Copyright © 2003, All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy or distribute this document as long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the author is attached and the URL’s within the document are linked properly. The author of this article is: Robert Riley.

Cheating your engine’s planned obsolence that was created by its manufacturer
By Robert Riley

I’m sure by now you’ve heard the term “Extended Drain Interval” for your vehicle’s oil change. If you’ve ever been to a place like Jiffy Lube or other quick lube shop, you’ve probably seen some big sign outside telling you to come back every 3,000 miles for an oil change – quite the opposite of the “extended drain interval”. Jiffy Lube promotes the short, 3,000 mile oil drain interval. Did you know that according to Marc Graham, the president of Jiffy Lube, if they could convince you to change your oil at 2,900 miles instead of 3,000, Jiffy Lube could earn an extra $20 million dollars per year? And if they could get one more oil change per year out of every customer, that would pocket them a whopping $294 million per year?

All the quick lubes and dealers tell me to change it every 3,000.

Well, let’s look at some numbers. For example, let’s say a married couple with a couple kids have two vehicles in their family. Both of them drive an average of about 18,000 miles per year each commuting back and forth to work, running errands, taking their kids to events and all the normal stuff a family does.

For our example, let’s say each vehicle takes 5 quarts to fill, plus the oil filter. With 18,000 miles per year, that’s 6 oil changes per year per vehicle based on the 3,000 mile returns. So every year, both vehicles are going through 60 quarts of oil per year and 12 oil filters. In 5 years each vehicle has driven approximately 90,000 miles (which some of you probably know quite a few people who’ve driven this far in only 3 years!) That’s 60 quarts x 5 years = 300 quarts of oil and 60 oil filters for both vehicles. In 5 years, both cars have been to the quick lube about 60 times. I’ve seen the price of an oil change go anywhere between $19.00 and $28.50 at various Jiffy Lubes around the country. Let’s say an average of $25 per oil change. Over 5 years for this couple, they’ve spent about $1,500 or so in oil changes for average quality, NON-PREMIUM, NON-SYNTHETIC oil. For the $25 they are spending on each vehicle, they are getting plain old mineral oil or in other words, dead dinosoar juice taken from pertrolium, most likely imported from outside of the country.

What other choice do you have? Everyone has told you to change your oil at 3,000 miles. So paying all that money and taking all that time to drive down and have the oil changed is just part of life? Right?

Well, not really. You have a much better alternative. You have the option to perform extended drain intervals and save yourself a lot of money to boot!

So what’s the story with an extended drain interval?

Change your oil every 25,000 to 35,000 miles?

WHAT?! Are you crazy?

Well, if you tried doing this with the current oil you’re using now, yes, you would be crazy. The oil mineral oil you’re using is not designed to be driven that long. Not long after you start driving, the conventional mineral oil and it’s own low-cost additives break down fairly quickly. Remember, it’s in the Quick Lube’s best interest for it to break down so that way you can hurry up and GET BACK THERE FOR ANOTHER OIL CHANGE! Remember how much the oil companies make from your repeat business… especially if you come in an extra 100 miles earlier.

Okay, so what’s all of this information on extended drain intervals and how do you do it?

Well first, you cannot perform extended drain intervals on your current mineral oil. If you want to be able to SAFELY and RELIABLY drive up to 25,000 or 35,000 miles on the same oil without changing it, then you need an oil which is DESIGNED to be run for this extended period of time and distance. Just like they make tires which only last 20,000 miles and some last up to 80,000 miles depending on the rubber compounds, oil also works in a somewhat similar way.

For an oil to last for such a long period of time, it needs to be fully synthetic and only use the best base stocks in order for it to not break down. The first company to come out with fully synthetic oil for an automobile is the AMSOIL Corporation. They started making synthetic oil for cars way back in 1972, many, many years before Mobil, Castrol, Shell, Exxon, Havoline, Redline, Royal Purple or any other popular American oil company started doing it. Being that they were the first ones to start out with it, they obviously have the most experience with creating a quality synthetic oil.

Remember that same couple who used 300 quarts of oil on mineral oil and 60 filters over the 5 years, if they used AMSOIL instead they could have driven the exact same mileage on ONLY about 60 quarts of oil and 10 oil filters. That would have saved them about 240 quarts of oil and 50 oil filters. And on top of that, have a much cleaner engine with a lot less wear and tear and added anywhere between 3 and 8% on top of their fuel economy.

