tquill

iTrader: (15)

^ FYI, daily driver, occasional spirited driving, no track days, Castrol GTX 5w-30, K&N HP-1010 filter

omsin523

iTrader: (8)

Im surprised a dino oil had those results. Nice.

06CPV35

And in general, on a unit with 120K miles...wow.

paulc31082

The OP said that he looks for the lowest possible levels of chromium, lead, and copper to indicate better protection of critical areas. Based on the two samples I've seen here, the GTX posts lower numbers for those elements than even the GC can match.

I have always ignored Nissan's recommendation of "mineral-based" oils in the owner's manual. (To be honest, I'm not even sure what "mineral-based" means; I just assumed it meant dino.) Now I'm wondering whether maybe the manual knows what it's talking about.

mugen727

iTrader: (1)

I'm surprised that the Mobile 1 0w-40 has good results running on the VQ because Nissan recommends running a 5w-30 oil dino oil. Is there a huge difference from running dino oils and synthetic? Castrol GTX seems to run great on the VQ. Can anyone confirm this?

BeerViper

I can confirm that Mobil1 0W-40 runs well in my car but I am running the heavier weight oil because I'm supercharged and want better protection. I can't speak to the other oils but the first page of this post sums it up pretty good.

I'm not sure when the last time Resolute has updated this thread but the results are still pretty long standing.

omsin523

iTrader: (8)

Got my results emailed today, I ran mobil one 5w30 for 3500 miles. In the car right know ive changed to castrol edge 5w30 so my next oil change i will doing a another test on the edge. Will post results.
Anyone can chime in, about the high iron and sodium?
Kinda got me a little worried. Thanks.

RD400

Looks fine to me and nothing alarming. Iron is slightly high but nothing to worry about - seems to be normal with M1 in a VQ. The sodium is a common additive but not much in M1... what oil did you have in there previously? You could be picking up the residual from the last run you had.

Absolute numbers aren't that meaningful, trends are. Watch what your next analysis says compared to this one. If there's a coolant leak, it tends to get worse, not better. Edge has very low if any sodium, so a decreasing number would be a good trend.

omsin523

iTrader: (8)

Hey thanks for looking it over for me. Since I've bought the car in october of 09 I've been using mobil one. But then I started to read this thread and realized that it wasn't a good oil in the vq. I have the castrol edge in right now, so on my next oil change I'm going to send a sample of the edge. And compare those results with the mobile one.
Thanks again.

thescreensavers

iTrader: (2)

yea M1 always shows up with higher then normal Iron Wear. over at BITOG there was a M1 Q&A people asked this and they did not really answer it directly, just saying that it meets the standards blah blah.

It seems all of Castrol's oils run well in the VQ.

mugen727

iTrader: (1)

Should I just save my money and run Castrol next? O_O

WhosRich

Castrol syntec is the best bang for your buck and most available.

VQdriver

iTrader: (1)

hot dang, almost 9,000mi and 0qt make up oil. Is your car a manual trans? I am jealous lol. I drove 5,300mi and had 2qts make up oil my last interval of GC 0W-30!

GBoger

my car is an auto ^

VQdriver

iTrader: (1)

Ahh, I see. That means it's a non revup and no blipped throttle downshifts = little to no oil consumption.

tquill

iTrader: (15)

Both samples are Castrol GTX 5w-30. Daily driver, manual transmission, no track days, K&N HP 1010 oil filter.

RanFerr_350z

iTrader: (13)

just wanted to get some clarification. So GC 0w-30 which says "made in germany" but is GOLD instead of Green(gummy bear smell) is the same product?

the info i read is contradicting per this site and BITTOG.

There are 3 types of GC.
U.S. - So it's not really GC, but it's U.S. made Castrol Syntec 0w-30.
Green - Yes, the oil is Green.
Gold - The most recent stuff.
What's the difference?
There's not much research done on the U.S. stuff, so just don't buy it.
Green vs Gold
No one is 100% sure which is better.
Green has proven itself to be great.
So far, Gold has been great too!
Gold is probably just as good as Green. (Maybe better?)
Click here for more reading.
Bottom Line
The U.S. stuff probably isn't as good as the German stuff.
Buy Green if you can find it. Otherwise go for the Gold!
How can I tell the difference?
First, I'll teach you how to read the date codes.
Look at the bottom of the bottle, it'll say something like M05216xxxx
The 05 represents the year it was made. (2005 in this case)
The 216 represents the day it was made. (001 - 365)
U.S.
No need to look at the date code, it'll say "Made in the U.S.A." on the back.
It was last made in 2002, but many AutoZones still have some lying around.
Green GC
It'll say "Made in Germany" on the back.
Anything until and including M05010xxxx is Green.
This stuff came out in 2002.
Gold GC
It'll say "Made in Germany" on the back.
Anything after M05010xxxx is Gold.
This is the current GC.

i went to autozone and purchased enough bottles for an oil change. It is GC 0w-30 with the "made in germany" I opened one bottle but it gold not green. just wanted to make sure that this is the real deal (not made in U.S) and willing to go back and purchase more if it is.

RD400

Syntec 0W-30 with "Made in Germany" on the back is GC (German Castrol).

The Made in USA version is not GC (since it's not German), but is probably very similar.

They haven't made the green variety for many years, so Gold is all we can get now.

JustinTime

I just started using it, and plan on having a UOA done. For my next oil change I'm probably switching to M1 0w-40 after what I've read so far.

datboyvinh

iTrader: (4)

I live in houston, temp does not drop to freezing, would you recommend 5w30 or should i keep running 10w30

seems like everybody is running 0 or 5



and also is there a big diff between the amsoil, sso, atm, asl? i dont track so which one would yall rec?

thanks any info would greatly be appreciated