COCO RICK

Just turned 125K miles and thinking of switching to a high mileage synthetic oil. Engine only consumes about a half quart every 6000 miles with no oil leaks so using it only for cleaning deposits and build up.

Any thoughts or comments about this????

Thanks, Rick

JJLAI724

Yes...it's suppose to have additives or ingredients to keep your seals moist to prevent oil leaks. So they say. It's worth the extra bucks.

J3TVETTE

I have switched some high mileage cars I have owned with no ill effect. Not sure how much better it is for the car vs regular synthetic though.

damascus1986

i have 104k i buy mobile one high ,mileage full synthetic i get it at walmart for the best deal

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mobil-1-5...5-qt./17018131

wayback

I thought about it but decided against it. My car uses no oil so no need for special chemicals to swell the seals and gaskets. It will not hurt anything but once you switch you should stay with it. Going back to regular M 1 might cause the seals to shrink, causing oil useage you never had before.

180,000 miles on my 07.

dcarter0001

I switched to high millage oil in my Ford truck with 140k miles. It had no effect, it still drips oil and burns it at about the same. It was not synthetic though.

ForceFedC4

Well, additives to lubricate and cause the swelling of rubber seals is one benefit of high mileage oil formulas. They also tend to have ingredients that act as antioxidants. They often carry detergents to help clean any built up sludge especially on cars that live outside. The best part about them is they typically use friction / viscosity additive that I suppose can actually prolong the viscous life of the oil. After all, engines with a lot of miles have seen a lot of friction and I would certainly want my oil to hold up and protect my well loved engine long into the future.

One thing about "swelling seals." Take that portion as being more of a gimmick than a fact. If a seal is worn out and already leaking or dried out from thousands of hot cold cycles.. no amount of impregnating it with chemicals is going to bring it back to it's original form. If there is a leak, there will still be a leak. If there are no leaks and you are considering the switch in hopes that it might prolong the life of your engine seals - you may very well being doing just that.

I use Castrol high mileage full synthetic in all my trucks and the price is generally the same or less than the standard non high-mileage oils. Most of the time the high mileage oils are on sale just to get people to notice them.

RagTop69

I don't see the efficacy of switching to the high mileage oil if you aren't experiencing either excessive oil use or poor oil pressure. It's only about $3 more for five quarts, so it's up to you. I've got a '69 Mustang 302 with about 50K miles on the last rebuild and I've been using Castrol 10W-30 since I bought it 18 years ago. No between changes oil use, but the oil pressure seems to drop off in the really hot weather (1xx + *F) when the engine heats up. I've already done everything I can think of with the cooling system. I'm wondering if switching to Mobil 1 10W-40 might be a reasonable thing to try. More viscosity to withstand the heat.

COCO RICK

I've read similar things about switching and going back and wondered if it's true.

Thanks for your reply, Rick

COCO RICK

[QUOTE=ForceFedC4;1594108638]Well, additives to lubricate and cause the swelling of rubber seals is one benefit of high mileage oil formulas. They also tend to have ingredients that act as antioxidants. They often carry detergents to help clean any built up sludge especially on cars that live outside. The best part about them is they typically use friction / viscosity additive that I suppose can actually prolong the viscous life of the oil. After all, engines with a lot of miles have seen a lot of friction and I would certainly want my oil to hold up and protect my well loved engine long into the future.

One thing about "swelling seals." Take that portion as being more of a gimmick than a fact. If a seal is worn out and already leaking or dried out from thousands of hot cold cycles.. no amount of impregnating it with chemicals is going to bring it back to it's original form. If there is a leak, there will still be a leak. If there are no leaks and you are considering the switch in hopes that it might prolong the life of your engine seals - you may very well being doing just that.

I use Castrol high mileage full synthetic in all my trucks and the price is generally the same or less than the standard non high-mileage oils. Most of the time the high mileage oils are on sale just to get people to notice them.[/QUO

" They also tend to have ingredients that act as antioxidants. They often carry detergents to help clean any built up sludge especially on cars that live outside. The best part about them is they typically use friction / viscosity additive that I suppose can actually prolong the viscous life of the oil"

This is exactly why I'm considering switching.

