Is it really the oil?

[Jeffs2006EvoIX]

I have heard on this site many many times how M1 oil has made their engine more "noisy" and what not, and if they switched to brand X oil the noise went away.

I have something that I just noticed. Here in Southern California we dont really experience "Cold" weather like other areas of the world or country to that part. Well, the last couple days we have had a cold front come into the SoCal Deserts and temps have been in the upper 20's in the early morning hours.

I have noticed that when I start my car up the engine is what I would consider "nosier" and was trying to figure out why that would be. I cant really believe that X brand 0w40 can be quieter than Y brand, so I was trying to figure out what the "noise" actually is.

My car is a DI, or Direct Injected motor, and I feel as the Temp drops, the High Pressure fuel pump that is pressurized by the cam shaft may be responsible. Its possible that certain mechanical parts may just be susceptible to more mechanical noise during cold weather, vs warm weather. Maybe folks feel that brand Y oil is quieter than brand X is due to the time of year that the oil was switched? Or do people actually have some type of proof that one oil can actually make an engine quieter. If your using the same weight oil and same specs. how can there really be that much of a difference?

If anyone has any other ideas or can shed some light on the fact, or is it that one oil can actually make your engine nosier?


Jeff

 

[raytseng]

i would assume they're making the switch and noticing the next morning, so time of year is out of it as a reason.

However, it can be any new oil always seems smoother versus whatever old oil that is exiting service.
New oil always seems to be smoother just as it enters service for a few cycles so that may add to the confirmation bias.

 

[dparm]

DI motors do tend to sound more clattery than standard port injection due to the high-pressure, you are correct. I also find that certain valvetrains are just inherently more noisy.

 

[fdcg27]

Any engine is louder on a cold weather start.
We see this here every winter.
There have been many who've claimed that M1 made for a noisier and less smooth engine. I've never noticed that it does.
I'm with raysteng in that any fresh oil always seems smoother and quieter than the old oil it replaced.
The claims of M1 making an engine louder and less smooth don't seem to depend upon ambient temperature, so there may be some truth in these claims with some engines, or it may be that some people here have far more sensitive ears than I do.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Any engine is louder on a cold weather start.
We see this here every winter.
There have been many who've claimed that M1 made for a noisier and less smooth engine. I've never noticed that it does.
I'm with raysteng in that any fresh oil always seems smoother and quieter than the old oil it replaced.
The claims of M1 making an engine louder and less smooth don't seem to depend upon ambient temperature, so there may be some truth in these claims with some engines, or it may be that some people here have far more sensitive ears than I do.


I've noticed that some grades affect the acoustics in some of the engines I've used it in.
My hemi truck a couple years ago had a crazy botyom end knock with 0w-20 afe and it came on immediately after pouring it in,but defy 5w-20 made the knock disappear.
I used to think more noise meant there was a problem. I've since learned otherwise.
So now I couldn't care less and I quit trying to hear to see if different oils added to increased acoustics,and you know what,I no longer notice any difference.
So maybe it's that I don't hear as well,or maybe it's that I know I've got a quality oil in the sump and if it's more noisy so what.
My bike is picky. But it seems to like rotella,so it's become a cheap date now

 

[Merkava_4]

BITOG Search - Mobil 1 Noise

 

[SilverC6]

Sounds like a consensus to me.

Preception is reality.

Just moved back to TGMO 0W-20 from Castrol Edge 0W-20.

The TGMO is much quieter.

 

[abycat]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
BITOG Search - Mobil 1 Noise

ha ha you [censored] disturber!

 

[CBR.worm]

My experience has been that my engines, which have up until a few years ago used primarily M1, had more valvetrain noise than other identical engines. The other difference is that my engines typically had 100k more miles than whatever I would be comparing to. My G35 has a loud valve tick that goes away with dino 10w30 but is very present when hot with M1 or PP. A synthetic tick? Or just the noise of an engine approaching 200K?

Our ambient temperatures don't vary very much.

Also, the complaints of noise have been around far longer than direct injected gas engines have been common.

Who knows if it is the oil, or if the oil people complain about today is even remotely similar to the oils that were around when these mystery noises came to be.

 

[seanf]

I know on my 02 A4 with a 1.8t the gold bottle Castrol OE Professional vw502 the dealer uses made my cam chain tensioner rattle badly on a cold start, as well as my friends 4.2 s4. I swtiched to GC 0w30 and he went with Castrol 5w40 black bottle and both of us the noise was solved.

 

[virginoil]

No question here over the years too reports confirm switching to another brand or grade caused the vehicle engine to appear and when switching back etc the noise reduced or went away.

My inference is some vehicles are possessed and just seem to like certain oils or grades or otherwise these will squirm at you and let you know until these are happy.

I have noticed this in two of my vehicles use of 2 certain oils caused a light to mild ringing sound to appear from the valve train after 2000 kms and when I switched oil the noise went away and has never returned.

 

[Shannow]

I posted that M1 0W40 made my 3VZE sound like a bucket of marbles, a long, long time ago, before it was popular...I changed it, it was noisy. Changed to any other number of oils, and it wasn't like "that".

 

[aa1986]

Here's an article that talks about differing oil film thickness between different base oils at different temperatures.

Maybe these differences also have an acoustic implication?

http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/586/viscosity-coefficient-bearing

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: Jeffs2006EvoIX
I have heard on this site many many times how M1 oil has made their engine more "noisy" and what not, and if they switched to brand X oil the noise went away.

I have something that I just noticed. Here in Southern California we dont really experience "Cold" weather like other areas of the world or country to that part. Well, the last couple days we have had a cold front come into the SoCal Deserts and temps have been in the upper 20's in the early morning hours.

I have noticed that when I start my car up the engine is what I would consider "nosier" and was trying to figure out why that would be. I cant really believe that X brand 0w40 can be quieter than Y brand, so I was trying to figure out what the "noise" actually is.

My car is a DI, or Direct Injected motor, and I feel as the Temp drops, the High Pressure fuel pump that is pressurized by the cam shaft may be responsible. Its possible that certain mechanical parts may just be susceptible to more mechanical noise during cold weather, vs warm weather. Maybe folks feel that brand Y oil is quieter than brand X is due to the time of year that the oil was switched? Or do people actually have some type of proof that one oil can actually make an engine quieter. If your using the same weight oil and same specs. how can there really be that much of a difference?

If anyone has any other ideas or can shed some light on the fact, or is it that one oil can actually make your engine nosier?


Jeff

I stated that several times.
1. It is not only cold start. With M1 my old Passat 1.8T and now CC 2.0T are noisier also at high rpm's than GC (older batch of GC).
2. GC 0W30 had much better cold cranking capability, regardless of pds sheets etc, both car's made much less noise during cold cranking with GC, especially when it gets really cold, like below 10 or below 0.
3. That being said, I know bunch of people complain about oil consumption in the VW/Audi 2.0T engine, engine in my CC and Tiguan never used a drop of oil in 5 to 6K intervals while using M1.
4. What I noticed so far in 2.0T engines: GC was oil with best cold cranking, smoothest sound. M1 is little noisier, but never burned a drop. Only downside to M1 IMO is cold cranking. I found it that M1 5W30 ESP has same if not even better start in temperatures around 0 in Colorado mountains.