smart approves Mobil 1

[Old smart]

Penske isn't presently on either of the boards, but he and Daimler/M-B both have strong ties to Mobil 1 through lucrative racing sponsorships. Anyway, my sc indicates that the stickers are not supplied to the dealers to be put on the cars at PDI; they come to them that way. Also, the sc has no information that oil changes are done at the VPC, but if so, the stickers could be put on then.

If only U.S. cars get the stickers I would say that it is Penske-driven; if ROW smarts get them also it would be a M-B deal. Do full-size M-Bs get them?

[sunnyokanagan]

Originally Posted by triumph17

There may be warranty issues if you change the oil and not the dealership.

Nonsense. Just use an oil recommended by MB/smart, along with an oem oil filter. Keep your receipts.

Dealerships like to imply a void warranty at every opportunity in order to scare the gullible into keeping service in-house.

[WhiteNBlack08]

Originally Posted by Dan1776

One only has to look in the owner's manual to see what the oil's requirements are and then make sure that the correct oil is purchased.

That's the problem with smart's manual, under oil, it says refer to the dealership. I had to call mine, and they said use Mobil 1 0w40. Autozone carries it locally.

Mprice2984, have you noticed any difference using Valvoline? I've always been a Valvoline man myself, I've used the Mobil 1 up till now because you can't get 0w40 full synthetic from Valvoline.

[WhiteNBlack08]

I just browsed Valvoline's web site, and they are M-B 229.5 approved if you use their Synpower 5w40 HST:

http://www.valvoline.com/products/Synpower.pdf

[Old smart]

If you look at pg 315 of the new U.S. '09 manual you will see that whoever prints it finally acknowledges that different viscosities are appropriate to different climates, with the controling factor being the lowest temperature expected (not the highest). The deep South doesn't need 0W-, nor does the far North need -40. Truth is, by far most of the oils on the dealer's list provided by M-B (229.5) are 5W-30s.

Among other sources, climatological averages and extremes can be found here: http://www.weatherbase.com/

[MPrice2984]

Moving from Mobil 1 0-w40 to Valvolene Synpower 5-w30 has been fine. In 3000 miles since I changed oil at 17000 miles there has been no oil usage and it's been in the car since it was cold enough to be in the single digits for a while.
I like Valvolene, besides my local WalMart has a 5 gallon jug of the stuff for sale right now for 19.95. Both are good oils, I used M1 in my last car for 202k miles before I sold it to buy the smart, I would never go back to dino based oil again based on my experience. I plan on staying with Valvolene until the smart drops dead way in the future.

[Padawan]

Originally Posted by Old smart

Do full-size M-Bs get them?

They sure do. It's an almost identical looking decal that reads: "Mercedes Benz approves Mobil 1"

[homeslice]

Originally Posted by Dan1776

To say that Smart "approves Mobil 1" isn't saying much. Sounds like more of a marketing agreement between Smart and Mobil than anything else. Any oil that has the required specifications and weight range as required by the car's builder is just fine to use. One only has to look in the owner's manual to see what the oil's requirements are and then make sure that the correct oil is purchased. I use Amsoil and have for 30 years because it tests much better than most anything else out there. Just my thoughts after many years studying oil theory. Dan

I concur. I see no reason to use anything else other than Amsoil. I plan on doing 15,000 mile oil drains with the 5W30 as long as I can use an EAO12 oil filter. Normally I would go up to 25,000 miles, but now that I sit in major stop and go traffic, I guess that would qualify as "severe" driving with all of the sitting in idle traffic. I used to drive 95% highway miles and would put over 30,000 miles per year. Back then I would use the 0W30 oil since it would last up to 35,000 miles.

There's no savings to using other oils being that you have to change them so frequently and Amsoil has a lower wear scar in the 4-ball wear tests as well as many other comparisons. I used Mobil 1 for many years until somebody told me about Amsoil. I had no idea that Amsoil was the first synthetic oil for cars to come out in the US. I am so mad that nobody told me about this oil sooner.

It's too bad that all of these major oil companies give kickbacks to the manufacturers to put their name on them, like the way Castrol does with BMW. Amsoil beats the pants off of Mobil 1.

As long as the specifications for the Mitsubishi engine in the US for the Smart fortwo require "SM", then the Amsoil 5W30 should work or even the better stuff like the Signature Series (which costs a bit more money but shares some of the same chemistry as the Amsoil 15W50 racing oil.)

[homeslice]

Originally Posted by MPrice2984

I would never go back to dino based oil again based on my experience. I plan on staying with Valvolene until the smart drops dead way in the future.

They should outlaw dino oil. It's only good to use as a break-in oil only. After that, it does long-term damage to the valve guides and seals on many cars. You never notice the damage in the short term. It all happens once the engine gets high miles.

If you put Amsoil in the Smart, you can easily go 500,000 miles. That Smart will never go dead. I've seen vehicles go just about 1,000,000 miles on Amsoil. One of them I saw go over 1,000,000 miles on the original transmission using the Amsoil ATF. To me, oil is cheap. Engines are expensive. I never look for "bargain oil" at Walmart or Costco just because of the price. The money you save on the oil, you'll spend many times over on rebuilding an engine.

[Padawan]

Originally Posted by homeslice

They should outlaw dino oil. It's only good to use as a break-in oil only. After that, it does long-term damage to the valve guides and seals on many cars. You never notice the damage in the short term. It all happens once the engine gets high miles.

The money you save on the oil, you'll spend many times over on rebuilding an engine.

Tell that to all the folks who've logged 500,000+ miles on their cars simply following the manufacturer's maintenance schedule and using that "terrible" conventional motor oil. Just imagine all the money they could have saved over the years if they'd only spent 3-4 times as much on synthetic instead.

There's no question that Amsoil and other top-shelf synthetics are excellent oils, but to claim that conventional oils "should be outlawed" and will destroy your engine is simply absurd.