OIl change guy says mobil 1 HM is the same as reg

[urdrwho]

Last week I started a discussion about oil weeping from one of my cars and there was some good support for Mobil 1 high mileage oil. Lurked around the web a bit and yes indeed the Mobil 1 HM oil indicates that it may help those with oil drips.

So I cruise into a place today for an oil change (it's to cold for me to do it outside). The guy says he uses Mobil 1 and I ask if he has Mobil 1 HM. He says, "there isn't any difference between the HM and regular Mobil 1"). I said that maybe it has something blended in it that helps with the seals. His response was "you don't want to have anything that helps with the seals"). Ok what ever, I see he and I differ on car stuff --- nothing new, I often differ with garages. It comes with the turf. I've change my own engines, heads, and everything in between so I know a bit about cars, some garages don't like it. If ya know what I mean.

Maybe he doesn't carry the HM Mobil 1 -- therefore the speech about there is no difference.

 

[Indydriver]

I hope you took your car to another shop.

 

[Donald]

Every oil company seems to have a high mileage oil. But its whatever they want it to be. There are no oil police forcing a company to meet certain criteria to be a HM oil. (Not yet at least).

Most HM oils have additives to swell seals to reduce oil leaks. Many also are at the thicker end of the viscosity scale for a given grade.

OK, guys who change oil do not need a MBA to do it. So they are saying it based upon opinion not science.

If a vehicle only had high miles but no burning oil and no oil leaks I would not use a HM oil.

If the guy was not aware that you had an oil leak, then his comment was not too far off with respect to using a product that will swell seals. But I do believe that the normal and HM oils are slightly different.

Once one oil company came out with a HM oil, the rest had to follow for marketing reasons.

 

[bullwinkle]

I would take 99% of what came out of the mouth of ANY quickie lube tech with an extra large, biblical-sized, grain of SALT!

 

[dkryan]

Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
I would take 99% of what came out of the mouth of ANY quickie lube tech with an extra large, biblical-sized, grain of SALT!


+1

Unless he learned it from me, of course!

 

[HerrStig]

What high school DIDN'T he graduate from. I once had an oil droid tell me I "didn't have a differential".

 

[RF Overlord]

I once had to argue with a Jiffy Lube "tech" (for my company-owned van, not my personal car) to put on a PF52-sized filter in place of the PF-47. He said "alright, if you want to blow your engine" and yelled to the "tech" under the vehicle to "cram the big one on it". I guess I was really lucky since that was almost 80,000 miles ago and the engine hasn't blown yet...

 

[LeakySeals]

Yeah, they may change oil, but know nothing about oil. Or as you say, they don't carry the M1 HM and are pushing a sale. find a shop that will use the oil you buy at walmart. walmart will change it for you there. some have service bays to do that.

 

[mechtech2]

HM oils have more than seal conditioners/swellers - they are at the thick range of their viscosity, and have extra additives.

 

[oggb]

Nope.

 

[crazyoildude]

they are different oils the hm is usually blended slightly thicker on the viscosity scale and have seal conditioners that really work... That guy does not know call mobil tech line and ask them for a real answer.

 

[antiqueshell]

Originally Posted By: RF Overlord
I once had to argue with a Jiffy Lube "tech" (for my company-owned van, not my personal car) to put on a PF52-sized filter in place of the PF-47. He said "alright, if you want to blow your engine" and yelled to the "tech" under the vehicle to "cram the big one on it". I guess I was really lucky since that was almost 80,000 miles ago and the engine hasn't blown yet...

Yeah, but in this case the oil tech was (as they should) following the recommendations of the manufacturer, you can't expect that guy to be fussing with these silly details) the fact is that manufacturer recommendations are best most of the time for most people. The engineers know more than we do for the most part.

As for the OP post, my guess is that place didn't have Mobil 1 HM so he was trying to sell him what he had.

Of course that guy is wrong and the HM does have some conditioners that swell the seals.

 

[skyship]

Originally Posted By: urdrwho
Last week I started a discussion about oil weeping from one of my cars and there was some good support for Mobil 1 high mileage oil. Lurked around the web a bit and yes indeed the Mobil 1 HM oil indicates that it may help those with oil drips.

So I cruise into a place today for an oil change (it's to cold for me to do it outside). The guy says he uses Mobil 1 and I ask if he has Mobil 1 HM. He says, "there isn't any difference between the HM and regular Mobil 1"). I said that maybe it has something blended in it that helps with the seals. His response was "you don't want to have anything that helps with the seals"). Ok what ever, I see he and I differ on car stuff --- nothing new, I often differ with garages. It comes with the turf. I've change my own engines, heads, and everything in between so I know a bit about cars, some garages don't like it. If ya know what I mean.

Maybe he doesn't carry the HM Mobil 1 -- therefore the speech about there is no difference.


Did you ask him for VOA?? I bet he would have replied, "Err VO what!".
HM oils do tend to be on the higher side in viscosity terms on average, but their additives packages are very different, with more Ca base detergent to fight sludge, some have more Zinc based anti friction compounds and all of them have stop leak type compounds and seal swellers.
In general terms I would not use an HM oil for an old engine until it is in the terminal phase, with high oil consumption and leaks.
Before using an HM oil or throwing a can of stop leak in (Don't use stop leak until the engine is beyond economic leak repair and changing to a more viscous oil has not reduced the leak rate enough), make sure you have positively identified the source as cam seals or some other expensive to replace seal.
If the source of a leak is the main turbo seals, then do some homework if you have a diesel as oil leaks often preceed a turbo failure and the slight risk of a dramatic turbo diesel runaway. Jam the gear shift into D or 4th to stall the engine, as turning off the keys won't work for an engine running on hot oil leaking into the intake manifold.

 

[urdrwho]

I wanted to do it myself but just to cold today. I have the Mobil 1 HM stuff I bought last week at Walmart. We talked about it.

Now I'll use it in one of our other high mileage cars that have some oil weeping.


It wasn't a just-change-oil place but a garage that does other things. That doesn't mean anyone in the entire shop knows about oils.

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
Yeah, they may change oil, but know nothing about oil. Or as you say, they don't carry the M1 HM and are pushing a sale. find a shop that will use the oil you buy at walmart. walmart will change it for you there. some have service bays to do that.

 

[Artem]

Is there a VOA of M1 HM vs regular M1 to compare the additives?

Sure some additives might not show up on the analysis but i'm interested in seeing it.

 

[Indydriver]

HM has more Phos and Zinc than EP, AFE or standard M1.