Vet Interested

I don't feel "high mileage" synthetic is any better than standard synthetic only because I ALWAYS keep a car until it has over 100,000 miles. My Vette only has 42,000 but my Honda has 317,000, my truck had 160,000 and I never used anything but regular "standard" Mobil 1. Cars never leaked or had any oil related issues. Just my opinion and what has worked through the years for me. Bottom line is, you sell it, people will buy it!

wayback

dcarter0001

[QUOTE=COCO RICK;1594113591]And it's Gluten free

COCO RICK

Thanks. Before posing this question I did some research and found this video. I was hoping there might be a professor of engine oil on this forum that would either concur or take exception to this theory.

Also I must confess that walmart is having a rollback on Pennzoil high mileage synthetic oil ($22) and Pennzoil is having a $2/per qt rebate, so I thought this might be a good time to make the switch.

I was just trying to assure myself that it's the right move.

5knives

Member LDB usually finds his way into oil threads at some point. He can probably break down the pros and cons of high mileage oil as well as dispel any myths or common misconceptions.

Red08

I try to learn something everyday

K9KUZ

Another interesting oil thread.....here's my 2cents:

Are there any automotive engineers out there?
Here's my Mobil 1 story:
In the 70s, my wife (mechanical engineer) bought lubrication products for a large manufacturer. The Mobil rep suggested converting to their new synthetic product. Available only in 55 gal.drums. She could even use it in the automobiles and save lots of money by only changing it at 25,000 miles! Rule: change filter at 10,000 top off the oil; again at 20,000 and change it all at 25,000. And at home we did that too. Our 1970 Volvo lasted a very long time. Once, I thought I had a oil problem, so we sent a oil sample to a independent lab for testing (it had 20,000 miles on the sample). The lab comments were "good for 25,000 miles".

COCO RICK

I'll keep this thread going for a while in the hopes that he or someone like him responds.

Thanks for the input, Rick

Rick369

Back then Mobil 1 was truly a Group IV synthetic oil. Today I haven't come across anyone, including Exxon Mobil, that will guarantee that Mobil 1 is a Group IV synthetic oil. I have read many oil articles that claim Mobil 1 is now a Group III synthetic oil. Mobil used to claim that Mobil 1 was good for 25,000 miles (with oil filter changes every 10,000 miles). Now the highest mileage Mobil 1 product is Mobil 1 Extended Performance which is guaranteed for 15,000 miles.

LDB

I’m flattered to be asked. I was out of pocket last week and haven’t looked here since last Sunday. I’d consider most of the specialty oils to be tweaks rather than something fundamentally different and/or better. The “flavor” that’s the most important tweak (if you need it) is the one for long oil change intervals, which gives you more pH stabilizers and anti-oxidants to deal with the long time that the oil is in service. But those additives work by depletion, meaning that they slowly get consumed by the acids or oxidation products. As long as you have a nonzero amount of the additive left, you are ok, so there’s no advantage to using such oil for normal oil change intervals.

As far as the one in this thread, the one for older vehicles, it has some additives to help aging seals and gaskets, and perhaps a slightly higher level of pH stabilizers and anti-oxidants. The reasoning for the latter is slightly different than for long change intervals. The acid and oxidation issues originate mostly from piston blow-by. In a relatively new car, that’s time related, hence needing more of those additives for long change interval. But in an aging car, you have more blow-by due to worn rings. As long as your rings are reasonably ok, you don’t need those additives.

Just like there’s no magic formula that can make my 69 year old body 40 again, there are no special/secret additives for viscosity, friction, or who knows what else, that can make a 200,000 mile engine run like it did at 50,000 miles. One post mentioned viscosity, and perhaps that person was thinking about VI improvers. But that has nothing to do with aging engines. In a simplistic sense, VI (which stands for viscosity index) is simply the spread between the W and normal viscosity numbers, such as 5W30 having a spread of 25. Raw dino oil has a spread of zero, so if you want to make multi grade oil from dino oil, you need a fair amount of VI improver. Synthetic base oils before additives have spreads in the range of 20-30, so you can make a 5W30 with little or no VI improver, which is the biggest single advantage to synthetic oil. But if you want to go to the ultra wide spreads like 0W40, you need VI improver even with synthetics. It’s simply a function of base oil VI and what spread you want the finished oil to be. It has nothing to do with high mileage or extended life oils.