Wow! Drive 35,000 miles (or even more with oil analysis)… isn’t that a little far to go? You’ve got to be pulling my leg. Won’t that stuff cook my engine? I don’t want to void the warranty on my car!

Absolutely not! There are tons of testimonies of people driving beyond 35,000 miles on the same oil.
For example, read about a trucker who went over 400,000 miles on the SAME OIL – YES! He drove with NO OIL CHANGES on the SAME OIL in the crankcase:
http://www.synthetic-motor-oil-change-and-filters.com/amsoil_testimonies/satisfied_customers_trucks/amsoil-diesel-oil-going-409000-miles-without-oil-change.html

How was this accomplished? Is this some kind of magic trick? Can you just put this oil in and forget about it? No! Absolutely not! You cannot do that or you would certainly have engine problems. The AMSOIL oil stays in, but in order to go as far as the trucker did with 400,000 miles, he had to use an optional dual-filtration kit. The dual-filters are so powerful, they can filter out dirt at about the size of 1 micron (that’s about the size of a blood cell in your body… very, very tiny!) And not only can you drive farther on the same oil, you also get much, much less wear and tear on your engine’s internal components due to the high performing PAO base stocks, anti-foaming and anti-sludge and other incredible properties. It keeps your oil almost like new. To see this a diagram of how this dual-oil filter connects on your car, look at this web site: http://www.searchforparts.com/filtration_products.php

Worried about my vehicle manufacturer’s warranty? Not to fret! It’s been covered!
http://www.synthetic-motor-oil-change-and-filters.com/amsoil_articles/warranty-information/

Does this mean I have to install these special dual-filters if I want to drive that 25,000 or 35,000 miles?

No. AMSOIL also makes a filter called a “SUPER DUTY FILTER” which is designed to last up to 12,500 miles before needing changing (and lasts about 4 times longer than what you find at the auto parts store.). From the outside, it looks just like the oil filter you’re using now. So if you used AMSOIL 10W30 oil and drove 25,000 miles in one year, you only have to use 2 of these regular-looking screw on filters for the entire year. If you used conventional oil and filters, you’d have to change the filter 8 times for the same amount of miles, easily costing MUCH MORE than using AMSOIL’s products, not to mention the poorer fuel economy you’d be getting from not having that reduced friction from an AMSOIL synthetic.

You’re probably in disbelief. This AMSOIL stuff almost sounds too good to be true.

Okay… Let's say Amsoil didn't deliver as promised. Let's also assume for one minute that it's crazy, a lie... false and deceptive advertising... whatever you want to call it. You’ve already heard and seen every scam on the Internet.

Think about it. Don't you imagine for a minute that Mobil, Royal Purple, Redline, Castrol, Shell Oil or Exxon wouldn't be all over AMSOIL in a court of law sueing for FALSE ADVERTISING if this stuff didn’t really work? All of them would love to see their competition go out of business. Wouldn't you, if you were an competing oil manufacturer?

If the back of the bottle of Amsoil 0W-30 says, "extended drain intervals for up to 35,000 miles or one-year" don't you really think that the oil should be GUARANTEED to last that long? And if not, wouldn't there be a class action law suit against AMSOIL after thousands of people from all over the USA and Canada would complain about problems?

The 0W-30 oil that’s capable of such long, 35,000 mile drain intervals is here:
http://www.synthetic-motor-oil-change-and-filters.com/amsoil_products/amsoil_series_2000_synthetic-0W-30_motor_oil-product-code-tso.html

For certain, one could visit http://www.ftc.gov/ (Federal Trade Commission for Consumer Protection)
and type in: AMSOIL

If AMSOIL didn’t work as stated, you would see law suits from the FTC for false advertising and AMSOIL would be fined some big hefty fines for making such claims and pretty much go out of business.

Don't believe me? Visit the FTC's web site right now and search on these WELL-KNOWN companies that you’ve probably heard of or used yourself (or may be using right now) over the last several years and see the kinds of trouble you can get into:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/02/zmax1.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1996/07/slick.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/09/shellcastrol.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1995/12/stp.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/01/shellcmp.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/05/duralub2.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/09/prolong.shtm
http://search.ftc.gov/query.html?qt=mobil&col=hsr&col=news&col=full
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/04/motorup5.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1996/09/exxon1.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1996/02/amoco.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1997/10/valve.shtm

Now search on Federal Trade Commission’s web site for AMSOIL and see what comes up:
http://search.ftc.gov/query.html?qt=Amsoil&col=hsr&col=news&col=full

Wow... funny how there is not ONE single FTC charge for deceptive or misleading advertising for AMSOIL.

