Additive technology used in Euro mid-saps oils

[skyactiv]

Many of us are guilty of judging oils by what is seen in an oil analysis, myself included. There seems to be little talk of the additives used in oils that don't show up in an oil analysis. I'm especially curious to what additive technology is used in mid-saps oils targeted for European auto makers oil specs.

 

[bobbydavro]

Dispersants and antioxidants.

 

[weasley]

Anything organic: VMs, PPDs, some friction modifiers, yellow metal passivators. Also anything masked by something else. Example: if you have something which is characterised by its P content, it might get masked by ZDDP.

VOA gives you virtually no information about additives. For example, you see calcium and you think "there is a calcium-based detergent in there". But so what? Which one(s)? There is often more than one detergent in a given oil. You can't distinguish between a sulphonate, phenate and/or salicylate from a simple VOA. And they offer different performance, so simply focussing on "Ca" and/or "Mg" is really too simplistic.

Another thing could be misunderstanding or assumption on what an element is there for. Eg: Mo - many see Mo and think MoS2 (molybdenum disulphide). But it could be in as MoDTC (molybdenum dialkyldithiocarbamate).

 

[buster]

^ thanks for the responses. Good info.

 

[SR5]

Yeah, nice answer guys. Thanks

 

[sohccammer427]

I purchased a quart of Schaeffer European formula mid saps to evaluate and it did state on bottle it contained a small amount of naphthalene. It has the percentage on the bottle, but I'm cubicle challenged at the moment.

 

[weasley]

Originally Posted By: sohccammer427
I purchased a quart of Schaeffer European formula mid saps to evaluate and it did state on bottle it contained a small amount of naphthalene. It has the percentage on the bottle, but I'm cubicle challenged at the moment.


It's not mentioned on the SDS, but it does mention p-dodecylphenol, which isn't especially nice stuff.

 

[sohccammer427]

I'll try to remember to snap and post a photo this evening. I bought one quart to use as a top off oil for the factory fill on my Passat TDi. I already have 5 liters of Liqui Moly Top T 4200 5w-30 and 5 liters of M1 ESP 5w-30 queued up. At 5k miles on the clock, I'm covered for the next 25k.