Pennzoil lube service ok?

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Pat

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Mar 17, 2005
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Payson AZ
I had Pennzoil change the oil and filter and lube the MH a couple years ago when I found one in Washington.  I was impressed with their multi-point plan and their thoroughness.  I see there's one down Apache Trail here in AJ.  Any good or bad opinions of Pennzoil to do the job?

--pat
 
In my experience, penzoil is the worst oil you could put in any engine. It leaves a residue buildup. I had pulled apart a VW engine some years ago and discovered that. My mechanic friends tell me the same about penziol. I use (depending on vehicle) Castrol , Valvoline, or even Chevron oil is good for the $$.
 
I have the same opinion regarding Pennzoil but then I put any Castrol oil in the same category.  Wouldn't use either in my rig.  Don't even use Transynd since it is also a castrol product.  Personally I would not take my motorhome to these places since they aren't really set up or have much knowledge on servicing motorhomes in most cases.  I use Amsoil myself 2nd choice would be Mobil one or Valvolene synthetics. IMHO.
 
I'm from the old school of servicing my own units and I too use the synthetic oil.  Valvoline is my choice. I used the Long Distance Oils and change at 5000 miles but change filter every 2500 if doing little LD driving. Grease the unit every 10K.  Never have had engine troubles.  3 of our vehicles have well over 200,000 miles on them and 1 of those in excess of 350K. I don't even bother to check them any more. I always use Motorcraft/Autolite filters.  Don't even need a reminder tage that way.  Just look at the odometer and know immediately.  But that's me and everyone has to do their own thing.  Good Luck and happy motoring.
 
Question regarding timing of oil changes.  I drive my MH about 1300 miles twice a year.  Once heading north and once heading south.  I know I'm not fulltiming right, but I find a place I like, and I tend to stay there.  So I don't get around much near each destination. 

That said, how often and at what points do I change the oil? 

--pat
 
Since you are driving less than 3000 miles a year I would suggest once a year at which ever location you feel you can get the best dependable service.
 
Pat,
In my opinion, far more important than the brand name of oil is that you use the right viscosity (e.g. 10W30) as recomended by your owners manual and the right Service Classification (e.g. H or J), which will also be specified in your engine owner's manual.  Specifiy it clearly wherever you have the oil changed and make sure you get the right stuff.    And No, another viscocity is not "just as good" or better, regardless of what the tech at the shop says.

Service Classificaton is a different story. If your owner manual  says to use "H", then "H" or any higher letter in the alphabet is OK.

Oil change shops like to use their "bulk" oil in all changes - the stuff that `comes in big barrels and is dispensed from their hoses.  Ask them specifically what viscocity rating is has and what Service Classification letter applies.  If it isn't the right stuff, tell them what you need and insist on it.  Warning: the may want to charge extra for oil other than their bulk stuff, so ask up front about both the specs and the price for what yu need.
 
Wow, I'm not sure where y'all had the bad Pennzoil from.  My 1988 Olds Cutlass I bought brand new in 1988, and drove it until 2003 with nothing but Pennzoil, done mostly at Jiffy Lube.  The car only had about 120,000 on it, but it still ran great, all things considered.  Someone ran into my son and totaled the car, otherwise he'd probably still be driving it.  I have a 1997 minivan right now that has had nothing but Pennzoil since I bought it new in 1997.  It's up to about 70,000 now and still runs like it was new.  My truck now has synthetic, because I believe it is better, but I sure wouldn't ever have anything bad to say about Pennzoil.  I'll probably still run that in the minivan until it dies or we get rid of it.  Just my experience.
 
Let's see. Rousch racing is dominating the NASCAR circuit so maybe they need to limit the number of cars their allowed to race OR maybe we can stop them from using Pennzoil in all their cars.  ;D ;D
 
Wouldn't worry about racing, that oil never last more than 500 miles and neither do the engines. Besides  not the same oil as in your car.  After 50K miles drop and pan and se the sludge.  It's about like the old Shell oil, yukie poo.  Checking the oil pan is like cleaning out a grease trap.  Been there done that. 
 
Albslb2 said:
Wouldn't worry about racing, that oil never last more than 500 miles and neither do the engines. Besides? not the same oil as in your car.? After 50K miles drop and pan and se the sludge.? It's about like the old Shell oil, yukie poo.? Checking the oil pan is like cleaning out a grease trap.? Been there done that.?

While my comment was meant to be tongue in cheek and not provoke a debate, I would hasten to point out that miles is irrelevant for engine life. Engine component life is measured in term of cycles with 2,000,000 being used for statistical validity. I suspect, but haven't tried to calculate that the engines do their 2,000, 000 in that 500 miles.
 
