Oil question

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Conflict2

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I went to get my oil changed and bought 5 qtrs. Mobil 1 75000 mile full synthetic oil, and a quart of extended performance synthetic oil. I thought that I could have the best of both worlds, but the technician told me they aren't allowed to mix oil types, which I can understand but also stated that mixing different oils can destroy your engine. I was wondering if anyone knows the facts about this and whether the technician was right. I can understand mixing different SAE ratings or mixing synthetic and non-synthetic oils, but mixing two of the same brand, same SAE rating oils that just have different additives? Any info would be helpful and appreciated.

Also, a little off topic, I have a 2014 ram 1500, 5.7L. I strictly use Mobil 1 full synthetic brand engine oil. Are there any better brands? Or rather, is there really any difference between Mobil 1, Valvoline, Pennzoil etc.?

Thanks!
 

huntergreen

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I went to get my oil changed and bought 5 qtrs. Mobil 1 75000 mile full synthetic oil, and a quart of extended performance synthetic oil. I thought that I could have the best of both worlds, but the technician told me they aren't allowed to mix oil types, which I can understand but also stated that mixing different oils can destroy your engine. I was wondering if anyone knows the facts about this and whether the technician was right. I can understand mixing different SAE ratings or mixing synthetic and non-synthetic oils, but mixing two of the same brand, same SAE rating oils that just have different additives? Any info would be helpful and appreciated.

Also, a little off topic, I have a 2014 ram 1500, 5.7L. I strictly use Mobil 1 full synthetic brand engine oil. Are there any better brands? Or rather, is there really any difference between Mobil 1, Valvoline, Pennzoil etc.?

Thanks!
Now you done did it by asking is there a better brand of of oil. Lol
Some will say Red Line oil is the best for the hemi. There is a synthetic oil thread that will explain why. Others will say Amsoil is the best as well many other brands some will say are best .

If your driving across country and and check your oil and find you are low, you can usually add whatever oil the gas station has available. It won’t destroy your engine, so long as it is engine oil.
 

crash68

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Now you done did it by asking is there a better brand of of oil. Lol
No one on this forum has just an opinion on which oil is better, it's more like a dissertation or thesis. The synthetic oil thread is only a couple thousand posts long.. LOL
 

06 Dodge

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I went to get my oil changed and bought 5 qtrs. Mobil 1 75000 mile full synthetic oil, and a quart of extended performance synthetic oil. I thought that I could have the best of both worlds, but the technician told me they aren't allowed to mix oil types, which I can understand but also stated that mixing different oils can destroy your engine. I was wondering if anyone knows the facts about this and whether the technician was right. I can understand mixing different SAE ratings or mixing synthetic and non-synthetic oils, but mixing two of the same brand, same SAE rating oils that just have different additives? Any info would be helpful and appreciated.

Also, a little off topic, I have a 2014 ram 1500, 5.7L. I strictly use Mobil 1 full synthetic brand engine oil. Are there any better brands? Or rather, is there really any difference between Mobil 1, Valvoline, Pennzoil etc.?

Thanks!

Total BS they can do so, so long as they ask you before installing the oil, I know first hand I have had them ask me on several of my wife's Journey that were still under factory warranty.. BTW if they say no tell them to install the 5 qt and you can put the other qt in your self once you get it back...
 

crazykid1994

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The 5.7 takes a hair over 7 quarts. With my extended life filter and filter relocation kit I can get almost 8 qts in. But no. Mixing oil won’t blow the engine up. If it did there would be millions of cars blowing up from people doing oil changes and not getting every last drop of the old oil out.
 

zogg

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There is absolutely no problem mixing oils. I’ve done it several times when I needed an extra quart to top off an oil change. I don’t mix weights and I don’t mix synthetic with conventional. However, most oil websites indicate their oil is compatible with all other oils. The guy lied.
 

mikeru

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There is absolutely no problem mixing oils. I’ve done it several times when I needed an extra quart to top off an oil change. I don’t mix weights and I don’t mix synthetic with conventional. However, most oil websites indicate their oil is compatible with all other oils. The guy lied.
^^This. I'd say either he's lying or doesn't know any better. Either way, I wouldn't want him working on my rig.
 

Daw14

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I went to get my oil changed and bought 5 qtrs. Mobil 1 75000 mile full synthetic oil, and a quart of extended performance synthetic oil. I thought that I could have the best of both worlds, but the technician told me they aren't allowed to mix oil types, which I can understand but also stated that mixing different oils can destroy your engine. I was wondering if anyone knows the facts about this and whether the technician was right. I can understand mixing different SAE ratings or mixing synthetic and non-synthetic oils, but mixing two of the same brand, same SAE rating oils that just have different additives? Any info would be helpful and appreciated.

