Recommended Brand of Motor Oil?

[bootymac]

I'm pretty sure that the oil change intervals in the owner's manual are for conventional oil. I have not read anything in the owner's manual or elsewhere that calls for synthetic motor oil to be used in the Kizashi.

Pennzoil's official stance on extended OCIs with their synthetic products is this (taken from a dialogue with a Pennzoil rep featured on BITOG):

Question:
Is it Pennzoil Platinum for normal 10k miles OCI and Pennzoil Ultra Platinum for extended OCI up to 15k miles?

Answer:
Pennzoil Platinum[REGISTERED SIGN] Full Synthetic motor oil with PurePlus[TRADE MARK SIGN] Technology and Pennzoil Ultra Platinum[REGISTERED SIGN] Full Synthetic motor oil with PurePlus[TRADE MARK SIGN] Technology are extremely robust formulations, but lubricant marketers do not set oil drain intervals. Drain interval recommendations belong to the engine manufacturers.

I'd say your OCIs are short given the mileage, but your Kizashi is more your 2nd/winter car, right? In that regard, the time may expire before the mileage.

Mine is my daily driver and I drive it at least 30 miles a day, 5 days a week. It also regularly sees stop-and-go traffic and city driving conditions. My OCI is 7500 miles (12,000 km) with synthetic motor oils like Pennzoil Platinum/Ultra, Mobil 1, and the like. My typical burn-off is about 0.5 quarts between OCIs with Pennzoil P/U, but I've burned and added 0.5 quarts already with Mobil 1 and it's only been about 3000 miles since the oil change.

Yeah, I have to change my oil based on time rather than mileage. Sometimes I wonder if I should just use conventional oil but the cost difference overtime is minimal.

I have non doubt that PP or PU can go the distance on a quality filter. I'm shocked that much M1 has already burned up already. Further proof that not all oils are equal and better oils do make a difference in reality!

[murcod]

What brands are popular Down Under for motor oil?

We're limited for choice here and the pricing is sky high for brands like Redline.

A lot of the oils that are common in the USA (eg. Amsoil ) are only imported by specialty importers, so are hard to find and mega expensive. Redline is reasonably easy to find, but only if you're willing to trade your first born as payment! Mobil 1 is everywhere, dead easy to find but still not all that cheap for anything other than 5W50 engine oil (eg. 0W40 is ~AUS$98 for 5 litres.) We seem to have our own range of Castrol; the German variety can be obtained, but only via online sites. That's usually the best way for me to buy Redline - but it's still too pricey to use for regular engine oil changes. There is a local company called Nulon who seem to do a decent range of synthetics- I've used some of their oils and found nothing wrong with them. Their products have also done well in some of those (dubious) engine oil tests against the more well known brands.

I've just been using Mobil 1 for the Kizashi. It's always easy to find and I buy some when it's on special.

[KuroNekko]

I wouldn't call Amsoil common in the US. In fact, most people have never heard of it. It's mainly car enthusiasts, mechanics, racers, etc. who know about this oil. Amsoil is also not sold in most stores because Amsoil uses a dealer network to sell the stuff, kind of like some women's make-up brands like Mary Kay. It's not sold conventionally in stores so you need to either know the right people, sites, or stores to get your hands on it. A lot of individuals who are dealers will have huge Amsoil decals on their cars. I knew a security guard in my building who was a dealer and when I chatted with him about Amsoil, he told me that I could find it cheaper online than he could sell it for. Despite the extra hurdles to get it, users swear by it and it's generally regarded as one of the best motor oils you can buy in the US.

Royal Purple is typically seen as the runner-up to Amsoil as the Class IV synthetic but just about every opinion, analysis, etc. I've read comparing Amsoil to RP indicate Amsoil is the superior product. However, RP is more readily available and in fact, Walmart recently started carrying the product. I've never used their motor oils before, but used a MT fluid of theirs with good results.

Red Line is also hard to find in stores so I always buy it online. I've never used their motor oils though I'm a fan of their MT fluid. It's said that their motor oils are Class V Esters which are considered the "true synthetic oil".

Basically, PAO/Class IV and Ester/Class V synthetics are hard to find, even in the US. It's not something you can easily find anywhere without effort. Class III synthetics like Mobil 1, Pennzoil Platinum/Ultra, Valvoline SynPower, etc. are found easily and are often on sale. Given these oils are good enough to be factory fill for cars like Porsches, Corvettes, Vipers, etc., I think there is no need for most people to seek out superior motor oils unless they really want long OCIs or the very best motor oils.

