My final UOA with Red Line before switching to Motul...

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Hello. My first New Topic post here. Had a fellow Audi owner post a UOA before on my behalf, and have read some posts on here before, but never joined. I get referred here a lot from another Audi forum member "Audi Junkie", who I also call "Oil Junkie". So on to this post;

I had a UOA done on my final run of Red Line oil before switching to Motul. This was their 5W-40. Short mileage, but I wanted to keep check on the engine condition, as well as the oil (since I used 5W-30 the previous time with a little over 8K miles). I used Red Line for about 8 years on my VW 1.8/t's and now in my '03 Audi A4 1.8t (just from 10K to 22K approx). It was factory Castrol up to 10K. I switched to Motul because I was looking for a 100% synth that wasn't your typical "OTC" major brand oil (Mobil, Castrol, Valvoline,..), carried manufacturer approvals, was European possibly, and had a full line of what I thought were "high-end" versions of OEM oils/fluids. FUCHS was another one I came across in my research, as well as Pentosin, Lubro-Moly, Royal Purple, and yes, AMSOIL was one of them as well. Motul seemed to be the most interesting of the bunch though (interesting history as well), so I decided to go with them. They weren't really too well known here in the US it seemed (especially on the Audi forums), but I made my choice. I eventually discovered some local dealers and had my Motul collection (also using their Gear300, DOT5.1 Brake Fluid and even their Inugel coolant). Might be expensive when compared to the others, but I'm happy with the companies product line. I was really intrigued with the use of ester synths as well (plant based oils) compared to the PAO and hydro cracked types. I don't profess to be a tribologist or oil aficionado, but I do care enough to use a high-quality synth in my cars and I am willing to spend some $$$ for it if I feel it's worth it.

A quick history: I've been doing extended drains (8-12K miles) for the 8 years that I had used Red Line oils. My '85 Gti 1.8l had almost 300K miles on it (about half of that with Red Line) before I sold it and it was never rebuilt. Surprising, because of how I drove it; like a race car 98% of the time (burns outs, high revs/speeds constantly and mostly in SoCal temps). Anyways, it seemed once I began using Red line oil, as well as a Mecca performance filter (which I still use to this day on my 1.8ts), the engine came back to life and the time/mileage spent afterwards worked pretty well.
My next car was a '00 VW 1.8t Beetle, which from about 1K miles to about 64K miles was running on Red Line (5W-30/40, 10W-30/40) with extended drains and the Mecca filter again. I didn't drive it has hard as my Gti, but I still pushed it. Still running strong with 66K miles. Too bad I wasn't doing UOA's all this time. I recently switched the oil in that car as well to Motul. I used the 8100 Ester E-Tech 0W-40 in that one and the 300V 5W-40 in my A4. I used the 300V in my A4 mainly to see how it would hold up for street use. I talked with MotulUSA and a person there felt it was fine (he was using the Etser E-Tech like me, but was going to try the 300V). My A4 has an MTM Stage 2 upgrade (215hp/245tq) and I plan on a Stage 4 which will put it up 300+ hp, so I wanted to try the 300V to see how it held up. It has about 5K miles now and I'll be taking a sample soon to send that in and get a UOA done.

Car Info: '03 Audi A4 1.8t QMT5. Always use 91 octane fuel in SoCal. Also use Red Line Fuel System Cleaner once in a while. Has 4" Mecca Performance filter.

I think the increased Silicon reading was due to a air filter change at 20K mile service. Plus the fact that before that, I removed/replaced the intake a number of times when working on the headlights, or removing it to clean the "pre-filter".

Anyways, here's the recent UOA from Blackstone Labs

duplicate_9357_A4 UOA 22035 miles.JPG



And here was my previous UOA (it was posted a while back by QuattroPete).

duplicate_4186_A4 UOA 18094 miles.JPG



And here's a picture of the Motul family;

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banghead.gif
Not sure why the UOA images aren't showing up. They're done the same as the other image that's working.

[ June 11, 2004, 04:17 PM: Message edited by: A4NCAR ]
 
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Those Motul bottles are cool looking. In your sample, the oil thickened up a bit. Not sure why. I can tell you that any of the top oils, M1,Amosil, GC etc. all do well in these engines. These VW engines are one of the only engines where Redline actually looks ok. All the other UOAs on RL have be below average at best when taking everything into account.
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Correct me if I'm wrong but wasnt Redline started based on vegetable or plant based oils as well. I swear I read that about them on past literature they issued at one time. I dont think Redline has any PAO in it to this day, it is supposed to be totally ester based plus additives. I wouldnt expect Motul to be hugely better than any of the top brands such as Redline or Amsoil, Synergyn. It might be better than some of the OTC oils, but I'd love to see more UOA's on it.
 
quote:

Originally posted by buster:
welcome.gif



Those Motul bottles are cool looking. In your sample, the oil thickened up a bit. Not sure why. I can tell you that any of the top oils, M1,Amosil, GC etc. all do well in these engines. These VW engines are one of the only engines where Redline actually looks ok. All the other UOAs on RL have be below average at best when taking everything into account.
smile.gif


Thanks for the welcome.

