okay to run Mobil High Mileage from the beginning?

[blackman777]

Reading through Mobil1.com it says the high mileage oils are for cars with over 75,000 miles. The oil is slightly thicker, has seal conditioners, and more detergents to clean-out sludge/varnish.

So why wait until 75000? Couldn't customers run this oil from the very first oil change? ALSO: Where's the High Mileage oil for engines requiring 0w-20 or 5w-20 oils?

Thanks

 

[Garak]

That depends upon the oil. Some HM oils have the latest certifications, including SN/GF-5. If that's what the vehicle calls for, there's no reason they couldn't be used from day one, if that's what one chose to do. Others don't have the latest certifications, so that could be an issue.

I have seen MaxLife in 5w-20, myself.

 

[randomhero439]

I wouldnt, it swells seals. Do you need to swell brand new seals?

 

[Torrid]

Originally Posted By: randomhero439
I wouldnt, it swells seals. Do you need to swell brand new seals?


Not only that, but the thicker oil and higher ZDDP really wouldn't matter much in 95% of the cars sold today. I keep having to fight the thicker is better urge. I may try HM in my wife's Jag as it has kept pace of consuming a quart every 3k miles.

I'm honestly thinking of giving M1 5w30 another try in my LS1. I last ran the SM version and consumption is much lower in it than the Jag. It might be worth another try for how readily available it is. I just scored 3 5 quart jugs with 3 M1 filters for $27 each including the filter.

I have Castrol 0w30 and 5w40 stocked up as well. I'm going to give it a try in the Jag and see if it helps and go back to feeding the GTO 5w30. For my purposes I don't think HM is necessary. The Jag has 85k miles and the GTO has 64k miles.

What kind of car are you planning to run HM in?

 

[skyship]

If in doubt, read the instructions and if a new car does not have a list of approved oils then check the oil finder page of the major brand engine oil companies. Most HM oils contain seal conditioners which swell seals, but that can result in increased wear of the seal against its shaft. They have cut the amount of seal swellers in some of the latest spec oils, so that might not be such a problem with some new HM oils.
The only time to use an HM oil is if you have an old engine with a high oil consumption or leaks that are beyond economic repair.

 

[zerosoma]

just do eet. although i dunno if i'd run it in a brand new engine. wait till it gets broken in first - like 30k.

 

[blackman777]

Originally Posted By: skyship
Most HM oils contain seal conditioners which swell seals, but that can result in increased wear of the seal against its shaft.


Sounds like HM should not be run at all then, even in cars >75000.

 

[apwillard1986]

It is quality oil. If it falls within the recommendations for your car (for warranty retention) then use it with confidence. Your seals are not going to swell to the point where they go flying out of the block or grind their way through your crank shaft. The additives that swell seals generally work on aged seals that absorb those additives because they have aged and lost some of the elastomers they were produced with.

The seal conditioning additive is generally ester oil. Some new car manufactures use oils that are high in esters and they aren’t dropping seals.

 

[BillyTheKid]

It won't hurt a thing! You are fine to do it. Although like some worry about for warranty reasons, make sure it is an approved type and weight.

 

[Kuato]

IMO, why? Agree it's a good oil, but...

You swell the seals first thing, then if the customer ever switches to another oil you run the risk developing leaks.

 

[Boss302fan]

I have used it in low mileage cars(8K miles) and it has worked well. Use it with confidence...

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: apwillard1986

The seal conditioning additive is generally ester oil. Some new car manufactures use oils that are high in esters and they aren’t dropping seals.

I wouldn't use any HM oil unless the engine was leaking and too expensive to repair the leak.
Messing around with seal swellers is bad business IMO. Some seals work well with esters some turn to jello and others just leak even more.

The problem is inside the engine there may be many different types of materials in use for different seals.
Unless you know for a fact that every seal is compatible with the sweller component i wouldn't let it near my engine.
A swollen seal may seal short term but may return and leak even worse later.

This is the reason synthetics oil got a bad rap for causing leaks years ago.
They were true synthetics not this HC GrpIII dino stuff posing as synthetic and were PAO or ester based or a blend of both.
Many seals of this era were Nitrile based and not compatible. Most seals in modern engines have no problems but some Nitrile seals are still found.

When i did the cam seals on a Subaru i looked at Fel-Pro seals and found out they are Nitrile. OEM was a different material.
If i had used the Fel-Pro ones and a true synthetic oil chances are it would leak in a short time.

From SKF.

http://www.skf.com/binary/12-64763/TT08_036.pdf

http://www.vurup.sk/sites/vurup.sk/archi...09_sagi_017.pdf

This is just info i picked up over the years, i am no seal engineer but the info appears accurate. Take it for what its worth.
The fact someone else used it in one engine and had no issues is IMO meaningless unless their engine has the same seals are yours.