See... if you print a claim on the back of a bottle or package of a product, IT BETTER PERFORM AS DESCRIBED or the whole world will know you are a deceiving the public and class action law suits will clearly be found on the Internet.

Remember, AMSOIL has been making synthetic oil since 1972 for automobiles, LONG BEFORE any other major competing oil company, hence their trademark, "FIRST IN SYNTHETICS".

Pick up any bottle of any competing brand of oil and read the back. Notice that they don't make any claims that can't be verified. If Mobil was formulated that good where it could last up to 35,000 miles, don't you think for a minute that they would advertise that all over the place? Of course it doesn't last that long, so they can't make that kind of claim, otherwise AMSOIL, some other motor oil competitor, or consumers would be putting them in court for false, deceptive advertising.

More than likely you've been surfing the web and looking at all kinds of competing brands of oil for your car, motorcycle, RV, snowmobile or what have you. You've probably read all kinds of hype about different oils or additives. One thing you'll notice different about AMSOIL is that the TECHNICAL PROPERTIES are CLEARLY and PROUDLY listed so you can see how well the oil performs.

Don’t you find it strange that the competing oil companies don’t proudly post their performance information on their own motor oil in the same fashion that AMSOIL does? What are they hiding? What do they seem to be embarassed about? Are they are hoping that maybe by spending millions of dollars on repetative advertising so you hear their name over and over, you'll buy it just on being familiar with the name, not necessary for how well it performs.

You'll notice that AMSOIL doesn't spend millions of dollars on advertising. Instead, all of the money is put into the quality of the oil. Their advertising is free when people win championships in racing and AMSOIL’s logo is put in color pictures in various magazines. That’s one of the reasons you haven’t seen full page ads wasted on advertising.

When is the last time you saw Ferrari or Lamborghini running huge campaigns to try to sell their cars? Yet you see full page advertisements for Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Chrysler, Mazda and many other manufacturers in magazines all the time.

Does that mean Toyota, Honda or Hyundai are inferior or low quality just because they spend millions on advertising? Of course not. But on the flip side, does that mean Ferrari or Lamborghini are a peace of junk for not advertising or maybe the chance that many people may have never heard or seen a Ferrari or Lamborghini? Do you see my point?

AMSOIL is sort of like Ferrari and Lamborghini. People who know Ferrari or Lamborghini know that they are some of the best performing sports cars in the world and do not need to spend millions on advertising to get the word out. AMSOIL works on a similar philosphy. When you see cars breaking world's records and snowmobiles winning races with AMSOIL logos on them, that's the best advertising money can buy.
http://www.synthetic-motor-oil-change-and-filters.com/amsoil_testimonies/satisfied_customers_racing/worlds-fastest-four-cylinder-using-amsoil.html

Another question… If AMSOIL is so great, then why doesn't GM use it instead of Mobil 1 as a factory fill in their Corvettes and other high performing sports cars?

That’s an excellent question. Think about it... If you were General Motors, would it be in your BEST INTEREST to have the cars you sold lasting for hundreds of thousands of miles because of some super, high quality oil you told everyone to use? Wouldn’t you be shooting yourself in the foot? As an auto manufacturer, YOU WANT REPEAT CUSTOMERS to come back every few years, not people who will keep cars for hundreds of thousands of miles because their engines run too well.

We can't go out and say that Mobil or other oil companies make bad oil, but if you look at the comparisons and see the bigger wear scars that Mobil and others put out vs. AMSOIL, you can clearly see that over a long period of time, that Mobil and the rest can wear out your engine quicker than AMSOIL would. Just look at the Four-Ball wear test comparisons to see what I’m talking about. So wouldn’t it be in GM's best interest (or any automobile manufacturer for that matter) to put a lesser quality oil in their vehicles and not recommend the absolute, best oil in the world? Once your engine gets high mileage and you hear the "Clack clack clack" sound of the lifters making noise and other strange sounds, that's usually the BIG RED FLAG that says, "Well, this engine is old, about ready to die... time to trade the car in on a new one before it totally blows and then I only get $300-500 for my car as a trade-in." And believe me, THIS IS EXACTLY what ALL OF THE AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURERS WANT. It's a little thing they call PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE.

