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"CHANGE ENGINE OIL"
LIGHT
Many motorists today are confused. For several years General
Motors, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have been
installing monitors on their dashboards that light up to indicate when it’s time
to change oil. GM monitors
have frequently allowed motorists to drive 5,000 miles and as much as 7,000
miles or more before signaling
that it’s time to change oil. The Mercedes-Benz service system indicates 10,000-
to 20,000-mile oil change
intervals. Naturally, this flies in the face of the 3,000-mile drain
recommendation that oil companies insist are necessary to protect engines.
What’s a car owner to do?
Petroleum oil companies have insisted that their oil needs to be
changed every 3000 miles, even for these
vehicles with the dashboard light. But the world’s largest automaker, General
Motors, states that oil change intervals should not be based on miles driven,
but rather on driving style. In a feature story titled “Supersize Me! GM moves
to extend drain intervals,” (May 2004 Lubes N Greases, vol. 10 issue 5) David McFall unveils the latest move in GM’s strategic plan to cut loose drain
intervals.
The GM solution is for motorists to depend on their patented
Oil Life System (OLS). The owner’s manuals in today’s GM fleet no longer make
specific mileage recommendations at all. Instead, the GM Oil Life System analyzes
the engine’s operational data including temperature, revolutions and speed, to
calculate the rate of engine oil degradation and determine when an oil is
nearing the end of its life. At this point a message on the dashboard signals
that it is time to change oil.
Each OLS computer model is engine-specific because GM believes
each engine behaves differently
under the various driving situations and conditions. Driving styles vary as
well. The OLS allegedly calculates
all factors pertaining to both the engine and the driver and thereby makes its
oil change recommendations.
According to GM senior project engineer Robert Stockwell, who
has been studying analyzed oil samples
from vehicles with OLS, “In all cases where the OLS signaled for an oil change
it was before the oil was worn
out.” And how long were the drain intervals? “Many of these samples,” said
Stockwell, “were from vehicles
with greater than 10,000 miles on the oil, a few with more than 14,000 miles and
at least one with 16,000
miles. These intervals were recorded in vehicles using regular mineral oil.
Synthetic oil gets even longer oil
change intervals.”
Let There Be Light
Long before the issue of OLS and extended drains hit
trade magazine editorial radar screens, AMSOIL began
to zero in on this opportunity for Dealers. The theme of extended oil service
life with AMSOIL synthetic motor
oils has, of course, been a feature of the company from the beginning.
Despite the clear environmental benefits of extending drain
intervals, the major oil companies dug in their heels. For more than three
decades the message of regular, frequent oil changes has been sold to consumers
and the mechanics who service their vehicles. Millions, if not billions, of
dollars have been spent on advertising and training to reinforce this “change
your oil every 3,000 miles” mantra.
In February of 2003 AMSOIL
published an article directly
targeted to the impact oil change indicator
lights were having on drain intervals. “Oil Monitors Revisited” (National Oil &
Lube News, Feb. 2003) combined
observation, internet research and first hand comments from a GM powertrain
authority to shed
light on the philosophy behind the Oil Life Sensor. At the heart of it all, GM
does not believe in recommended
drain intervals. GM believes in the oil sensor logarithm, developed by Dr.
Shirley Schwartz and tested over
many millions of miles of service.
A month later, in March 2003, David McFall of Lubes N Greases
chided the oil industry for keeping drain
intervals shackled at three thousand miles when they knew that longer drain
intervals were completely realistic.
In a column titled, “Drain Intervals: How Long Must We Wait?”, McFall held up AMSOIL as an oil
company that was “unshackled.”
This year, McFall turned his attention to the OEMs themselves,
focusing on “the light,” that is, the GM oil
change indicator light. Clearly GM has unshackled its oil change indicator and
soon there will be 24 million more cars on the road relying on the Oil Life
System.
