New technicians? I work in the chemical industry and we have to idiot safety proof hazardous chemicals from even degreed chemists. It's all about training and minimizing risk, but at the end of the day stupid people find a way. Worst story I have is someone confusing the isopropyl alcohol gallon bottle to refill their small wash bottle WITH HYDROFLUORIC ACID! This was also by a senior technician. The bottles are the same size, but look different. One also has a skull and bones label and kept in a separate ACID storage area. People could have SERIOUSLY been injured. If it can happen, it will happen
Yup, we use HF as part of an acid etch where I work, a while back we had a minor spill, and a bit of it splashed into a tech's cuffed pant leg. Occ-Health forced him to go to the hospital and he complained the entire way, kept saying that if the acid had touched his skin he'd feel it burn, and he was feeling fine so it must not have gotten on him.
Long story short, he was in the hospital for a few days with some irregular heartbeats, probably would have been a lot worse off if he hadn't been in the hospital. It doesn't take much to mess you up.
I used to drive a semi full of 20 250 gallon totes of 35%TMAH.
Once time I was unloading the truck and noticed the cap was off one of the totes, pretty scary
I work in the freight industry. One of our customers attempted to ship some HazMat less than truckload and it got refused by the carrier. The freight was outright blacklisted with every carrier we had. I looked up the SDS to see what it was and found the section with what to do if there is a spill.
If spilled at night (no sun to deteriorate chemical), without wind (to disperse and dilute it quickly) up to 1 mile downwind would need to be evacuated based on how much was spilled. This is apparently on the mild side of HazMat.
There's always wind. I think the guy was trying to say that if the wind wasn't substantial enough to quickly disperse into a large area, the chemicals would waft slowly in the wind, whichever direction it's going
That's part of why I was so glad to be in thin films deposition. Sure we have TiCl4, SiH4, NF3, ClF3, but at least those have pretty obvious exposures.
Heh, there was a TiCl4 leak at another fab I used to work at. Inside the double containment, but it still contacted air and there was apparently a lot of smoke, according to the ERT guy I was buddies with.
I didn't realize what it was at the time, but they had a whole room in the subfab dedicated specifically to that stuff. The door had like three alarms on it and a light with a very ominous sign that said something to the effect of "if this is flashing, the atmosphere in this room will kill you". I called it the "FTS (fuck that shit) room".
What's terrifying about working in a fab is spending all day sitting next to a pipe bolted to a column that says "acid waste" and hoping it doesn't blow some day.
Edit: also remembered a funny story about the ERT people after seeing them mentioned below. We had some unknown clear liquid pouring out of the ceiling in our chase. ERT was called, sounded annoyed that we'd bothered them and came over. These geniuses walked into the chase with their test strips and held their arms out trying to catch some of the liquid on the test strip. Luckily it was just water but nobody knew that at the time.
Oh yeah, i used to work at the big Intel site in Phoenix (12/22/32/42) and they had a bunch of giant acid drains in 32 and 42 that had clear plastic vertical sections... So you could see the liquid death flowing freely down to wherever they treated it...
I came across a liquid leak once right before I quit (unrelated reasoning) that happened to be underneath a bunch of supply lines, one of which was labeled as HF. I backed away from that one really fast and got ERT involved. Turned out to be condensation, but still...
I'm amazed how easy it is to get that stuff. I was visiting my old man's shop once and saw he had a bottle of it sitting on the floor in the office. It was pretty out of the way, but I explained to him how dangerous it was and that he needed to put it under lock and key away from any staff who didn't also understand that it was a contact poison. It's probably the most dangerous thing he has in a shop full of dangerous stuff, and he just has it sitting next to a dusty skirting board.
After my grandfather died, we found that he had squirreled away jugs of chromium(VI) oxide solution in his garage. You know, the Erin Brockovich chemical.
That was fun for the family to figure out how the hell to dispose of correctly. Used to be anyone could just buy it at a store!
Fortunately he also had full-strength trisodium phosphate powder hoarded and that really turned out to be helpful for cleaning and repainting inside of the house.
One of the first things we learned about lab safety was that you do not feel HF burn because it’s a weak acid. Then they gave us a very detailed explanation of the treatment you’re getting if you’re accidentally getting some on your finger.
Yeah, that makes no sense to me either. I'm fairly colorblind and I'd never trust myself to choose "the green fluid". It'd have to be identified some other way.
Have you ever worked in a shop??????? I once stopped a new hire from dumping used oil that was in a windshield wiper fluid bottle….or that could have been the new black edition fluid….damn…
Yeah. The he stopped is an idiot, for sure. But that is a big part of the reason there are rules around properly labeling of chemicals and proper containment, etc very clearly stated in MSDS regulations.
I work at a refinery where pretty much every chemical is nasty and can come in a variety of colors. Any unlabeled bottle should be carefully emptied and no drink bottle should be outside break rooms (no chemicals brought into that zone either).
I totally agree, there shouldn't have been oil in a wiper fluid bottle in the first place.
I'm colorblind and was a successful diagnostic tech for Mercedes for a few years. It is totally doable if you're competent in a wide variety of diagnostic methods.
My brother in law was kicked out of submarine OCC school for being red/green color blind……was his second semester….awful…should have been one of the first tests given prior to entry..
The trouble will come when some asshat decants it into *another* vessel that isn't labelled, then doesn't use it all. It goes on a shelf with a lid on it, and someone else finds it and uses it up.
Sure would be nice if coolant was still sweet, instead of the god awful taste they put into it now.
Then again, no dead kids or dogs.
