Walking through how to read today’s oil labels and decipher what chemicals truly are best for your customers’ engines, Kevin McCartney says it almost is like going through the five stages of grief.
You’ll start with denial and by the end, be bargaining to just find out what oil to use, he jokingly told ASRW 2013 attendees during the event’s opening session and Mechanical Forum. In condensing his four-plus hour class into one hour, McCartney, owner of Automotive Support Services, started off “The Hidden Liability and Opportunities in Fluids and Lubricants” with a case study of a low-mileage Nissan transmission with a known good service record that was serviced for a regular customer.
He explained that the fluid used was labeled as OEM approved for Nissan Matic-J and numerous other applications. The vehicle owners manual listed Matic J as the correct fluid.
The transmission failed soon after the service. The dealer and Nisan blamed the failure on the aftermarket multi-vehicle fluid and denied warranty. The big name trusted brand oil company denied responsibility.
The oil company claimed that the service was misapplication of their fluid. Matic-J has been discontinued by Nissan and superseded by Matic-S. Matic-J no longer is the correct fluid for any vehicles. So oil companies have no liability listing compliance with Matic-J.
“So the oil companies have no liability, so they list it. Does that make sense? No,” McCartney says.
Protecting Yourself
You have to become good at reading product sheets and labels, McCartney explains. ILSAC does not define its standard as a single engine requirement; it’s an umbrella. Therefore, you have to learn to interpret what the product sheet and labels are saying.
For example, a brand will say, there are 32 areas and we’ll call the ones we passed engine protections of the standard and the ones we failed, we’ll call something else, he adds. But is it really approved? An example label McCartney shared claims only to meet the engine protection requirements of ILSAC. The same claim often was made about GM 4718M. Such products typically fail viscosity, fuel efficiency or SAPS limits that compromise oil life, deposits, cooling and even engine protection.
In another example he offered, one oil company uses the following claims on some of their products: ACEA A1 protection, ACEA A1 performance or service ACEA A1. But what do they mean?
Just remember protection doesn’t mean that it does meet a standard, McCartney stresses, and some of these ratings have been obsolete since 2004. He says under ACEA A1 protection, there are 11 categories like seal compatability, fuel economy, corrosion protection, volatility and more, but only one has to be passed for a company to say they meet ACEA A1 protection. They could fail the others miserably.
“So how does the general public and most shop owners and technicians judge the quality of a motor oil? Brand, viscosity and the term synthetic,” McCartney says, quickly nothing that these three things really don’t mean anything.
Looking at Viscosity and Wear Protection
In an ideal situation, a steady flow of oil prevents “surface to surface” contact of moving engine components. This provides the best wear protection. It’s called hydrodynamic lubrication, which in a crankshaft journal and bearing is very much like a tire hydroplaning on water but on a hydrodynamic oil wedge, McCartney states.
“So when we take two 5W30 products that we assume are the same and swap the European approved one for the U.S. approved one, we’re going to have a lot more (problems),” he adds.
Then there was this reality check: Some 5W-30 oils are much thicker than others. Some are too thick to be used in some 5W-30 applications. Some are to thin to be used. Anyone who tells you they have a product that can be used in both is lying, he suggests.
After walking through specific differences, McCartney also addressed the subsequent timing chain issues, GDI pump drive failures and oil and catalyst poisoning.
With the latter, every car burns some oil, even when new. Most of this occurs during the first 300 to 500 miles after each oil change. The oil vapors carry contaminants through the PCV into the intake system. This is a contributing cause of catalyst failure in “normal” operation.
“So if there is going to be an adverse effect from this, it’s going to happen the more often we change the oil,” McCartney says. So sure, the catalytic converter will last the life of the car if you stop changing oil, but that’s not possible.
Wrapping up with some tips to take away, McCartney listed need-to-know and mutually exclusive ratings today’s shop owners must pay attention to. He also suggested making your supplier download the product sheet to give to you and a certificate of liability would be a good idea in this situation, too.
“I know these data sheets get boring…but we need to go to these data sheets to make sure the product conforms to the specs we need,” McCartney says. It matters for the life of your customers’ vehicles.
Subscribe to Motor Age and receive articles like this every month…absolutely free. Click here