Leo

Just for the heck of it, grossly over-simplifying using RPM:

A diesel coach

500 miles at 50 mph = 10 hours = 600 minutes

600 minutes x 1,800 rpm = 1,080,000 revolutions.

A higher-rpm passenger car

500 miles at 60 mph = 500 minutes

500 minutes x 4,000 rpm = 2,000,000 revolutions

A race car

Just plug in the numbers. I suspect very high rpm and obviously high speed.

Your point is taken  :)
 
James Godward said:
Just for an exercise, try using 2200 for 75 MPH in my Jeep!! VBG

Jim, I gave you the formula so you could plug in your own numbers  ???  FWIW Chris' Suburban runs 2,000 RPM at 70 mph, not a lot different from your Jeep, which is why I specifically said "a higher-rpm passenger car".

Leo's point was that miles are not the issue. Use 1,200 miles with your Jeep at 75 mph and you'll see  ;D
 
blueblood said:
Engine component life is measured in term of cycles with 2,000,000 being used for statistical validity.

Leo, don't mean to detract from your point, but I'm just curious. I've run countless reliability tests on electronic components and analyzed more results than I care to think about, but have not done so for mechanical parts. With electronic components we'd use high operating hours and large samples for statistical validity (actually used component hours), but the tests were also conducted under highly accelerated conditions, because that was the only way we could achieve the necessary equivalent working hours.

Using various models, we'd extrapolate the (accelerated) test results to reliability under normal or expected conditions of use. Obviously, this would be a much higher number. Do you know if the 2,000,000 cycles used for testing engine parts was under accelerated conditions? If not, it would not appear to be very much testing per se.

Of course, conditions under the hood of a car are somewhat extreme anyway, but those are real life, rather than accelerated.

FWIW I recall being involved with prototype components being tested in road trials. They put our components on limos and taxis to get the miles they needed. Limos can rack up 2-3,000,000 miles in a year.
 
Tom said:
Leo, don't mean to detract from your point, but I'm just curious. I've run countless reliability tests on electronic components and analyzed more results than I care to think about, but have not done so for mechanical parts. With electronic components we'd use high operating hours and large samples for statistical validity (actually used component hours), but the tests were also conducted under highly accelerated conditions, because that was the only way we could achieve the necessary equivalent working hours.

Using various models, we'd extrapolate the (accelerated) test results to reliability under normal or expected conditions of use. Obviously, this would be a much higher number. Do you know if the 2,000,000 cycles used for testing engine parts was under accelerated conditions? If not, it would not appear to be very much testing per se.

Of course, conditions under the hood of a car are somewhat extreme anyway, but those are real life, rather than accelerated.

FWIW I recall being involved with prototype components being tested in road trials. They put our components on limos and taxis to get the miles they needed. Limos can rack up 2-3,000,000 miles in a year.

Boy I started something here. Well first I've been gone for decades and I'm sure they have new whiz bang toys for this that we never dreamed of being able to employ. I'll  respond with what I remember. Up until the early 70's we had an internal policy that no new component could be released that hadn't run 1,000,000 miles. This required all most 5 years in those days and caused a very large hit to reducing costs and employing new items. These miles were run primarily by trucking companies in the west who were doing a lot of mountain climbing and long miles both being highly desirable. We had a full time person following every part and reporting back to a monthly meeting on miles achieved, performance and other similar things. In the early 70's computers began to be deployed more and we decide to go out and map the every major highway in US so we could duplicate them in a simulator and not physically have to drive them. We put the equipment in a tractor-trailer and ran up and down I- 65 in Indiana. The equipment was in the trailer and one technician rode back there running the simulations. The tractor driver would have to do all the shifts that he'd normally have to do if driving these same roads. Luckily the interstates weren't very crowded then and the slowing down of rig didn't cause too much of a safety problem. Using these same simulations we began to run component cycle testing in the Research Center and when we reached the 2,000,000 cycles we had a statistically valid test of component reliabilty as I recall it now.
 
Thanks Leo. Sounds like you used actual cycles and didn't accelerate the tests. 5 years of testing can sure have an impact on new product introduction  :(
 
Tom,

>>5 years of testing can sure have an impact on new product introduction  <<

Most airplanes take up to 10 years from prototype to operational.  There have been some reductions in time but not much with the improved testing and instrumentation.  I forget the actual dates but the F-22 prototype was flying about the time I retired in '04 and it is just going operational now.    $$$ :-((
 
I can believe that Jim. I think the difference in the auto industry is the speed at which obsolescence occurs.
 

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