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Mixing oils

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by StevefromOhio, Aug 13, 2018.

  1. StevefromOhio

    StevefromOhio Member

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    I always hear the arguments about oil.....Amsoil....Royal Purple......Mobil One.....

    Was wondering if it would be a good thing to make a mixture of oils......4 quarts.....1 quart of Mobile One....One of Amsoil and One quart of Royal Purple.....and for good measure add 1 quart of Duralube.

    I've always run oil to 5K miles and then change.....and since it came out I've used Duralube. Every car I've owned had over 400K miles on them when I got rid of them. Most were brand new and driven for many years. Never an engine problem.....mostly Toyota's and Honda's.

    Seeing how everyone says how great each oil is.....and they probably are.....I was wondering if mixing brands of oils would cause problems?
     
  2. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    WHY? What would be the point of mixing them? If you're happy with Duralube, then use it.
     
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  3. padroo

    padroo Senior Member

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    There should be no problem mixing brands especially if they are all premium oils. Sounds like you have a winning oil already.
     
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  4. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Just don't mix high mileage oil with regular, low engine mile will be in trouble.

    If your car says fully synth, then don't mix conventional with synthetics.

    Also don't mix oil on the very light side with oil from the heavy side, i.e. 0w-20 mix w/20w-60
     
  5. Starship16

    Starship16 Senior Member

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    I am no longer the most bored guy in the world. ;)

    Just kidding. Believe it or not I have never heard of Dura lube. I looked on their website and there's about a dozen different types of fuel and oil additives.
     
    #5 Starship16, Aug 14, 2018
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2018
  6. FuelMiser

    FuelMiser Senior Member

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    I'm not an oil scientist, but I'd bet there's no issues with it. But, I don't see any benefit either. Any brand that is stamped with the Service Grade that is specified by the manufacturer will do the job. If the basis of your hypothesis is that different brands offer unique benefits based on their additive formula, then wouldn't diluting one brand's formula with another's dilute the benefit also? Just saying.
     
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  7. padroo

    padroo Senior Member

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  8. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Yes maybe. Some of the additives present might not "play well together".

    It's OK to add a quart of a different oil in a pinch but what you propose is just NOT a good idea.
    Nobody knows what will happen.......because likely nobody has tried that before.

    Or at least nobody has actually admitted to doing that.

    Anyhow, you have pretty much NO way to know if the result will be good or bad.........so why bother ??
     
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  9. Starship16

    Starship16 Senior Member

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    And after he gets done mixing the oils, he needs to put in a full tank of Shell V-Power Nitro Premium! :) Worked for me.

    Feel the power.... :cool:
    Driving in PWR Mode, with Shell V-Power Nitro and Techron fuel additive in the tank... ZOOM! :D
     
    #9 Starship16, Aug 14, 2018
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2018
  10. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    How about ester engine oil mix w/natural gas engine oil?
     
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  11. m.wynn

    m.wynn Senior Member

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    Redzoil:cool:...
     
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  12. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Or Pennzline(y).
     
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  13. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    Amsoil, Mobil, and others provide engine warranties that are voided if additives are used, and most likely if mixed with each other the same “voided”. I know there is concern that the manufacturer may weasel their way out of any warranty concern, but why exclude yourself right off the bat by mixing. No, I would not recommend mixing.
     
  14. GFO

    GFO Member

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    There's so many crazy concerns about oil, when the saying "oil is oil" has a lot of truth to it these days. Anyhow, IMHO (keep this in mind, my opinion), mixing oil brands is perfectly fine and won't cause any damage to your engine in of itself. Maybe avoid the random oil brands no one has really heard of. Also mixing conventional, synthetic and semi-syn won't really matter.

    -Worry more about your local temperatures and namely starting temperatures. eg If you routinely cold-start your car in sub freezing 10* Fahrenheit weather, you're better off with a 0wXX or 5wXX oil instead of a 10wXX or higher, they'll flow faster and lubricate moving parts faster when they're cold. Why some people use two different weights, one specifically for winter and one for the rest of the year.