The Motul packaging sold me
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I wish I had been doing UOA's years ago when I began using Red Line. Oh well, I'll be doing them from now on and seing how Motul works out. Pricey, but I like them. There are some long time Porsche racers/techs who swear by it and will only use that. Also a local Pantera Racing/Club shop.
 
I'm a user of Motul products as well. Motul are going away from the metal cans to plastic bottles with the new formula. I have about a dozen of the metal cans as shown. A late change was a platic pull up spout on the metal cans,however from now only plastic. I have found whilst the tins look good beware of the sharp edges on the cap and also the cap tends to not always come off a the right spot and due to this will not seal up.

I've used both the 3w-30 and 10w40. 300v. Take note that Motul does not recommend mixing the 5w-40 with the other oils in the 300v series, whilst it is ok to mix any of the others.

I have used the Motul 300, but a preference for the Redline for this application.

Cheers and
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PS: Why not run the 5w-30 instead. I'm using it in 4 cars including a new Nissan 200sx 2l turbo. My son has it in a Nissan 180sx 2l turbo which is fairly modified.

[ June 11, 2004, 07:13 PM: Message edited by: theguru ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by theguru:
I'm a user of Motul products as well. Motul are going away from the metal cans to plastic bottles with the new formula. I have about a dozen of the metal cans as shown. A late change was a platic pull up spout on the metal cans,however from now only plastic. I have found whilst the tins look good beware of the sharp edges on the cap and also the cap tends to not always come off a the right spot and due to this will not seal up.

I've used both the 3w-30 and 10w40. 300v. Take note that Motul does not recommend mixing the 5w-40 with the other oils in the 300v series, whilst it is ok to mix any of the others.

I have used the Motul 300, but a preference for the Redline for this application.

Cheers and
welcome.gif


Hello Guru.

I have read some your posts before and was glad to see that you and a few others used Motul.

I've been keeping up with the latest info from MotulUSA and what my dealers can tell me. The new "Double Ester" 300V in 2 liter plastic jugs is expected next month (they're trying to move out the 2l tins before this). It seems to be available already in Australia, Japan and Europe though. I also noticed that the Australian and Japan sites are much different too, then UK, France,... Anyways, it'll be interesting to see how this 300V 5W-40 works. And don't worry. I'm not one of those oil mixers
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. I use it "as is". I'll see how it's doing at 5K miles and decide from there, whether or not, to take it further. I do want to try the "Double Ester" though.
The 8100 Ester E-Tech 0W-40 has been working very well in my VW 1.8t though. When I switched to Motul, I'd swear the engine felt as though it was running smoother - if just slightly smoother. There's a bunch of new A4 1.8t owners I have gotten interested in Motul of late also, across the US - so more UOA's to check out hopefully.


Cheers
 
I just changed over one car last weekend to the new double ester 300v. Was running the old 300v for last 5000km. First impressions are that the car is more fuel efficient from the car computer but haven't run more that a tank of fuel to check that. Just reset the computer.

The new 300v isnt yet readily availabe and the stores that stock Motul (not many) still have stocks of the old stuff. Apart from the bottle change and the small print on the back of the bottle it is hard to tell it is the new formulation (poor marketing on Motuls part). Everything other than the 300v was in plactic bottles already. I certainly like the look of the cans, but the plastic bottle are really more practicle. And the price has gone as well. 2 litres for $45.99 was $39.99.

And it still has that sweet aroma.
 
quote:

Originally posted by theguru:

And it still has that sweet aroma.


Kind of like Creme Brulé? ...and SLX smells like Gummi Bären and Mobil 1 smells like country fried steak (NASCAR)and Pennzoil smells like Shoo Fly pie and Shell Helix smells like the canals of Amsterdam and ...

[ June 11, 2004, 08:07 PM: Message edited by: pscholte ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by theguru:
The new 300v isnt yet readily availabe and the stores that stock Motul (not many) still have stocks of the old stuff. Apart from the bottle change and the small print on the back of the bottle it is hard to tell it is the new formulation (poor marketing on Motuls part). Everything other than the 300v was in plactic bottles already. I certainly like the look of the cans, but the plastic bottle are really more practicle. And the price has gone as well. 2 litres for $45.99 was $39.99.

Guru, I checked my local Autobarn store on Friday, they still have the old 300V stuff, no double Ester in stock yet. They seem to only carry the 10w40 and 15w50, looks like I'd have to make a customer order for the Power Racing 5w30.

Interestingly, the 300V 15w50 is available in 5 litre jugs.
 
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