What exactly is Amsoil saying?

[hate2work]

OK, below is some copy from the Amsoil website, talking about their flagship product, the 0w30 SSO oil that can go for up to 35,000 miles before it needs to be changed.

But I'm having trouble deciphering the meaning of some of it, so I need help.

Below is the copy from their website.

===============================================================

Service Life
AMSOIL Signature Series 0w30 Synthetic Motor Oil is recommended for extended drain intervals in unmodified(1), mechanically sound(2) gasoline fueled vehicles as follows:

• Normal Service(3) – Up to 35,000 miles or one year, whichever comes first.
• Severe Service(4) – Up to 17,500 miles or one year, whichever comes first.
• Replace AMSOIL Ea oil filter at the time of oil change up to 25,000 miles or one year, whichever comes first (other brands at standard OEM* intervals).
• In all non-gasoline fueled vehicle applications, extend the oil change interval according to oil analysis or follow the OEM* drain interval.

*OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer

(1) Engines operating under modified conditions are excluded from extended drain recommendations. Examples include the use of performance computer chips; non-OEM approved exhaust, fuel or air induction systems; and the use of fuels other than those recommended for normal operation by the manufacturer.

(2) Mechanically sound engines are in good working condition and do not, for example, leak oil or consume excessive amounts, are not worn out, do not overheat, do not leak anti-freeze and have properly working emission control systems. AMSOIL recommends repairing malfunctioning engines prior to the installation of AMSOIL synthetic oils.

(3) Personal vehicles frequently traveling greater than 10 miles (16km) at a time and not operating under severe service.

(4) Turbo or supercharged vehicles, commercial or fleet vehicles, extensive engine idling, first and subsequent use of AMSOIL in vehicles with over 100,000 miles, daily short trip driving less than 10 miles (16km), frequent towing, plowing, hauling or dusty condition driving.

===============================================================

OK, Pablo or Gary, they list 4 things here.

Are they excluding all things listed in all 4 paragraphs? If so, what do they mean in number 3? If I use my vehicle for more than 10 miles at a time, I'm excluded?

Or is number 3 an inclusionary statement? Meaning it would be OK to do this and run 35,000 miles?

Man, that is one confusing set of paragraphs, IMO.

Clarify, please...

 

[jmac]

I'm not Gary or Pablo but those look like notes from what you have there. In other words need to read in context with where the note was referenced. I see the reference for notes (1) and (2) in the first sentence after Service Life, but not the reference for (3) and (4).

 

[Pablo]

Originally Posted By: hate2work

Are they excluding all things listed in all 4 paragraphs? If so, what do they mean in number 3? If I use my vehicle for more than 10 miles at a time, I'm excluded?

Or is number 3 an inclusionary statement? Meaning it would be OK to do this and run 35,000 miles?



They are footnotes applied by number. Number 3 defines in simple terms normal service. If you don't fall into the Severe Service, then yes.

 

[Steve S]

over ten mile trips generally means the oil gets warm/hot enough to vaporize the condensation etc out of the oil. Constant/mostly short trip use would put the engine to severe service.

 

[Johnny]

Some may disagree with this but it is a good rule of thumb to go by.

If you spend 95% of your time traveling the highways i.e., traveling salesman, that's normal service. Everything else is severe.

Most all of us fall under the severe category.

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
Originally Posted By: hate2work

Are they excluding all things listed in all 4 paragraphs? If so, what do they mean in number 3? If I use my vehicle for more than 10 miles at a time, I'm excluded?

Or is number 3 an inclusionary statement? Meaning it would be OK to do this and run 35,000 miles?





They are footnotes applied by number. Number 3 defines in simple terms normal service. If you don't fall into the Severe Service, then yes.


OK, that makes more sense now, thanks

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
Some may disagree with this but it is a good rule of thumb to go by.

If you spend 95% of your time traveling the highways i.e., traveling salesman, that's normal service. Everything else is severe.

Most all of us fall under the severe category.


If this is true, I'd venture that most people are not aware of it.

 

[Johnny]

Most are not, but it's stated in every owners manual.

 

[HTSS_TR]

My rule of thumb is, normal service if 80-90% of the trips is 20 miles or more and 80-90% of it is on highway, everything else is severe. Therefore, most of us fall under severe condition and we should change oil accordingly.

 

[drivewaytech]

Wow, are there that many traveling salesmen to constitute their style of driving as "normal". Seems to me that definitions need to be changed. Perhaps, Normal Service needs to be changed to "You probably don't fall under this category, so ignore it" Service.

 

[Drew2000]

Kinda like the traffic message boards along the Long Island Expy. which used to say "Normal Traffic Conditions Ahead", (which for any regular commuter is stop 'n go, SNAFU during most of the day) when traffic was moving faster than 25mph.

Now they say "Traffic Moving Well"

Drew

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: drivewaytech
Wow, are there that many traveling salesmen to constitute their style of driving as "normal". Seems to me that definitions need to be changed. Perhaps, Normal Service needs to be changed to "You probably don't fall under this category, so ignore it" Service.


Yeah, all this time I thought I was normal...turns out I'm not

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Drew2000
Kinda like the traffic message boards along the Long Island Expy. which used to say "Normal Traffic Conditions Ahead", (which for any regular commuter is stop 'n go, SNAFU during most of the day) when traffic was moving faster than 25mph.

Now they say "Traffic Moving Well"

Drew


Amen! And what's going on with the Southern State Pkwy? I make the trip from Valley Stream to Lindenhurst 2 nights a week, I was able to leave the house at 6:45 no problems. The last 3 weeks, its now taking me close to an hour, stop and go for a 25 minute trip? That takes me out of the normal use category, LOL.........Truth be no one living on L.I. sees normal driving conditions.

Frank D

 

[Gary Allan]

The gap from normal to severe isn't a distinct cut off.

Here's my owners manual's definition of what constitutes severe.



Day or night temps are below freezing

Stop and go driving

Extensive idling

Driving in dusty conditions

Short trip driving of less than 10 miles

More than 50% of your driving is at sustained high speed in ambient temps of 90F or higher

Taxi, police, or delivery service

Trailer towing

E85 usage.


Now none of these are a "sudden death" type thing. That is, towing ONCE doesn't do it ..no idling excessively ONCE doesn't do it either ...nor stop and go ONCE.

The taxi, police, idling, stop and go are all due to the failure of mileage to account for the fuel that's passed through the engine.

Take a look at the broad variance that the GM OLM will produce. So far, I think I've seen one instance where someone has gotten a 3.xk OCI out of it ..with (iirc) 13k being the max.

Try and integrate how that alters the perception of the static 3750/3m and 7.5/6month

Let me state this another way.

Two OLM equipped identical cars.

One does short trips exclusively and only gets 3500 miles out of the oil

The other is a taxi and also gets 3500 miles out of the OLM.

The taxi uses 12000 miles worth of fuel (or more) over the same 3500 miles.

So how truly "severe" is the service and how numb is the static mileage/time way of determining the change out rate??