    -Viscosity, nothing wrong with sticking to the specified weight rating, but it's also okay to use a higher viscosity if you feel you need it, like you're towing a trailer, you floor your car a whole lot going up hill etc, just keep the weight-jump within reason. eg if your car specs for 0w20, using 5w30 isn't going to do anything barring freezing ambient cold-starting temps. Also consider that the use of the ultra-light oils like 0w20 are namely to satisfy CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards in the United States and not because your engine will implode and then explode if you use anything else. Many of these same cars/engines spec for higher weights in Europe, parts of Asia, South America, Australia etc, depending on climate/temperature conditions and they do just fine.

    -Synthetic Vs Conventional. I'm a fan of synthetic, but I also do believe that conventional oil is perfectly fine for most daily drivers that change oil every 5k or less. But if you price-shop, you can get 5qts of a name brand (Mobil, Castrol, Pennzoil etc) synthetic for just few dollars more than conventional; so why not. Though many a "synthetic" is really just a severely processed GroupIII dino oil and that's okay too.

    -Fancy additives like Duralube, Prolong, Slick 50 etc are a waste of money, they won't do much that the oil already won't do.

    I'm personally not much of a fan of the 0w20 and 5w20 oils anymore, they drain like water after 5,000 miles so I do question how well they're protecting our internal components towards the end of the oil-life-cycle. Going to change my Prius to 5w30 synthetic next change and stick to that going forward, I'll happily take the 0.5% MPG drop, just a personal choice and I've read that 5w30 specs for this same exact engine in other parts of the world. Hell, seems in Singapore some Xw40 weights is okay in the hottest parts of the year according to Toyota. I also have the luxury of living in a part of California that rarely gets below 40F or above 100F.

    Here's a decent read on oil brands and if they really matter: Motor Oil Study Finds That Motor Oil Brands Are Not Important - The Drive

    /end rant (sorry guys)

    edit: To the OP. Will say, if using one brand of oil per change has worked for you so well, ask yourself why you want to mix and change that? If it's to save money, sure, , if it's just to play super-scientist, I see no real point. I've mixed oils, but it's when I've had mixed stock and wanted to use that up.
     
  15. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    I am a fairly loose blender, but something like Royal Purple I am thinking is true synthetic, whereas these days the others are probably refined oils (whereas the USA legal system gave Castrol a questionable legal victory against Mobil saying various refined oils could also be called "synthetic" if they were good enough). So I would tend to use Royal Purple by itself but I never had the need arise to move beyond Mobil-1. The need I would see is starting the lose oil or something performance wise.
     
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  16. GFO

    GFO Member

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    Yeah, judge ruled that if a GroupIII mineral oil is refined to change its base structure enough, it can be legally labelled/marketed as "full synthetic" to the public, when before only GroupIV PAOs and above could be labelled as such.
     
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  17. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    That is excatly what I was trying to say, but you did it so much better!!
     
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  18. Starship16

    Starship16 Senior Member

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    "Also consider that the use of the ultra-light oils like 0w20 are namely to satisfy CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards in the United States and not because your engine will implode and then explode if you use anything else. Many of these same cars/engines spec for higher weights in Europe, parts of Asia, South America, Australia etc, depending on climate/temperature conditions and they do just fine."

    Very good point. I always considered switching over to 5W-30. I suppose that if we always change our 0W-20 at 5,000 miles, we will be fine. But in the back of my mind, I keep thinking why not go for a little extra protection?

    $22.88 at Walmart.

    IMG_0299.JPG
     
    #18 Starship16, Aug 14, 2018
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2018
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  19. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    I agree with most of the statements. Different brand mix, weight mix or oil composition mix wont destroy your engine. Its just that the change internal will be thrown off with syn with non syn. Mixing weight won't destroy either immediately but there's no exact mathematical equation to use to figure out overall/final weight when mixing different weight oil.

    But I will say oil additive does work as advertised, but it will not be beneficial for every car crankcase out there so case by case.
     
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  20. m.wynn

    m.wynn Senior Member

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