Mobil 1 Trisynthetic 10w30, 5000 miles, 94 Probe GT

[Patman]

This is my mother's car, and this sample was analyzed by Wearcheck Mississauga. And talk about fast service! I changed the oil Sunday, sent the sample via Purolator on Monday morning at 10am, and Tuesday at 3pm I get an email telling me the results are in, and I get them via their website. Very cool. I'm still using Terry Dyson's services for interpretation.

So here is the data:

94 Probe GT
2.5L V6 auto
5000 miles on oil/132,300 on engine
SJ TriSynthetic 10w30 Mobil 1
Ford oil filter
Ford air filter
1L top up of SL formula TriSynthetic
city driving short trips
Oil run from Feb 5 to Dec 22
now running SuperSyn 10w30/PureONE

code:

---

Iron 26

Lead 1.9

Aluminum 13

Silicon 18

Nickel 0

Chromium 2.8

Titanium 0.2

Copper 5.4

Tin 0.2

Silver 0.4

Vanadium 0.2

Potassium 0

Sodium 7.8

Boron 73

Barium 0.1

Manganese 177

Calcium 1491

Magnesium 1469

Moly 18

Phosphorus 838

Zinc 997

Sulfur 2630

Fuel 0%

Glycol 0%

Water 0%

Sulfation 36%

Oxidation 42%

Nitration 46%

VI 150

Vis @ 40c 65.7

Vis @ 100c 10.6

TBN 4.89

---

They also gave me the following info:

White metal-none
Babbit-none
Precipitate-none
Silt-none
Debris-none
Dirt-none

I'm a little bit less impressed with Mobil 1 in this car compared to the 5k sample I posted last week on my wife's car. In my mom's car here the oxidation is pretty high and the TBN dropped quite a bit more. Iron seems very high too, but strangely enough lead is extremely low. The silicon isn't to my liking, but she also had some valve cover gaskets replaced last year just before the last oil change. I have a feeling her engine is not all that clean internally, which is strange since it's used nothing but Mobil 1 it's entire life. The 1L of top up oil was the SL formula TriSynth, and it appears to have moly based on this sample. I don't think the engine actually used an entire liter of oil during this run though, I suspect that when the oil was changed in Feb (I didn't do that change, she had some other work done on her car and the mechanics did the change with the oil we provided) that it wasn't filled up to the right level. Her manual says 4.0L but when I changed the oil on Sunday I needed to add 4.7L in order for it to show full on the stick.

note:this lab's TBN is lower (4729 scale).

[ April 01, 2003, 06:09 AM: Message edited by: Patman ]

 

[mdv]

What about water and glycol? Are those levels something to be concerned about? Still learning to read these so that's more of a question than a statement.

 

[Patman]

There does seem to be a very tiny amount of water and glycol in there, however it's not high enough that the lab flagged it as abnormal. At the end of the report they said the oil is suitable for continued use, although I'm certainly glad it's not in there anymore. The TBN has dropped in half, oxidation is close to my 50% comfort zone, and nitration is too. It'll be interesting to see how SuperSyn compares, although my mom drives even less mileage now than she did for the first half of 2002, so it might take more than a year for her to reach 5k. Her short trips could be the reason for the poorer condition of her oil than we normally see for Mobil 1.

 

[darrenc]

Boy, that's a lot of Si for only 5k miles. Gasket sealer? TBN and Nitration sure got beat up. Is that the Mazda motor or the Ford Duratec motor?

 

[Al]

I'd say nothing to write home about-except for the lead. Its still an OK report. The SuperSyn will do better. I'm thinking the silicon hurt. Moly is probably makeup from the SL TriSyn. Like you said the TBN is down.

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by darrenc:
Boy, that's a lot of Si for only 5k miles. Gasket sealer? TBN and Nitration sure got beat up. Is that the Mazda motor or the Ford Duratec motor?

---

It's a Mazda engine. And yes, I'm pretty sure the Si is from that valve cover gasket repair job.

It's going to be such a very long wait until my mom hits 5k on the SuperSyn, but I'm dying to see how the results are going to be!

 

[Patman]

By the way, I just re-read my report and amended a few things. The glycol and water numbers are actually less than 0.02% and less than 0.1%. I had reported that they were at exactly those numbers.

 

[buster]

One thing that interests me is how do you determine what is a good number for each element? In other words, would Mobil or Amsoil simply say that the oil is fine when the TBN is at 4.89, but in reality it is not? Going by some of these posts of data, it doesn't look like synthetics hold up as well as one would think. Not in all cases I'm sure, but a few of these seem to deteriorate at 5-7k miles.

[ December 26, 2002, 07:46 PM: Message edited by: buster ]

 

[Patman]

Buster, if you look at this same oil in my wife's Honda at 5000 miles though, it looks much better, with only 17% oxidation, a TBN of 9 and much lower wear metals. See here:Honda report

I simply think the high mileage of this particular engine beats up the oil a lot more. Once I run some cleaner through it (probably Neutra at the end of the next interval) it'll show better results the next time around.

