Told not to use Mobil1 ???????

Guest · Jan 13, 2005

Hi Guys.

Need advice on best action. Bit of a strange 1 here. My boxster is now due for its 24k service. OPC wanted £600 but a very well known independant used on this site alot - HARTECH - Bolton, are duing the service for alot less £380 all in.

I have booked the car in , but as i was a bit nervous about using an Independant, decided to pop down and fire a few q's. I wanted to make sure that all correct porsche parts were used. I also wanted to make sure the MOBIL1 was going to be used and was suprised at the response -

They have told me that they do not use MOBIL1 as they find that it is too thin for any car after about 7k ?????????!!!!!!!, so they do not use it and use Castrol Magnetex instead!! They say they need a thicker oil after 7k to acomodate gaps and cracks in engine wear and mobil1 is just too thin

Surley this isnt right??? Need advice. thanks

Mark_Bennett · Jan 13, 2005

I trust Hartech a lot - I bought my first 944 from them.[

]

I can see where they are coming from here, However I would go with the Mobil 1.
I believe some OPC's use Magnatec, but that would probably be because they get a better deal/make more margin on the specific oil used...

Edit:
Any idea which weight they use - I see from the Castrol website there are several grades under the "GTX Magnatec" name?

daro911 · Jan 13, 2005

ORIGINAL: SAM1

Hi Guys.

They have told me that they do not use MOBIL1 as they find that it is too thin for any car after about 7k

Surley this isnt right??? Need advice. thanks

****************************************************************************************************************************
[&o]I know Mark says he trust this outift but what company would spend millions of $$$'s developing and promoting a product only to find out that a small British Independant servicing and repairs outfit can claim it's only good for cars for the first 7k miles of there working life!! Email Mobil HQ's and get a 2nd opinion [&o]

oliver · Jan 13, 2005

It seems that most OPCs use a special grade of Castrol Magnatex developed for Porsche engines. However, there may well be a commercial consideration. Most will use Mobil 1 if you ask. JZ Machtech also use Castrol products.

Personally, it doesn't worry me, I always thought Mobil 1 was over-hyped and over-priced.

daro911 · Jan 13, 2005

ORIGINAL: oliver

Personally, it doesn't worry me, I always thought Mobil 1 was over-hyped and over-priced.

[

]But I have 32 litres from a Costco special deal about £4.50 per litre otherwise I would say you have a good point well argued [

] which is my feeling about Zymol Products price wise of course [

]

Mark_Bennett · Jan 13, 2005

I did say I would use the Mobil 1...[

]

Andy Tims · Jan 13, 2005

ORIGINAL: Mark Bennett

I did say I would use the Mobil 1...[]

Me too in a new or new(ish) performance car.

See this thread about Magnatec & whether or not it's fully synthetic

http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=91565&mpage=1&key=Magna&#92429

Andrew Killington · Jan 14, 2005

don't Porsche now have a firm tie in with Mobil? (according to a recent Christophorus)
Andrew

Mark_Bennett · Jan 14, 2005

Yes they do - Mobil 1 is the factory fill. In the past it was Shell (back in hte days of the 968).

However the handbook states the grades and specifications that are allowed - and most oil manufacturers make a suitable oil.
My preference is Mobil 1, but others are "allowed" by Porsche.

Andy makes a good point with the link to the "fully" verses "semi"-synthetic post above.

Sundeep · Jan 14, 2005

ORIGINAL: Mark Bennett

I can see where they are coming from here, However I would go with the Mobil 1.
I believe some OPC's use Magnatec, but that would probably be because they get a better deal/make more margin on the specific oil used...

had the same thing said to my by te Porsche OPC about my 993....

although I put it down to Castrol being a German company and Mobil being part of the US Exxon company [

]

Dapster · Jan 14, 2005

although I put it down to Castrol being a German company and Mobil being part of the US Exxon company

Exxon bought Mobil and then retained the Mobil 1 brand when they sold the Mobil business to BP, hence you'll find Mobil 1 packs at an Esso station but not at a BP garage. BP also own Castrol - BP's German oil business is Aral.

Anyway..... unless you are operating the engine at the absolute limit all the time (eg non-stop trackdays, flat out autobahn work in the middle of summer), then I'm of the view that any top quality branded oil will do.

Guest · Jan 14, 2005

Use what ever the factory fill / dealer service oil is. This is what the car has been signed off on for durability during testing!

Guest · Jan 14, 2005

Thanks for all ur help guys.

