Quaker State HM -- angry

[vvk]

Given: 1996 Chevy Cavalier, 130k miles. Used 1-2 qts of Mobil Drive Clean 5W-30 in 3k-4k mile drain intervals. Last oil change: decided to try Quaker State High Mileage 5W-30. Read the specs and was impressed by thicker visc. Result: two-fold increase in consumption. Added a quart in less than 1000 miles Also increased lifter noise

 

[Spector]

That's interesting! The normal suggestion for oil burners is to increase the weight as well as try different brands. Perhaps a 10W40 or 15W40 in your case would reduce consumption.

 

[V6 Diesel]

I have noticed that some engines which have always used one brand of oil that consumption would temporarily increase when switching oils. I just switched brands on a car with 225k miles but ran auto-rx first and had no increase in oil consumption after switching. Used very little oil before and was glad to see no increase after changing brands. [ April 25, 2003, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: V6 Diesel ]

 

[csandste]

I just sold a 97 Cavalier with about 90K on the clock. Last summer I thought I'd try 10W30 after using 5W30 SuperTech for most of it's life. This was because it was using a 1.5 quarts every 4000 miles and it looked like consumption was going up slightly. Although one change didn't give me any definite trends, I thought that consumption was a bit higher with the 10W30. This was the 2.2 liter base engine.

 

[Bror Jace]

I used one of Quaker State’s synthetic blends (remember when the BLENDS were all the rage nearly 10 years ago?) in my father’s ’94 Mercury Grand Marquis after having run it on Mobil Drive Clean dino for years. It was a 5-qt jug which found on sale for about $7. After the oil change the engine lost a quart of oil in the first week to 10 days. I got really nervous for a while. I kept adding and adding and adding oil to this thing and the oil level was always down … then suddenly it stopped dropping. I was topping it off with some other oil and after it had consumed an additional quart, the level finally stabilized. I don’t remember the weights involved … but they shouldn’t have made a difference. The QS was at least a 10W30 or so. Could it be some weird sort of additive clash? Perhaps the rings get stuck for a while … and then after the oil has circulated throughout the motor, they free-up again? I find this far-fetched sounding … but there has to be some explanation. Can anyone else come up with a better one? As for the engine noise, have we seen a VOA of this stuff? Does it have moly? I think the best two features of these oils is the moly (sometimes a slightly heavier dose than the brand typically uses) and the ester which conditions the seals and improves the flow of the oil. The slightly higher-viscosity is another nice feature … but not as important as the other two, in my opinion. Without both moly (80ppm or more) and an ester (10-15%), I think these oils are pretty much pointless, empty hype … especially with nearly every brand using at least a little moly these days. For this reason, I can only be sure of the Pennzoil High Mileage formula. I wouldn’t bother with the others until I know more about them. --- Bror Jace