mobile 1 oil... is it that bad?

Teddy KGB

Excellent point, and I should have prefaced the conditions of my last oil change.

The first oil change on the car was around 2000 miles, in April of this year. The temps were in the high 70's, if I remember correctly, and humidity was fairly low. That's what I'm basing my comparison on. Basically the same conditions existed then as they do now, and the temps were always around 220.

The last time I went to the dealer (before yesterday) was to have the oil consumption check, sometime in late August. They had to add about a half a quart of new oil and I only had 1500 miles since the last change. The temps outside were in the low 90's, but it was the week of Hurricane Irene, and the humidity was fairly low. I drove from Atlanta to Ashville, NC, where the temps were in the 60's to low 80's throughout the time I was there. Through the entire trip, whether on the mountain roads or cruising the highway, I never really dropped below 215-220 range. On curvy, fun sections of the road the oil temp would reach 230-240 fairly easily. Then, back on the highway, I'd drop back to 220.

Like I said, if the lower temps last then I'll keep going back to this oil. I need to drive more to see how it responds as the oil ages. I'd test it a little today, but it's in the 50's, and that's not an apples to apples experiment. Then again, I may just have a giant placebo effect going on and my car was trying to trick me for a day.