How Many of You Use High Mileage Oil?

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Gebo

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You can see I have a pretty old fleet and I have steered away from High Mileage oil up to this point. However, I am starting to see a light (not necessarily "the" light) and am curious how many of you use a High Milage oil?

What criteria do you use in making the switch? Is it merely miles on the car or how old the car is?

I am assuming once I start I should stay on it for the duration.
 
I've been using it for quite a while. Used Castrol for a good bit, now Pennzoil and my motor doesn't consume as much versus when I was using Castrol. PDS and some VOAs on here show it's thicker than traditional oil. Just my two cents.
 
I switched to it at about 100k on my Frontier. Over 200k now and still doesn't use any oil. Pennzoil conventional HM. 5W30.
 
My only criteria is that it is as cheap as "non-HM" oil. That's really it. I won't pay a dime more for it, but if WM has it on rollback at the same price, I'm game. I have used it with three cars now, all in the 120K to 200K range, and no problems with leaks or anything else that folks have cautioned against, using HM oil. It probably has more cleaning agents and seal conditioners, so I prefer it, but even if it is all marketing hype, I'm not losing a cent. So I do look for it, but if its not on rollback, I go with the traditional oil.

As far as "when," the oil companies (I called Valvoline) say that you can use it on new cars. I certainly would if I wasn't too cheap to buy a new car.
 
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My Rav4 started to seep oil through the seals and use a little around 240,000 miles. Wife was taking it to a quick lube place that was charging about $22 for regular bulk dino but wanted over $50 for HM oil change. I started to do my own oil changes at that point. The Rav4 goes through a lot of oil these days. Little over a quart every thousand miles. HM oil slows it down a little.
 
I'm using up my stash of regular flavours then I'm switching to HiMi exclusively. (just gotta stop buying rebate oil or at least limit it to HiMi ...‚)

I've been lucky with no leaks and don't burn hardly a drop at 160k+ and I'd like to keep it that way. I figure a HiMi formula can't hurt. Plus, along with seal conditioners some HiMi formulas have nice amounts of AW additives over and above regular flavours.
 
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Originally Posted by Gebo
You can see I have a pretty old fleet and I have steered away from High Mileage oil up to this point. However, I am starting to see a light (not necessarily "the" light) and am curious how many of you use a High Milage oil?

What criteria do you use in making the switch? Is it merely miles on the car or how old the car is?

I am assuming once I start I should stay on it for the duration.

I use it sometimes if I feel like it or its on sale. I've been using it off and on for the past 300,000 miles on my Sienna but lately its had a steady diet of Castrol 0W-40.

No you don't have to keep using it. That's been hashed to death on here.
 
I'll never use it no matter how many miles my vehicles have. I guess I'm permanently turned off by the seal "conditioners" (swellers).
 
I, too, have an older fleet. I've been using high mileage oils in all of them though most still use some oil. I've tried M1 HM, Pennzoil HM, and Valvoline Maxlife with no real difference noticed between any of them.
 
Go to a tire store that has $10 vwb oil change coupon. Maxlife is $10 off the regular $50. Last year Maxlife was an additional ten bucks on top of the VWB. Worth an additional ten, not an additional thirty. Should have made a .pdf of the old coupon. Have used Maxlife without concern for mileage.
 
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My Kia is now 12 years old but with only 60,000 miles. Used Mag1 synthetic in it for the last 5 years.. No oil usage yet and I'd like to keep it that way. I reckon oil seals weaken not just with age but also with time. So, should I start using HM oil now as a preventive measure? Just how old would a seal be before it starts to leak? I'm now replacing a weeping valve cover gasket.
 
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Originally Posted by kschachn
Originally Posted by Gebo
You can see I have a pretty old fleet and I have steered away from High Mileage oil up to this point. However, I am starting to see a light (not necessarily "the" light) and am curious how many of you use a High Milage oil?

What criteria do you use in making the switch? Is it merely miles on the car or how old the car is?

I am assuming once I start I should stay on it for the duration.

I use it sometimes if I feel like it or its on sale. I've been using it off and on for the past 300,000 miles on my Sienna but lately its had a steady diet of Castrol 0W-40.

No you don't have to keep using it. That's been hashed to death on here.



How many miles on the Sienna??? That vehicle has been really good to you it seems.


I use HM oil on my Nissan Altima VQ two door coupe. 276k miles and counting. . It started seeping just a bit around 215k miles. The HM oils have worked really well. Amalie full synthetic high mileage oil and Havoline high mileage and Valvoline Maxlife full synthetic have all worked the best. Quaker State high mileage and Castrol high mileage did pretty ok has well. Quaker State high mileage did run very quiet in my car. I have to say the Amalie oil does run very quiet has well.
 
I made a thread quite recently about HM oil asking if it could cause leaks if I stopped using it. With some advise from there, I made a decision to just keep using it. Both my engines, an LS1 and 5VZ, are over 15 years old with over 130k, and I believe Royal Purple HMX has contributed to keeping my engines from leaking like mad for such mileage and age. The LS1 only seeps from the timing cover a bit.

I had a timing chain done long time ago on the LS1 before I was a mechanic. Guess that mechanic didn't reseal it very well. Being a mechanic now, I just learned to live with it for being such a small leak. Another reason I use it is because i keeps my engines ridiculously clean. I'm amazed that 7500 mile oil changes don't even leave a hint of varnish behind. I can probably go 10k but I do a lot of city driving in a desert.
 
I would use about any HM oil except Mobil 1. I considered them once but was told by customer service that after using it for a few oil changes that not using it from then out could cause some issues. I guess it made me using PPHM instead. I cant imagine how a majority grp 3 like M1HM would have adverse effects unlesd the got some serious ester swell going on? I would consider Castrol Magnatec because its slightly higher hths and that in itself can be all that needs to happen
 
My criteria is if it ain't broke don't fix it. If the engine is not leaking oil and not consuming oil then there is no need to use a HM oil. Using a HM oil before a problem exists to me is not preventative maintenance it is altering seals etc before their time, expanding gaskets when not needed etc,.
 
Originally Posted by Spector
My criteria is if it ain't broke don't fix it. If the engine is not leaking oil and not consuming oil then there is no need to use a HM oil. Using a HM oil before a problem exists to me is not preventative maintenance it is altering seals etc before their time, expanding gaskets when not needed etc,.

Soooo, it's basically not leaking until it starts to leak..in which case it's gonna be hard to put that genie back in the bottle, no matter what oil you use. Your window of opportunity to extend the life of the seals has closed on you. Your [only] choices at that point are to live with the leaks or repair them.

My thinking is if your vehicles over 100k miles, best to not let that genie out in the first place, right???

No oil mfg, not Shell, XOM or Chevron is going to use plasticizers in their HiMi formulas that destroy engine seals. Period. That would be a YUUGE liability (class action) lawsuit.... (read: if ya have conclusive evidence they are using plasticizers that are shortening the life span of seals, sign me up...I know a good product liability lawyer to get in touch with & I'm getting a free engine courtesy of Shell, Chevron, XOM, ConnocoPhillips et. al)
 
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