to bludgeon with all this anger you carry? Ain't that kinda place, I thought?

[ May 31, 2006, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: toocrazy2yoo ]

 

[AstroVic]

My point is that it really doesn't matter if they used an "objective test" such as an audio recording to confirm their suspicions that Mobil 1 was making their engines noisier.

If they THINK it's making it noisier, then who cares if they opt to switch to a different oil?

Lots of people use significantly greater non-objective means to purchase various brands/viscocities of oil.

I don't need conclusive PROOF that Castrol is better than SuperTech which is maybe just as good as Mobil Clean 7500 which has less moly than Havoline but more zinc than Golden State which is a better bargain than German Castrol...

There is simply no way to prove much of anything, aside from data contained in VOAs (which is still subject to lab error). I agree that people should make informed decisions, but if I pour $7 a quart Mobil EP in my car and my butt-meter tells me the car is slower or noisier, then I probably won't put it in my car the next go-round. (And I might even make a post about it, too.)

 

[moving2]

toocrazy- not trying to bludgeon anyone, Just trying to get some semi-objective data about this and am pretty tired of the excuses people come up with, so I was trying to create a thread JUST for those who were willing to make recordings. I'm not FORCING this upon anyone, but look at how many people are posting excuses for why they won't make recordings in a thread SPECIFICALLY asking for recordings and no excuses. A little frustrating.

As I stated earlier- as for "who cares"- certainly BITOG readers do! We have mile long threads about much more trivial topics all the time. If a particular oil causes as much valve train noise as people claim compared to other oils in some applications, BITOGs want to know about it and hear it for themselves! Posting audio samples would not only prove a point about noise with M1, it would also be interesting and educational to BITOG readers.

Maybe an audio recording won't capture the noise, but maybe it will. Either way, it is certainly worth a try and I know the recordings would be of interest to many BITOG readers considering how much interest this topic has generated in the past.

So- why are you guys posting to this thread without recordings again?

 

[sxg6]

If someone does decide to record an audio clip, and needs a place to host the file, PM me.

 

[AstroVic]

Okay, I'll deal directly with your audio samples request.

The human ear is capable of detecting significantly more audible range than most (if not all) recording devices are capable of producing.

To top it off, the limitations on the recording device are further compounded by the limitations on the digitization of the recording as well as the reproduction of the recording through cheapy little $10 computer speakers.

So it's a useless exercise in futility anyhow.

Just my two cents.