And when you use AMSOIL in your engine, transmission and/or rear-end differential, you are essentially CHEATING the manufacturers' planned obsolecense. This is why automobile manufacturers would prefer that you do NOT LEARN ABOUT AMSOIL. For every person who drives their car an extra 5 to 10 years, that could cost an automobile manufacturer maybe $20,000 to $40,000. Looking on page 72 in the January 2004 copy of “Popular Mechanics” magazine they have pickup trucks selling for a whopping $28,000 to $42,000. Wow! And you want to spend this kind of outrageous money on a vehicle and then put the cheapest oil you can find in it? Just so you can spend another $40,000+ on another vehicle a few short years later?

So, once again, if you were an auto manufacturer and knew how good AMSOIL performed, would you want people learning about it if you stood to not be selling those $20,000 to $40,000 vehicles every year?

See... it's all about the big picture that most people never think about... but the bean counters at the automanufacturers certainly thing about it! Believe me, they smile all the way to the bank everytime you hand out your hard earned dollars on a depreciating asset only to replace it in a short time period later.

And after seeing the law suits above with the FTC against all of the well-known oil companies, why would you NOT BE SKEPTICAL OF THEM instead of AMSOIL? People should be FLOCKING to put AMSOIL in their vehicles, especially with the OUTRAGEOUS price tags of new cars today. What happened to the day of buying a brand new Ford F-150 for $13,000-16,000? Wow… that’s a pipe dream now. AMSOIL is an oil that's proven time and time again that beats all of the competition, hands down, with tons of testimonies to back it up.

When you're using a competing oil, not only are you putting an inferior oil in your car, you are paying MORE MONEY TO DO SO than you would to use AMSOIL since you have to change it more frequently (remember the couple above who used 300 quarts of dino oil vs. 60 quarts of AMSOIL.) So why on earth would you pay MORE MONEY to have a LESSER PRODUCT? That clearly does not make sense at all. Especially in something expensive as $36,000 Nissan Titan or GMC Sierra Denali! The benefits of AMSOIL far out weigh anything that you can get at the Discount Auto Parts store or from the regular Quick Lube shop. In the long run AMSOIL is cheaper to use, your vehicle’s engine life gets drastically extended, your fuel economy gets improved, your vehicle’s performance increases, and your starter and spark plugs last longer from running at cooler temperatures due to less friction. After reading and learning everything on this site, EVERYONE SHOULD BE USING AMSOIL. It just makes sense and costs you MORE MONEY *NOT* TO USE IT! The only time you WOULD NOT use this kind of oil is in a brand new vehicle than has less than 2,000 to 5,000 miles on it. The engine should have adequate time to break in using the dino oil to give time for the parts to settle in.

Imagine the millions taxpayers could save if all our local government branches implemented AMSOIL into all of the motor vehicles that they have… police cars, fire engines, maintenance trucks, generators, lawn care equipment… you name it. And as far as privately owned companies, think of the savings the owners and operators of limosines, taxi cabs, diesel trucks or even jitney’s could pocket! A lot of taxi cabs drive 1,000 miles per week! That’s 52,000 miles per year or about 17 oil and filter changes using some inferior oil when they could use AMSOIL and maybe change the oil only once or twice per year and on top of that, have their engines last a few hundred thousand extra miles more than they expected which enables them to get more PROFIT out of their vehicles transporting passengers. Just imagine if you owned a taxi cab and was able to put 750,000 miles on it WITHOUT AN ENGINE REBUILD! This is not unusual for people using AMSOIL to do!

If they can fly a man to the moon, don’t you think they can make an oil that will last more than a measly 3,000 miles? OF COURSE THEY CAN AND DO!

Visit www.HighTechOil.com for more important information about cheating your engine’s planned obsolence and dealership opportunities.
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About the Author:
Robert Riley is a programmer/analyst who comes from a family of auto mechanics who have owned a fleet of automobile service stations and quick lubes such as Enco, Texaco and Amoco since the early 1960’s. The Riley family has as a history in working in automobile repair shops as far back as the early 1900’s. Robert Riley is the webmaster of www.HighTechOil.com where you can get a really great education on engine oil and how you can save thousands on the benefits of extended engine life.