Talking to a retired mechanic made me drop my oil brand loyalty

My neighbor Jerry, who ran a shop in Portland for 30 years, told me he stopped using Mobil 1 after 2015 because they changed their additive package. He showed me lab reports from Blackstone Labs that confirmed his high-mileage Ford van had 40% more wear with the new formula. I switched to a different brand after that and my own oil analysis at 5k miles came back cleaner. Has anyone else seen proof that a brand they trusted changed their recipe?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliviat1729d ago

Oh man, that's wild about the Blackstone data! I actually read a similar thing about synthetic blends in general. A buddy of mine works at a refinery and told me they've been quietly changing their base stock sources because of EPA regulations on certain refining chemicals. So a brand might keep the same bottle but the actual oil comes from a different crude or process now. That 40% wear jump is huge and makes me wonder if the additive packages just can't compensate for the cheaper base stock anymore. I'd be curious if anyone's seen a similar pattern with other major brands like Valvoline or Castrol after certain years.

sandrat2429d ago

That 40% number from Blackstone definitely makes you wonder what else changed. Did your refinery buddy say if the additive companies are even keeping up with the base stock shifts, or is this stuff basically a roll of the dice now?