Oil - Friction modifiers & additives.

[AlexGSi2000]

Good old oil debate again

This time, I'm enquiring about friction modifiers and additives that you add to your engine oil.

An example of some of the products are;

STP oil treatment - http://www.stp.eu/en/products/oil-additives/oil-tr...
Slick50 engine treatment - http://www.slick50.com/ourProducts/syntheticEngine...


Has anyone ever used this type of product and did you notice any benefits?

Reason I'm asking is because my 2001 530D has rolled over 200k now, I'm aiming to keep the car for another two years at least which I estimate will be around 50/60,000 miles.

The engine still seems healthy, but I'm wanting to keep it as happy as I can and wondering if any of the above products would help?
I currently change the oil and filter every 6,000 - 7,000 miles and use good quality oil (Shell helix ultra 5-40), the engine doesn't use any oil at-all.
Should I just continue the regular oil changes, or would it be beneficial to start using an additive?
I have thought about using an ester based oil such as Fuchs Race Pro-S but unsure if this would be overkill.

[KiaDiseasel]

It's certainly always been a mystery to me why the oil companies, some of the biggest, best funded, most technologically advanced companies in the world have missed the golden opportunity to put such things into their oil in the first place if they do any good! I mean surely they want their products to be the best possible in a competitive market. Seems not. God they must be dumb.

Oh.............

[AlexGSi2000]

I thought I may have had a reply like that before long

I am unsure if this is true, but i have "heard" that oils for newer cars have less effective lubrication properties due to the make-up of the oil needing to be compatible with emission systems such as diesel particulate filters.

[KiaDiseasel]

Well, tongue back out of cheek again, modern oils already have up to 25% of their makeup comprised of additives of various sorts in addition to the base oil. In terms of lubrication properties the most prominent additive that has been reduced in recent years is ZDDP (zinc dithiophosphate) which helps prevent wear in flat tappet camshaft mechanisms. However that wear is primarily a problem with older style pushrod engines with cast iron flat tappets. Modern steel OHC tappets are much less vulnerable. Diesel oils are allowed to use more ZDDP than petrol ones so they're sometimes suggested for older engines if you can't find an aftermarket oil with high ZDDP. Other than that I wouldn't dream of sticking any gloop in a modern oil that has already had millions spent developing it.

[George111]

Your engine has lasted so long partly because you've changed the oil regularly, using the correct specification oil. Just carry on doing the same - there's no reason for it to change now. My Volvo D5 engine is the same - uses about an egg cup full of oil between 12k oil changes (Volvo suggest 18k but I do it at 12k) and sounds as ordinary now as it did 5 years ago.

[tapkaJohnD]

KiaDiseasel said:

Well, tongue back out of cheek again, modern oils already have up to 25% of their makeup comprised of additives of various sorts in addition to the base oil. In terms of lubrication properties the most prominent additive that has been reduced in recent years is ZDDP (zinc dithiophosphate) which helps prevent wear in flat tappet camshaft mechanisms. However that wear is primarily a problem with older style pushrod engines with cast iron flat tappets. Modern steel OHC tappets are much less vulnerable. Diesel oils are allowed to use more ZDDP than petrol ones so they're sometimes suggested for older engines if you can't find an aftermarket oil with high ZDDP. Other than that I wouldn't dream of sticking any gloop in a modern oil that has already had millions spent developing it.

For goodness sake don't put Zinc in any car with a catalytic converter! The heavy metal is more poisonous to the catalyst as it is to humans.
JOhn

[plasticman]

A friend of mine had a rep from one of these oil additive come to his workshop to demonstrate with a few test the abilities of said additive . He personally owned and raced a old 3 seies bmw with a twin turbo , wildcat headed , rover v8 which went through a set of front wheel bearings per race . After using grease with the said addative he has never relaced them again . He also used it in a customers engine , also a twin turbo rover v8 , which lost oil pressure at 160 but it was not noticed until the hydaulic tappets started rattling . The car was taken back to my friend ( I don`t know how ) , stripped and inspected with no signs of damage , back on the road with no problems .I was sceptical about these additives but decided to try some in one of my engines , a tvr speed six which I have now owned for 11 years . It has not had the abuse of the other two it is an engine with highly stressed valve train. I am still not absolutely convinced but it may have prolonged the engines life.

[Sardonicus]

KiaDiseasel said:

Well, tongue back out of cheek again, modern oils already have up to 25% of their makeup comprised of additives of various sorts in addition to the base oil. In terms of lubrication properties the most prominent additive that has been reduced in recent years is ZDDP (zinc dithiophosphate) which helps prevent wear in flat tappet camshaft mechanisms. However that wear is primarily a problem with older style pushrod engines with cast iron flat tappets. Modern steel OHC tappets are much less vulnerable. Diesel oils are allowed to use more ZDDP than petrol ones so they're sometimes suggested for older engines if you can't find an aftermarket oil with high ZDDP. Other than that I wouldn't dream of sticking any gloop in a modern oil that has already had millions spent developing it.

This ^