The Demand For Better Oil
A second trend that is simultaneously occurring today has to do
with emissions. For a number of years the
automotive and oil industries have been grappling with the problem of meeting
increasingly stringent emissions
standards. The result of this governmental pressure on OEMs is that oil
companies have been forced
to reduce additive content in order to increase catalyst life. Catalysts are the
element in the catalytic converter
that reduce the bi-products of combustion in the internal combustion engine.
There are trade-offs, however. First, when additives that
provide wear protection are reduced, the result is
the potential of increased wear. Second, oil companies must wrestle with the
matter of backward compatibility.
That is, when oil formulations are altered, can they also be retrofitted to older
car models? Finally, today’s
smaller, hotter engines present new challenges as well.
As you would expect, AMSOIL synthetic motor oils address
nearly all of the problems brought on by these
changes. The problem of increasingly hot engines is solved by synthetics because
they reduce friction and,
consequently, the primary by-product of friction, which is heat. Even in the
presence of heat they are oxidatively
stable.
IN Conclusion
As GM progressively extends drain intervals and promotes the
environmental benefits of extended drains, the AMSOIL message will become increasingly mainstream and the 3,000-mile drain
interval message will be further eroded. Eventually every automaker will follow
suit, not only for environmental reasons but because consumers are busier than
ever and frequent oil changes have always been a hassle. Why, with vehicle
manufacturers recommending drain intervals longer than 3,000 miles, would
customers trust an oil that an oil manufacturer recommends be changed at 3,000
miles?
Ironically, the two needs of modern motor oils are
contradictory. On the one hand, motorists want oil to last
longer and require fewer oil changes. On the otherhand, governmental pressure on
OEMs is forcing motor
oil companies to reduce the amount of anti-wear additives in motor oil to keep
emissions in check with the
result that oils cannot be counted on to last as long.
AMSOIL is already well positioned for both of these
performance expectations. Testing is currently underway
with new formulations that will keep AMSOIL ahead of the curve, no matter how
steep the expectations become. And for the 200 million cars currently in
circulation today, AMSOIL synthetic motor oils remain the best value and offer
the best protection money can buy.
Ultimately, no matter what the oil light says, GM recommends
that if the light hasn’t gone on in one year, the
oil and filter should be changed. A new idea? Not really.
That is a message that was stamped on the first can of AMSOIL Super Premium 100% Synthetic Motor Oil over thirty years ago. We were first then,
and the competition still hasn’t figured us out.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q Now that General
Motors has broken away from any mileage recommendations, what do customers do
when
the light goes on?
A At the end of the
day AMSOIL still recommends oil change intervals based on miles. Just as General
Motors has done extensive testing on their algorithm in order to feel confident
in its recommendations, AMSOIL likewise has done extensive testing regarding its
motor oils. It should be noted that GM set up its system based on typical
conventional motor oil. Synthetic motor oil can go further, as GM has indicated.
Q What do you do
when you see the “change oil” light go on?
A When customers are
using AMSOIL 25,000-mile oils,
AMSOIL recommends that the oil be continued
in service and you reset the dashboard light. This is a simple matter of
consulting the owner’s manual
or contacting the local GM Dealership. If customers have installed AMSOIL XL
Synthetic motor oils, they
can feel confident going 10,000 miles or six months, whichever comes first. If the
light goes on at 4500 miles, the same instructions apply as above: reset the
light.
Q What if you are
using XL Synthetic Motor Oil and the light does not go on for 11,000 miles or more?
A If the oil light
doesn’t come on until after 10,000, the customer can choose to change the
oil and filter or keep going until the change oil light goes on.
AMSOIL XL with
Extended Drain Boost technology and
is a premium oil that is
fully capable of meeting the needs of GM cars in accordance with their
recommendations. You can
always feel safe using the XL oil until the light comes on.
T's Advanced Synthetics
Greg and Marcy Thurman
Your Nationwide
AMSOIL
Authorized Independent
Dealer
Nationwide US Warehouses,
Canada and Palm Harbor, FL
727-798-8552
E-Mail:
greg@tsadvancedsynthetics.com
If you
experience problems or have questions or comments about
our website please email us at
greg@tsadvancedsynthetics.com
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