On 3/8/2013
It's a cold winter's night. You have a heated garage - forced hot air. Right after you take the fuel pump module out, your cell phone rings. It's the boss and he has a major issue to discuss. You go in the house and make a cup of coffee and put the boss on speakerphone. A half hour later, you return to drop the new module in. The hot air furnace calls for heat - VAROOM - the gasoline vapors have traveled over to the furnace, hugging the floor all the way because they are heavier than air and the flame flashed back to you and the gas tank. Pants on fire. I have issued my warning and stated my credentials. I will let it rest now - each of you who decides to do this after reading this entire thread has done so of a free will. Remember the laws of tort in the U.S. - juries almost always find for the plaintiff - firehawk618 and obermd could end up being be found culpable if a forum member gets hurt and sues those who led him/her to the injury. And I might be called to the trial as an expert witness - been there, done that.
On 8/11/2013
So that's what that is. Thought I had a gremlin type electrical problem that was denying fuel to an injector or two momentarily. Now to locate the ABS fuse and pull it. Hope that cures this annoyance. Black tape over the ABS light and a note to self to put the fuse back in for annual safety inspection..........
I have the humanoid version of ABS in reserve, so don't worry about me crashing on slippery roads - it's called pumping the brakes. Learned how to do that in 1964 from my dad. Not from the creeps that teach Drivers Ed.
The above two quotes from you demonstrate that while you may have fooled a court you are not all that interested in safety if it interferes with your preconceived notions. The ABS system in GM cars & trucks pulses the brakes roughly ten times a second. The best humans can consistently do is two or three pulses per second. Yes, you can out brake ABS if you work on it and learn to threshold brake your car, but that takes a lot of time to learn and must be relearned for every vehicle and every set of tires. One thing juries hate most is a so-called Expert Safety Witness who is demonstrably inconsistent when it comes to the safety of other people which your second post very clearly shows. In addition, disabling the ABS system is a violation of Federal law and can land you in prison.
From this thread:
Every single time one of you asks this type of question, you are going to get a snake oil pitch from an AMS Oil small time marketer. You want film strength? Add an extreme pressure material such as found in gear oils. Not good for engine lubrication needs. Here is a snake oil pitch from a better informed source. Take your pick. Oil Film Strength of Mobil 1 Compared with Royal Purple
Very colorful chart, XR. Lots of numbers. Every oil shown has the same EXACT conclusion - "Meets the requirements of API SN,ILSAC GF-5, SAE 5W-30 engine oil." So the best plan is to buy by price. You want empirical evidence? How about several cars taken to over 200,000 miles by me using synthetic oils that met the necessary API spec and by using 10,000 mile change intervals. All bought by price. To continue our interesting exchange of web links, here is one for all forum members -
http://www.pqiamerica.com/pdf/SponsorshipProgramforweb.pdf. Independent but "sponsored." Interesting. Why aren't the sponsors listed?
Your first post references a question asked comparing Mobil 1 to Royal Purple. We have had members test the Mobil 1 dexos1 oil and it does appear to OK after 10,000 miles in the Cruze. Even with this I'm not sure how the FAQ entry at Exxon/Mobil's web-site compares to the Petroleum Quality Institute of America's research, which is what XtremeRevolution based his posts on.
Your second reference to PQIAmerica's Sponsorship program is a red herring. If you had spent the 30 seconds to type in
The Petroleum Quality Institute of America and read their home page you would have your answer. At best this was simple laziness on your part. At worst, you were attempting to discredit an argument by only showing one side. Maybe too much time as an "expert witness" (your words - first quoted post above). I also spent more time on PQIAmerica's web site and they not only test commonly available motor oils they use the same tests for each oil and provide a test date. This level of testing rigour is required to provide unbiased reports. Combining your lack of research with your past postings and posturing I have to come down on the attempt to discredit an argument side.
I also found a 2007 (I think it was 2007 based on the context of the references to it)
report by Street Commodore Magazine in Australia refuting the Exxon/Mobile's FAQ entry. I also know that engine oils are formulated for each market and that the formulations change over time so that report may no longer be valid. This is why PQI America's test date is so important. The Exxon/Mobile FAQ entry has no date, which invalidates any conclusions that can be derived from that entry. No date means we have no reference point as to which formulations were being compared. I also found
2013 Motor Oil Comparison Test Results, which meets all the criteria for a valid test except one - we don't know who did the testing. We know AMSOil paid for this test so of course their conclusions will be weighted towards AMSOil but even in their conclusions the report lists the assumptions made. Given this and the assumptions in the conclusion I trust this report for the actual testing but not necessarily the conclusions (annual cost of competing products) derived from it.
To Erastimus, your demonstrated disregard for the safety of other people (second post above) combined with your claim to have been an "expert witness" (first post above) and your obvious lack of research before posting in this thread has completely ruined your reputation with me. Other members will need to come to their own opinions on this topic.
To all - I know next to nothing about motor oils other than what GM (current), Toyota (current), Dodge (previous), and Mitsubishi (previous) say is/was required for the cars I maintain, so I did indeed do the research before I posted. What I found is that opinions on oil frequently falls into the "lies, more lies, and statistics" category but that if you do the research you can pierce this veil and get some real answers. Oil company web sites frequently fall into the "lies, more lies, and statistics" category. I also confirmed my suspicion that you must have current research and that it must be done on oils available in your country/market because the oil companies use different formulations in different markets and also over time. This makes sense because cars and operating environment are highly variable across markets and as engine technology changes the oils must change as well.