[murcod]

Royal Purple is similar to Redline here - both price wise and in availability. The good thing is (with both of them) we seem to get the exact same product as sold overseas. Mobil, Castrol and Shell all have a huge local presence, which seems to correspond with their local line ups being not quite the same as O/S.

eg.
http://www.mobil1.com.au/products/
vs
http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/Mot ... /Oils.aspx

[bootymac]

Amsoil has an archive of product comparisons. Hardly independent and their products usually finish first, of course: http://www.amsoil.com/performancetestarchives.aspx

Royal Purple's stance on "Scamsoil"

"A repost from earlier regarding a facebooker who was bashing on Royal Purple and stating Amsoil was better. We wanted you to still have access to the information.

Let’s start with any synthetic motor oil that you choose will benefit you vehicle better than conventional motor oil whether you choose Royal Purple, Mobil 1, or Amsoil, but Royal Purple can offer you something a little more. 

Amsoil doesn’t have any 3rd party independent studies done that show their product out performs ours and the ones they do claim are conducted by dealers or their own labs. Amsoil’s test are conducted under their supervision with their people running the test, but the lab sounds like an independent lab in the way it is presented. A key example of this is the 4 ball wear test.

The ASTM D4172 Test (4 ball wear test) is NOT an accepted engine oil test nor indicative of actual field wear performance for engine oils. Per the ASTM 'Significance of Use description", the ASTM declares that there is no correlation between oils of different formulas or to actual field wear data. This test was designed to quickly compare 'batch to batch' quality of the exact same formula of oil during production. 

Amsoil also has a bad habit of claiming ASTM, API acceptance and/or test protocol and then modifying the test in-house. The ASTM D4172 should run at 1200 rpm and 75 C. Amsoil ran it at 1800 rpm and 150 C. At that point, it becomes an 'Amsoil' in-house test, not an ASTM repeatable test. Why did they modify the test? To make their oils 'look' better? Amsoil has taken this test and made it a big selling point and consumers have no idea what the test was intended for. Amsoil also has a bad habit of claiming ASTM or API acceptance or test protocol and then modifying the test in-house. They also do not run the ASTM Timken OK Load test - the RP oils would score first in this test having 300-400% better performance than the others. 

Amsoil's typical miss-interpretation of results can even be found in their own reports. They test regarding film strength si not about film strength but is about wear. 

They have even shown where Royal Purple has the highest rating for wear protection in the FZG test and highest rating for oxidation protection, but yet they score Royal Purple the worst in a 'wear test'. Why, How? Amsoil will not report on Royal Purple’s Oxidation resistance in a TFOUT test. WHY, because Royal Purple will actual tests out to 1300 minutes and is 2 ½ times better than theirs! They arbitrarily stopped the test at 500 minutes. We also had some of the best results in the cleanliness results for keeping your engine free of deposits and corrosion and zero foaming yet they claim we failed a rust protection test? Confusing - hard to judge as they do not share the actual coupon of the metal - just report a failure and they also will not state how many coupons they ran with each oil - or did they run the test until they got a 'failing' one and reported it? 

Why does Amsoil have it out for Royal Purple? How Could someone mess up these results? EASY, at the end of all of the studies you will usually one or both of the following names 

Dave Leitten- AMSOIL Laboratory Director and Kevin Dinwiddie - AMSOIL Drivetrain Specialist

They work for Amsoil and every test run and distributed that Amsoil was ranked number 1 is done internally. It does appear there was no favoritism to their company? Not really

Just thought we would clear some of the air.

We still refer back that Amsoil makes a great product, but Royal Purple can and does things better and different than they do.

Have a nice day."

[Woodie]

I did notice that Amsoil commissioned the studies they won.

[murcod]

So many of the tests seem either biased- or totally irrelevant for using as a valid wear data comparison for any engine with a correctly operating lubrication system.

They do get some impressive results under those unrealistic conditions.... it's good for sales!

[KuroNekko]

I agree about Amsoil's tests. They pretty much sponsor the tests and their test methods are questionable in validity given they don't accurately reflect the use and conditions in an internal combustion engine.

Regardless, I think motor oils like Amsoil, Royal Purple, and Red Line are excellent, but the hassle of getting them may exceed their benefit for a car like the Kizashi, my driving habits, and my maintenance schedule.

I'm willing to buy MT fluid online, but not 5 quarts of motor oil every 7500 miles. I value the convenience of obtaining motor oils so I rather get it in a local store. I also don't want to pay for the shipping of 5 or 6 quarts.

Overall, I think Class IIIs are more than good enough for me. They are also getting better and starting to rival Class IVs in performance. I'll see what I find when I shop.

[bootymac]

Amazon carries Royal Purple and it seems to have similar pricing as Red Line. Shouldn't be too hard to get free shipping if you don't have Prime

[jim.myers]

I just bought my 13 kibashi love the car and glad I saw kuro post about mobile 1 because that's normally my go to oil but it's not best for everything I'll try out Pennzoil plat on my oil change I don't want anything to go wrong with my little bulldog