Also, a little off topic, I have a 2014 ram 1500, 5.7L. I strictly use Mobil 1 full synthetic brand engine oil. Are there any better brands? Or rather, is there really any difference between Mobil 1, Valvoline, Pennzoil etc.?

Thanks!
Find a mechanic who knows his **** from a hole in the ground . Mixing won’t hurt a thing.
 
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Conflict2

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Thanks for the replies all. Appreciate the feedback! I wasn't worried so much about blowing up my engine just whether it would cause more harm than good. I had a feeling he was talking some BS cause it didn't sound right to me.
 

BigRed06

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There is no problem mixing oils, they are designed to be compatible. I suspect the shop that changed your oil was more concerned with customer fraud and law suites.
 

Bigfoot77

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I agree mixing similar oils won't hurt, and I'll share my experience mixing not similar oils (which I still wouldn't recommend for an engine you really care about).

Wife's daily driver is a Kia with a 2.0L and about 170,000 miles on it. Had a minor oil leak that got progressively worse and we limped that thing along for a couple years before finally fixing it. 5w20 was the specified oil and we typically used conventional, but there were times we put just about anything in it when the oil got low: various different weights of conventional, synthetic, and blends. The only issue I ran into was I grabbed a quart of 10w40 a couple times in a row to where I think that was all it had in it, and it caused the oil pressure light to come on and it seemed like it had a bit of hesitation accelerating. Changed the oil back to 5w20 and was (just slightly) more careful with my oil variety, and it never had any other problems and runs like a champ still today. Again, not recommending anyone do the same, but it didn't hurt that little ******.
 

Marshall

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There is no problem mixing oils, they are designed to be compatible. I suspect the shop that changed your oil was more concerned with customer fraud and law suites.
This is my idea as well, There is no point to mix oils, and as said 6 liters / qrts. is not enough oil
 

HEMIMANN

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When I worked as an engineer for Mobil, we were advised to that all Mobil automotive motor oils and additive packages were compatible, but that we should not recommend mixing with other brands as their additive packages were not known.

So, in general, mixing oils within the same manufacturer should be fine. And, I would add, mixing between manufacturers is low risk because the additive packages are usually just variations of each other from a limited set of suppliers.

The real compatibility issue is with different grease soap thickeners. NEVER mix greases of different types. For instance, mixing lithium soap grease with polyurea soap grease produces a hardened gum that won't pump out. Deere recently made a real faux pax by recommending only polyurea after years of lithium, just to last a little longer (polyurea commonly used for long life electric motor bearings - NOT on farm equipment implement joints!). Deere equipment is made to last decades. They all have lithium grease in them.

Yet another example of a lab engineer allowed to change application outside of the real world.
 

TomB 1269

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As someone already said there are lots of opinions on brands etc. I know my Dad was Quaker State, I was Valvoline for a long time. With my F150 it was Mobil 1. Now its the dealer oil for warranty purposes BEYOND that of just oil changes (i.e. they have an inspection list... If something on that list fails and it was just in for an oil change...they own the problem!).

A lot of the opinions here run around the dreaded cam wear/failure issue and how to minimize it.
So for the 1st time in my 52 years of living I am sending in my oil to Blackstone to get testing (base lining the motor as I'm still under 30k miles). This is the only real way of being able to determine what is happening in the motor, beyond physical inspection. It will also tell you how your oil holds up, if you not getting engine hot enough or not running it long enough (fuel in oil reading). Finally it will tell you what trace metals are in the oil. This is key as certain metals will substantially increase if you are sustaining cam damage.

As for the "how to prevent" aspect of the cam failure there are a couple of things that I personally have found to be clear:
1. Do not "over" idle your motor. Shut it off if its going to be a few minutes.
2. Change the oil........ And this is where I think a majority of the problem comes from.
In the auto market their are a multitude of metrics that manufactures want to be able to say them meet, exceed, or provide best in class.
So you have a truck with an engine that takes 7 quarts of oil. That means oil changes are more costly each time.
So how do you become the 'least costly' to maintain? Decrease the oil change interval, instead of the average driver that puts 12k-15K miles per year on their car needing 3 oil changes at $75-$80 each its now done to 1.5 or only $120 in annual oil changes on average verses $240 (that's a 50% savings ... Yaaaa).
How else do you decrease maintenance cost? The most expensive fluid change in any car....The transmission! So now its "life-time" transmission fluid.

We all know the "life Time" trans fluid is BS, but there are still enough people on the other hand that "accept" a 10K oil change interval as being acceptable........

FYI, its marketing *********! Yes oil analysis may say its still got life in it and its not that dirty........ But how many weeks are you drinking from the same coffee cup without washing it out? Its not really dirty, it just had coffee in it and you rinsed it out after finishing your coffee.....

Do you truck a favor, clean its coffee cup more often as well!

Put do not be a cheap-skate and run subpar oil if your doing your own oil changes. Know your oil and make sure it meets the requirements if your changing it yourself.
 