Im going to go on the castrol site and find the exact oil from them for the porsche. Then an only then if HARTECH are using this exact oil am i going to allow it to be used, otherwise i will ask them to knock off the cost of the oil and supply mobil1 myself. I think is is fair, i have heard alot of ggod things about Hartech and the quality of cars they were working on in the workshop filled me with confidence!!!
Thanks once again for all your replies, i hope this sets off a good discussion.

Guest · Jan 14, 2005

I was asking my OPC today about approved oils too as chance will have it. I am doing the oil change myself as I only needed a yearly service having only done 9k miles. No way am I paying £100+ for an oil filter change and 10 mins work (i'm scottish) and I don't want to run the car for prolonged periods without changing even though the oil is still pretty near spotless.

They told me they use Castrol or Mobile. I asked what oils are approved by Porsche and they said there are about 40 brands cleared "you will struggle to find one [synthetic] that isn't".

On that basis I selected a fully synthetic brand that meets the Porsche spec as per the hand book instructions (and the same spec applied to Mobil 1) and is also on the Porsche approved list. Bought it in Costco at half the price of Mobil 1.

Just because it is factory fill does not mean it is the best IMO, however it may or may not be in this case. It is about who does the best comercial deal as per factory fit tyres. They can then make their money back and more by selling it to us at a premium.

I work for a large well known (jet) engine company and provided technical support for the transmission systems in the past. We never differentiated between oil brands when asked by a customer. They all met the spec so that was it. The different brands did have different characteristics, relative advantages and disadvantages, but all met specs for thermal stability, coking etc. etc.

Tool Pants · Jan 15, 2005

Here is the latest worldwide list of approved oils published for the North American market. The list changes about once a year.

A few years ago Porsche did in fact approve several conventional mineral oils for the Boxster. Now it is only synthetics. Jeff

http://home.jps.net/~mjlopez/images/Box%20oil%20world%207-9-04.pdf

Oil

Melv · Jan 15, 2005

Maybe not Mobil 1 0-40W, but ask them why not Mobil 1 Mootrsport -15-50W?

Mel
PS I may have the numbers wrong, but you get the jist!!

BrianJ · Jan 15, 2005

My OPC uses Mobil 1 or Esso Uniflo, both on the Porsche approved list. But the Esso is substantially cheaper (for the customer, at least) and that's what they seem to use as default. On the fully-synthetic vs semi-synthetic vs mineral debate, I understood the key problem is changing from one to the other as they have different detergent characteristics. I have heard stories of synthetics washing out all sorts of carbon deposits which had been nicely stuck in place when running with non-fully-synthetics, sometimes causing blockage of oilways - even if a flushing oild had been used as part of the change. A kind of automotive thrombosis. But I'm not an expert.

Guest · Jan 15, 2005

ORIGINAL: Melv

Maybe not Mobil 1 0-40W, but ask them why not Mobil 1 Mootrsport -15-50W?

Mel
PS I may have the numbers wrong, but you get the jist!!

I agree, 0W's is designed for well below -20degC. Even 5W's may not be ideal for our climate.

oliver · Jan 15, 2005

I think the recommended Castrol grade for Boxster/996 is TXT Softec (5-40w) synthetic.

Apparently there is no such thing as 'semi-synthetic'.

Guest · Jan 15, 2005

If it was me I would stick to Mobil 1, I used to work for Mobil before the tie up with BP and believe me Mobil 1 is one of the most over engineered products on the market. Lubricating oil really does not get any better. If you are going to use Castrol the synthetic RS (I think this is what it is still called) range would be more suitable than Magnatec, RS is very similar in performance to Mobil 1, I believe Magnatec was aimed at older performance car engines e.g. BMW E30 M3.

This comment about Mobil 1 being to thin goes back to when the oil was first marketed and old engines did indeed start leaking from just about anywhere possible when changed over to Mobil 1. This was generally a reflection on the engineering standards and not the oil, not something I think we need to worry about with our Boxsters

To correct some earlier comments, Castrol is in fact owned by BP it is not a German company. BP bought Mobil's European operations when Exxon and Mobil merged as part of the Monopolies commision conditions of the Exxon Mobil merger. Mobil now effectively operates as a lubricants division of Exxon, Mobil has always been the world leader in Lubricant technology. BP bought Castrol so as to compete with Exxon Mobil in the lubricants business, Castrol's reputation in the industry is very similar to that of Mobil where lubricants are concerned.

Apologies for the oil industry history lesson.

Ian