Interested in Oil Additives or Mixing Oil?

[AndyH]

Source: Lubes-n-Greases, December 2006, "U.S. and Europe: Worlds Apart?"

ILSAC (International Lubricant Standardization and Approval Committee) reps inteviewed for the article:

Hannah Murray (Toyota)
Jim Linden (GM) (ILSAC Chairman)
Chris Engel (DaimlerChrysler)
Mike Riley (Ford)
Tracey King (DaimlerChrysler)
Bob Olree (GM)

Non-ILSAC Rep:
Karl Freund (VW)

LnG: What is your approach to aftermarket lubricant additives, which none of your companies recommend and some condemn?

King: Highly skilled chemists develop engine oil formulations and they are rigorously validated. We strongly recommend against putting anything into these fully engineered products.

Freund: Dealers in Europe don't put aftermarket additives in a vehicle. And when an oil costs $10 or more a quart, it's important to customers that the manufacturer's recommendation is followed. Oils are formulated and branded by oil companies to specifically meet the technical requirements of individual companies, and that information is on the container.

Olree: It's illogical to put anything in a carefully formulated and highly tested engine oil. But it happens. We are also aware that some dealers may use aftermarket lubricant additives. All our member companies ask them not to, but they are independently owned, it's a free country, and people are able to do what they want, even stupid things.

 

[AndyH]

And from the other side of additives...and sales tactics

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=50902

"The marketers of zMax automotive aftermarket lubricant additives have agreed to reimburse customers $1 million to settle a false advertising suit brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The settlement, approved March 21 by a federal judge in Greensboro, N.C., prohibits Speedway Motorsports Inc. and subsidiary Oil-Chem Research Corp. from continuing to make general claims that zMax Power System improves fuel economy, reduces engine wear and corrosion, lowers emissions and extends engine life..."

Ditto Motorup, STP, Prolong, Slick 50, Duralube, Castrol fuel and oil additives, Blue Coral/Slick 50, Dura Lube & Motor Up Settle, Ashland/Valvoline TM8, Shell/Castrol/Blue Coral/Slick 50 fuel additive, ZMax products actually tinted mineral oil

On tests that look good but...:

-- Do you need gear lube that sticks to gears? No. Tackifier additives that make lubes stick to gear-crank machines are the first components to break-down when the lube is actually put to work. At best, it forms deposits in the transmission or differential. At worst, too-stiff lube can starve splash-lubricated bearings of oil - causing early bearing death. More info.

-- The One Armed Bandit is used by a number of oil and oil additive companies as a sales aid. It is a variation of a bench-test used to show extreme pressure additive performance in EP grease and EP gear lubes.

These machines look something like this:

Some of the reasons this is not a repeatable, useful test:

Here's a comment made about the procedure by the chif chemist and tech director of one of the companies that uses the machine to sell engine oil:
"The Timken EP Test ASTM D2783 provides a rapid method for measuring the abrasion resistance and the load-carrying capabilities of industrial gear lubricants. The test method is widely used for specification purposes and to differentiate industrial gear lubricants that have low, medium and high levels of extreme pressure characteristics. Any test results that are obtained by the use of this test method have been found not to correlate with results obtained during field service." (Properties of Enclosed Gear Lubricants, Noria)

Please note that this method does not correlate with results found in actual service - and that's when the device is used for it's intended function - grease and gear lube. It's not an engine oil test device, nor is it an oil additive test device.

AMSOIL's view of oil additives:

1989

And of non-standard 'testing': 1993

 

[Dimitri16V]

LiquiMoly sells MoS2 as an additive for motor oil

 

[LurkerMike]

Was the 1989 article referring to "Slick 50"?

 

[03_01_TDI]

I don't use oil additives in my motors, just high quality oil.

But many many people do you oil additives and those cars last probably just as long. Most cars die prematurly long before the main engine parts wear down. The big rig industry loves Lucas oil additives.

 

[nortones2]

Re 'Freund: Dealers in Europe don't put aftermarket additives in a vehicle.' Dealers in Europe, if you include the UK try that trick too: anything for a slice more profit. Not frequent, but I've seen the snake oil on the service counter more than once

 

[TornadoRed]

LiquiMoly sells MoS2 as an additive for motor oil

Since Delvac has everything except moly, I thought I'd give it a try. I'll let you know in a few weeks.

 

[Dimitri16V]

I have been using it in my Scirocco for quite awhile actually. maybe I should use it on my PD , it may prolong the life of the lifters

 

[wjdell]

you may see a slight increase in MPG with Moly, most oil makers who use Moly do so as a friction modifier

 

[TornadoRed]

you may see a slight increase in MPG with Moly, most oil makers who use Moly do so as a friction modifier

Maybe. But I was already getting better fuel economy with the PowerPlus 520 nozzles. So it's not possible to say X% of the improvement is the new nozzles, and Y% is due to the LM MoS2.

 

[wny_pat]

I don't use oil additives in my motors, just high quality oil.

At the refinery lab they always said good oils were all about additives. Additives added at the refinery, not the individual.

I have to admit that I have added a few additives in my time. In fact I blew up a Rabbit (pre-Golf) diesel running Slick 50 way back when. Now I really think it was the fault of the engine blow-by, but if that Slick 50 had been as good as they claimed it was. Well, ! learned my lesson .