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David James

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I went to get my oil changed and bought 5 qtrs. Mobil 1 75000 mile full synthetic oil, and a quart of extended performance synthetic oil. I thought that I could have the best of both worlds, but the technician told me they aren't allowed to mix oil types, which I can understand but also stated that mixing different oils can destroy your engine. I was wondering if anyone knows the facts about this and whether the technician was right. I can understand mixing different SAE ratings or mixing synthetic and non-synthetic oils, but mixing two of the same brand, same SAE rating oils that just have different additives? Any info would be helpful and appreciated.

Also, a little off topic, I have a 2014 ram 1500, 5.7L. I strictly use Mobil 1 full synthetic brand engine oil. Are there any better brands? Or rather, is there really any difference between Mobil 1, Valvoline, Pennzoil etc.?

Thanks!
Just get any oil (preferably full synthetic) that attains or exceeds the specifications called for in the owners manual, and is of course the correct viscosity. Probably better to use the same brand on a complete change and through that cycle of oil especially if vehicle is still warranted- may be of discussion if there’s a catastrophic engine failure while doing a mix and match of several oil brands. Otherwise, I get what’s on sale and a familiar name. Mobil, Shell, Pennzoil, Citgo, Amalie, Valvoline, NAPA are among the fully syn that go into my fleet. Typically do 5k mile Preventative Maintenance cycle, and no issues even on oil analysis. Have a great Independence Day!
 

leroys73

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I went to get my oil changed and bought 5 qtrs. Mobil 1 75000 mile full synthetic oil, and a quart of extended performance synthetic oil. I thought that I could have the best of both worlds, but the technician told me they aren't allowed to mix oil types, which I can understand but also stated that mixing different oils can destroy your engine. I was wondering if anyone knows the facts about this and whether the technician was right. I can understand mixing different SAE ratings or mixing synthetic and non-synthetic oils, but mixing two of the same brand, same SAE rating oils that just have different additives? Any info would be helpful and appreciated.

Also, a little off topic, I have a 2014 ram 1500, 5.7L. I strictly use Mobil 1 full synthetic brand engine oil. Are there any better brands? Or rather, is there really any difference between Mobil 1, Valvoline, Pennzoil etc.?

Thanks!
A lot of this misinformation comes from back in the "olden days" when oil had little to no standards. The Pennsylvania crude was not to be mixed with the Texas crude as it was said the base was different enough to cause slug build up. Maybe that was true 50 years ago, I don't know. I do have a problem with "off brand" oil.

Man, there are so many non truths out there. The one I like is the "high octane gasoline is better for all cars". Don't get me started on that one.

Top Tier gasoline is the way to go since they do have better and more additives.
 

boblonben

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I went to get my oil changed and bought 5 qtrs. Mobil 1 75000 mile full synthetic oil, and a quart of extended performance synthetic oil. I thought that I could have the best of both worlds, but the technician told me they aren't allowed to mix oil types, which I can understand but also stated that mixing different oils can destroy your engine. I was wondering if anyone knows the facts about this and whether the technician was right. I can understand mixing different SAE ratings or mixing synthetic and non-synthetic oils, but mixing two of the same brand, same SAE rating oils that just have different additives? Any info would be helpful and appreciated.

Also, a little off topic, I have a 2014 ram 1500, 5.7L. I strictly use Mobil 1 full synthetic brand engine oil. Are there any better brands? Or rather, is there really any difference between Mobil 1, Valvoline, Pennzoil etc.?

Thanks!
Thr6 will mix just fine, but yo7 will lose the benefits of the extended performance oil. Yes there is small differences, amonil 1 by fa4 the best overall.
 

mikeru

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Thr6 will mix just fine, but yo7 will lose the benefits of the extended performance oil. Yes there is small differences, amonil 1 by fa4 the best overall.
It's tough to read that with all the typos. What is amonil 1? And on what do you base your claim that it's by far the best overall? If you meant to type mobile 1, I can assure you that it's no where close to the best overall oil. I might buy the claim that it's the best for the money, but I'm not interested in buying the cheapest name brand "synthetic" oil for my vehicles. For me, it's a once a year expense. So I'm not interested in bargains when it comes to protecting my engines.
 

scout2000

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I'm not disagreeing with the comments about mixing oil. I've done it myself in the past.

OTOH, I completely agree from a business perspective.

As a business, I would not mix the oil's.

Also, as a business, I would not return a vehicle back to a customer (1) to (3) quarts low of oil so they can add it themselves. Just seems like a good formula for someone to drive off, destroy their engine due to being several quarts low on oil, then sue the business because they returned it low.

Oil changes are a pretty easy task. And even easier on a truck, with a high stance, where one can get underneath and work without even being required to jack up/elevate a vehicle. Just change the oil yourself.
 
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