 

[blackman777]

Originally Posted By: Garak
I have seen MaxLife in 5w-20, myself.


Not a synthetic. I guess nobody makes a synthetic "high mile" xW-20. Kinda surprising.

 

[buster]

Yes.

 

[donnyj08]

Im sure it wouldnt hurt a thing, i However haven't jumped on the HM bandwagon. I dont even use it in my f150 with 268k on it. a well maintained engine with todays oils shouldn't really need a HM oil ever in my opinion.

 

[Danh]

Should be just fine. Valvoline at least says its HM oils can be used in new cars and the latest version of MaxLife meets most modern manufacturer specs including SN, Resource Conserving, and Dexos1 (5w/30).

SN and Dexos1 have requirements for seal conditioners and if MaxLife meets them whatever "swellers" (if any) that are included must not be so high as to do harm. Plus all manufacturers of HM oils say it's fine to switch back and forth, which would likely not be the case if withdrawing conditioners/swellers were harmful: they have non-HM oils in their portfolio to sell, too.

If your car is under warranty though, be sure the oil meets the required manufacturer specs. Some HM oils are not resource conserving, some are only rated API SL, most don't meet Dexos1, etc.

 

[Hermann]

IMO the popular Hi Mileage oils are using seal conditioners NOT swellers. I agree that if they have the appropriate certifications they can be used from day one. IIRC SN oils have more seal conditioners anyway.

 

[LeakySeals]

I've been using M1 HM for 110k. Will share what I've found over the miles. Using almost every kind of oil and oil additive, no oil cleans better than M1 HM. As far as seal swellers, yes I think it has them based on results. In addition to my results, XOM uses the word sweller in the M1 HM faq. IMO any HM oil that claims to help with or stop leaks likely does. Conditioner is a safe word to use. But all motor oils have some level of conditioner, so there's clearly a difference in a HM oil "conditioner". If I go off HM oil the oil pan and valve cover gaskets start to leak again within 3-5k. What about the valve seals? I have bad valve seals, no real change. Researching seals and gaskets, different materials are used for the valve seals vs a standard gasket. Overall, there really isn't that much rubber in an engine coming in contact with the oil. Valve seals, regular gaskets. The regular gaskets respond to HM oil, the valve seals not so much. Modern seals are very resistant/tolerant to additives so results will vary.

The claims that HM oil will swell the seal against the valve stem and wear them out prematurely falls under false IMO. Because of the type of rubber used today and my own experience after tens of thousands of miles.

Would I use a HM oil in a brand new car? Nope. I would use regular oil until there's a mechanical problem like a leak or oil consumption. Depending on what the problem is, fix it or start using HM oil if the cost is not worth it (expensive, high miles, old car, rust, etc).

Does a high Mileage Oil cause leaks? Nope. Hides them, delaying repair. In my case so long its not worth repairing anymore.

Will a leak return if I go off High Mileage oil? Yep. Once a seal has shrunk, an oil additive cannot return the chemical balance it once had. There are no "rubber" additives floating around in oil crawling back into the gasket.

 

[Hotel55]

I use M1 HM in my cars. I called and talked with Mobil before I started using it, because I was undecided between it and the Extended Performance oil. The Mobil representative said the HM is for just that, HM, and the extended performance is the better choice for new cars.

 

[buster]

Quote:
personally use High Mileage Oils after I reach about 50k miles
in all my vehicles.
They contain a great additive package, and it's
softening/swelling (sealing conditioners) properties on gaskets have no ill effects.




Quote:
am not privy to the formula of SOPUS products, but I know for
a fact the XOM synthetic oils do NOT have the same amounts
of "seal conditioners" as our High Milage product line,
unless it is HM synthetic.

Most Synthetic oils cause shrinkage, so "seal conditioners"
were added to negate the effect. (That's why early users of
synthetic oils" rightly complained about synthetics causing
leakage)

All modern synthetics now have some sort of "seal conditioners'
in them. The HM synthetics of course contain more.




Quote:
In our lab testing... we have found no detrimental effects of using HM oils in newer vehicles or recent rebuilds with new gaskets.

But we did find issues with using those "shock" treatment oil additives that had too much swelling agents. But that was over 3 years ago in our testing. Most HM oils we did test, had just enough.

So in summary, if you have bad leaks (gasket caused-not worn piston rings etc.), using "shock" gasket swelling agents might help, and could not hurt if the gasket caused leak are large/numerous. High mileage oils have a smaller amount of these agents.