What oil myths did you believe in the past?

[camrydriver111]

I'm sure we've all been there. When you first started messing around with oil, before you got your oil education, what kind of oil myths did you believe?

Here are some of mine:

I thought synthetic oil filters were a special type of filter made only for synthetic oil.

I was a firm believer in running different grades in winter and summer.

I thought HM oil was bad and it would turn my engine seals into jello and cause them to leak.

 

[Run]

Pennzoil = wax
Nowadays I use Pennzoil 90% of the time.

 

[Nyogtha]

Growing up in South Texas, my dad's opinion was multigrade oils were a gimmick. I started helping him work on the family vehicles around 1974 and always used straight grade oils myself. He passed away in 1986 and I used up the last of his SAE 30 HD stash in 1992.

I didn't start using any multigrade oils until the early 1990's. I started with 20W-50 in my muscle cars, then 10W-30 in my first (and only ever) new truck purchase in 1993. Moving to the Great Lakes in 2000 I started using 5W-30 (per the owner's manual) half the year.

 

[Carbon12]

Fifteen years ago I believed 5w-30 was thin junk not worthy of use, LOL. In all my grand wisdom I ran 10w-30 in winter and 10w-40 in summer. Now I run 5w-30 year round

 

[Tzu]

Mine was that synthetic oil was the nectar from the petroleum likes of Einstein. I wanted to think everything was quieter, smoother, gave me 4mpg better all the time and never got dirty looking.

I am sure it is great stuff and I'm sure people use it to its advantages, but after running it for over 100,000 miles in my truck with my driving habits and going back to conventional, I can not discern any differences as my truck seems to run exactly the same on either. MPG with synthetic yielded no gains. Piston slap is still there no matter what is in the sump, so what more can I do? My 3800 Impala is very quiet on clean/dirty/conventional/synthetic oil when either hot or cold outside. The truck was my experiment.

I don't do extended OCIs and follow the OLM in 2 of my vehicles. PYB the entire time in the Camry and all is well on 5,000 OCIs.

Conventional oil....I'm back, and saving some $$ too.

 

[loub]

I believed "slick 50" would make my engine run forever!

 

[donnyj08]

Originally Posted By: Run
Pennzoil = wax
Nowadays I use Pennzoil 90% of the time.



Well 30+ years ago that wasn't a myth, Pennzoil and QS both sludged up many engines back in the day.

Today's Sopus products are nothing like that, thankfully.

 

[Bud_One]

That I had to sub 1qt of MMO for 1qt of oil at every oil change if I wanted my engine to be clean inside.

 

[jimbrewer]

I believed that oil lubricated best when it was new and then gradually deteriorated in a more or less linear way until it was changed. Hence, the sooner you changed your oil, the better off you were. If you changed your oil in a completely OCD type way, there would at least be a theoretical advantage to that.

Now I know that generally, a modern oil given normal conditions, lubricates better and better until it fails rather abruptly. No advantage to being OCD, other than it's better than being lax.

 

[Torrid]

The 3k oil change. I did 3k intervals of Mobil 1 on a 95 Civic. The wasted oil!

 

[Chris142]

5w30 was too thin. 10w40 was ok but 20w50 was better. 20w50 flew off the shelves when i worked at kragen back in the 90's.

 

[Shannow]

25W60 and 25W70 were grades that were sold in Oz because they were needed.

1 armed bandit at the fair is showing better performance.

5W50 is "better" than 20W50 because of the greater spread.

0W40 provides better protection at start-up than 15W40 at temperatures found in Oz.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: Tzu
Mine was that synthetic oil was the nectar from the petroleum likes of Einstein. I wanted to think everything was quieter, smoother, gave me 4mpg better all the time and never got dirty looking.


^^Yep,same here. I believed it was some super serum made in a lab out of some super secret recipe haha. Shattered my dreams when I found out it's plain ole crude just like conventional oils,but with a prettier fancier label

 

[KzMitch]

That Shell (Rotella) would send a check after I correctly submitted the rebate form.

 

[userfriendly]

That the push for thinner XW20 engine oils was a conspiracy by auto makers and oil companies to make vehicles wear out sooner while using more oil in the process.

Wait a minute.....I still believe that.

 

[LubeLuke]

Originally Posted By: used_0il
That the push for thinner XW20 engine oils was a conspiracy by auto makers and oil companies to make vehicles wear out sooner while using more oil in the process.

Wait a minute.....I still believe that.


How about when it is chosen by race teams or engine builders and tuners? Still a conspiracy to make their engines wear out faster? Or could it be that there are many advantages to using a thinner oil in many circumstances.

The myth i believed for about a week was that oil lubricates better and better the older it gets until it fails abruptly....

 

[userfriendly]

No, I believe that in every case racing or not, the engine oil has to be thicker than necessary to prevent it from being too thin once.

 

[BikeWhisperer]

I was told by more than one mechanic that Pennzoil caused engines to sludge up. In fact one even pointed it out to me on a valve cover gasket replacement that the customer swore by Pennzoil.

Obviously times have changed...

 

[LubeLuke]

It's never too thin (even once) if it meets the requirements of the vehicle.

 

[userfriendly]

I'll drink to that Wolfie.