I just found out a friend of mine sells and uses Amsoil. He set me up with a preferred account so I can try it out. Does anyone here use this oil, and if so, could you tell any difference in how the car ran or the gas mileage? I'm not a big fan of extended oil changes so I'm very hesitant on trying this oil out given how expensive it is. Thanks for any info.

Wayne

 

I've used Amsoil many many times before, never in my Monte though. But i've run it several times in my mom's 3800 Bonneville, and its pretty much all I ran in my 2003 Cavalier.

The Amsoil XL is not a true full synthetic, its kinda like the Castrol Syntec crap...So I would not use that. Its basically I very high grade group III oil.

Now the regular Amsoil is great stuff, very expensive though, and NOT API certified. I've read that it is not API certifed because it has to much zinc in it for the certification. And I've read that this can be bad for your catalitic converter. So I won't use it either. (i'm not saying its bad oil though, it is good stuff). But when I bought my car new, it was obviously under warranty, and running a non API certifed oil is just asking for warranty trouble.

 

I have been curious about this stuff for a while. I just couldn't imagine running it through my car just to test it. Let us know and I might try it out on my wife's Kia!

 

 

I've never ran the stuff in any of my cars but a co-worker of mine swears by the stuff and runs it in his '02 avalanche and '98 Trans-Am so i guess its good stuff but the price is too rich for my blood i'll stick to my Mobil1 with K&N wrench off filter

 

A couple of other people at work use it and really like it. The price is a big hurdle for me and Mobil 1 soured me on using synthetics so I don't know if I want to give synthetics a try again.

Wayne

 

The only complaint that I have ever heard about Amsoil is the price. I spend around $40 each time I change my oil. How much would it cost to do it with Amsoil?

 

what happened when you used Mobil1 ,70monte1, that "soured" your opinion? i'm just wondering

 

I started using Mobil 1 in about 1993 when I bought my first new truck, a 92 S-10 4x4 with the 4.3L V-6. I changed my oil religiously every 3,000 miles with the Mobil 1. My engine was always kind of noisy and I had to have all new valve seals at about 36,000 miles. I didn't think too much about it until I bought my next new truck in 1998, a 98 chevy ext-cab Z71 with the 5.7L. I started using Mobil 1 in it at about 1,400 miles and changed it every 3,000 miles. The engine in it was also kind of noisy. At around 36,000 miles when the warranty was about up, I decided to start doing oil analysis on my oil to see if I could extend my oil changes to 5,000 miles. Oil analysis came back saying my wear metals were elevated and they recommended staying at 3,000 mile changes. I continued to do oil analysis for the next two years and it was always the same recommendation.

I decided to go back to conventional oil since I didn't feel like I was getting my money's worth with the Mobil 1. I started using Chevron Supreme which was highly recommended at the time and my oil analysis results came back normal and my engine was quieter and didn't use as much oil. Plus, Blackstone Labs said that I could start extending my changes to 4,000 miles. I continued to do oil analysis with the Chevron and then Havoline and they suggested I could go to 5,000 miles on oil changes.

During this time I was also using Mobil 1 fluids in the tranny, both differentials, and the transfer case. My tranny didn't like the Mobil 1 and felt like it was slipping so I went back to conventional fluid and the tranny went back to acting normal. My rear end started making noises at about 55,000 miles and when it got very loud at about 75,000 miles and I had it looked at, the shop said my pinion and carrior bearings were shot. This was on a truck that only hauled a 5x10 utility trailer occasionally and never hauled anything heavy. I first put the diff fluids in both diffs at about 20,000 miles.

After that, I went back to all conventional fluids in the truck and have had no more problems. Truck now has 115,000 miles on it.

Maybe I just had bad luck, but I lost faith in Mobil 1 products and have never gone back. I'm also leery about using synthetics at all. I really have no reason to switch to Amsoil or any synthetic for that matter but I'm curious to try and see if a different synthetic would work better.

During this time, I also used Mobil 1 in the 98 Grand Prix GT we had and the oil analysis results for it were not that great either and the engine was noisy as well. Changed to conventional oil in it and the results were normal and no noisy engine. So, that has been my experience with Mobil 1. If you go to bobistheoilguy.com and read about Mobil 1, a lot of other people experience less than great oil analysis results along with noisier engines.

Wayne

 

hmm interesting how much dose an oil analysis usually cost and where can you get it done? used the mobil cause i was told that in the newer gm's ('00 an up i guess) mobil1 is standard from the factory and i haven't noticed any noise. i was considering switching to the high-mileage mobil1 5w-30 oil but now i'm leary