It's not as if the oil in this car was totally finished though, the lab said it was still suitable for continued use, so they didn't think it was a problem. My own comfort zone says that at 50% oxidation, or at a TBN of half the original, it's time to go. This oil (TriSynthetic) starts at around 10 on the TBN. I believe SuperSyn is around 11-12. Others may have other factors they look at to determine when they feel the oil is no longer good for them. I'd also be worried if any one of the wear metals was far too high, or if silicon got to about 30 or higher.

[ December 26, 2002, 08:20 PM: Message edited by: Patman ]

 

[buster]

Thanks Patman, that is what I was looking for. Neutra should help too.

Have you ever thought of running Delvac 1? I'm considering it, although it is a 40wt. but Tooslick raves about it and it's cleaning abilities are better then M1. I do all highway miles so I might try it down the road.

 

[Johnny]

Patman: Well my friend, I will tell you why I think the TBN dropped so low. As you said in your report, your Mom does short trip, stop and go driving. It took her 10 months to go 5,000 miles. I would bet the engine never really got warmed up like it should, lots of condensation and acids forming. If she drove like your wife, the report would have look a lot different. IMHO.

 

[Johnny]

Let me add one more thing. You know how the owners manuals say change the oil every 3,000 miles or 3 months for severe service, well lets carry this out.

5,000 miles or 5 months
6,000 miles or 6 months
8,000 miles or 8 months
10,000 miles or 10 months
So on and so on.

This is a pretty safe guideline to follow no matter what brand or type of oil you are using.

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Johnny:
Patman: Well my friend, I will tell you why I think the TBN dropped so low. As you said in your report, your Mom does short trip, stop and go driving. It took her 10 months to go 5,000 miles. I would bet the engine never really got warmed up like it should, lots of condensation and acids forming. If she drove like your wife, the report would have look a lot different. IMHO.

---

I figured my mom was safe since her Probe GT warms up the oil so fast though. In the past when I lived at home I would drive her car 2-3 miles before changing her oil and her oil was hot as heck! Within a minute of driving her car on the coldest day, heat comes out of her heater, so that small cooling system helps to warm things up very fast, just like my wife's Civic. I figured her report would look similar to my wife's since they both drive about the same amount. But I guess my wife's more agressive nature actually helps her oil. Of course it's also unfair to compare a low mileage car to a high mileage car too. I wish I had oil analysis results on my mom's car from a few years ago, when she was working in sales and doing 500 miles a week, all highway.

 

[dickwells]

I would like to say that the one negative I have noticed from using Mobil 1 over the years is that it takes longer to warm up. In a car that was driven on short trips of some certain duration in the winter this might be a negative. RW

 

[dragboat]

I guess some of the Fe could be permiation if it sat idle for periods of a week here and there,also dropping back into the oil pan off the cylinder walls if it sat for awhile ,,overall not a bad report I would say given the lenght of time the oil was exposed to air.

Just a guess the M1 SS will do a bit better from looking at the other analysis's. I have not racked up enough miles on our only car using the M1 SS to know if I will continue using it after analysis yet,time will tell It is handling winter very well,it's summer that I will be watching,,the little oil killing machine has received some minor mods that should reduce oil temp.

[ December 29, 2002, 09:33 AM: Message edited by: dragboat ]

 

[buster]

quote:

---

I would like to say that the one negative I have noticed from using Mobil 1 over the years is that it takes longer to warm up. In a car that was driven on short trips of some certain duration in the winter this might be a negative

---

Could this be why I was getting a valve tap/piston slap noise in cold weather using M1?

[ December 29, 2002, 10:34 AM: Message edited by: buster ]

 

[Patman]

Dragboat, the car doesn't sit for very long, my mom drives it almost every single day, even though she is retired. It certainly never goes more than two days without being run that's for sure. It will be interesting to see if SuperSyn alone provides better results, although no matter what happens, it's getting a Neutra purge at the end of this interval. I'm sure the engine could use some internal cleaning.

 

[Patman]

Update, I asked them if they could give me the viscosity at 40c here, and for all my future samples, so I updated the first post with the results.

 

[Patman]

By the way, it's interesting to note that the starting viscosity at 40c for this version of Mobil 1 10w30 is listed as 59.0, but my mom's sample has thickened up to 65.7. Therefore it's cold weather capabilities are quite a bit less. Good thing I changed this oil before it got too cold (although she does keep the car in a warm garage overnight) It'll be interesting to see future oil analysis reports now that this new lab has the viscosity at 40c as well as 100c.

 

[buster]

Patman, just curious but how cold does it get where you are? I believe central Canada is the coldest....I'd run nothing but a 0w oil up there.