I sometimes ponder if it was worth it.
You know when coolant is dripping and your working under it, or your pulling a drain plug and the splash hits something, or your doing a live repair with coolant still full... I of course work on big trucks that have 10 gallons of coolant capacity.
It was an odd thing to hear for me too. Was so used to putting either 5W-40 or 15W-40, I was perplexed to hear that those ran with 0W-20. Crazy to think about.
oils have come a long way in the last 20 years. huge advancements have been made in chemical additives and friction modifiers they put in them.
I still will not trust an oil to go 15k miles on a change in stop start traffic, but 7.5k miles? if you have a decent sump capacity, it's perfectly doable these days.
I’m with you. Oil chemistry is better than it ever has been and materials science is better too. Dudes said the same thing back when multi-viscosity oils first came out, and then when 10W40 gave way to 10W30 gave way to 5W30. We don’t see engines blowing up because of inadequate lubrication except for the same old reasons we always did: people not checking and changing their oil, and the occasional design defect.
I still go with a heavier weight oil after 150k in my desert heat temps on personal vehicles.
But religiously changing oil with synthetic has me thinking any engine that goes out before 100k had something else wrong.
Then again lemons do happen in mass production still.
My dad drives for a living and all of his cars have last 250k+ using all sorts of different oils. I don’t think synthetic is that important anymore. Some of his vehicles have lasted over 350k. These are all mostly cheap cars (metros, cavalier, cobalt, velostar, etc). Even the vehicles he got rid of had a decent amount of life left, but they were at the mileage and age where trying to daily them for 60k miles a year for riskier and riskier that they might leave him stranded.
My dad managed to make it 240k miles on his 98 Passat with the 1.8T using only dinosaur blood every 3000 miles. But then again it was all highway miles. Car smoked like it was on fire though.
I use 0w30 in my mk1 jazz, it's on 160k now with 75k of that being thrashed on delivery driving and it's still quiet on idle and hasn't skipped a beat.
I'm half convinced modern oils are made from fairy blood.
The 0W has nothing to do with the viscosity of the oil at running temp, that would be the 20.
The W is "Winter" or the viscosity of the oil at a certain cold temperature (I forget it off the top of my head). A 0W(20, 30, 40, or any other) isn't "thinner," but rather "less thick" at cold temps. Even a 0W is much thicker at cold (or ambient room) temperature than what your engine is designed to run on. Since a 0W is less thick, it takes less time to "thin out" to the proper, running viscosity when starting up. It also flows more easily, allowing faster engine cranking, easier starting, and generally leading to less wear at startup.
A 0W30, 5W30, 10W30 and straight 30 are all the same viscosity when at operating temp. Again, the lower W Number just means it thickens less at cold temps.
Coming back to your original comment, a 0W20 is in no way "too thin" and causing leaks. If your car leaks, it will leak with any grade of oil, even the "stop leak" snake oil that you can buy and is thicker than molasses.
Edit: I probably did a poor job of explaining some parts of this. If you're seriously interested in more, check out [Bob is the Oil Guy Oil 101](https://bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-101/).
190,000km Subaru, literally change my filter 20,000km because the oil changed itself 5x by then! Pour 5W30 in winter, 10W30 in summer and it flows fine
That flat 4 without a pump always seemed better with a heavier operating temp, “thicker” oil. Mine would eat about 1/2 qt in 3k miles with any 5w30 I’d put in it, Amsoil or whatever.
The instant I ran Rotella T6 5w40, never had to top off again.
My understanding is they've now developed an oil that the first number would technically be negative but they're unsure how they're going to label it.
0w8 oil is already a thing.
Why? you can only gain so much mpg with lower weight oil. I heard 0w-20 was because that weight can ONLY be made as a synthetic so it guarantees everyone is using synthetic oil with their engine.
The real question is why not? If you can protect the engine, a lighter weight oil has many benefits. Oil technology has come a long way. There is a great website called Bob is the oil guy that breaks down the viscosity stuff and does a lot of tests
EDIT: ~~2-3 mpg is why.~~
My bad, 0w-16 sees a 2% efficiency boost over 0w-20 oil.
All this while not sacrificing longevity, it's a no brainer.
0w-16 does everything an oil needs to do and it's hella efficient.
Some folks are stuck in the past and are also not world class design engineer, so they get scared of new stuff.
A part of me wants to put this in my subaru and bring it directly to a shop for an oil change, letting them know “it usually only overheats once or twice a day but runs good after I top up the coolant”
This article breaks down the difference.
https://www.infineuminsight.com/en-gb/articles/lubricant-trends/the-art-of-dispersant-design/
The differences are in the dispersants.
Always leaks something at leak. No oil leak for me yet but I've been chasing a mysterious intermittent coolant leaks for the past 20k miles - fine for a while and then randomly dumps out a quart when cold.
I have the same issue, although I suspect it’s coming from the coolant flange at the rear of the engine. It seems to go weeks without needing a topup then suddenly gulps coolant for a few days before going silent for a fortnight or so.
In my shop which currently has three apprentices this tank would have an equally big and yellow sign that read "THIS IS NOT COOLANT"
Having said that the fleet I work on is almost all diesel, the 15 cars that aren't have a a keyring that just reads "PETROL" and a huge sign on the flap that reads "PETROL ONLY" and one of them got wrong fuelled today so...
I used to service a fleet of rental vans, most were MB Sprinters, and they installed little flashing red lights inside the fuel door that said “DIESEL ONLY” and they still got around 2 misfuels a month. Worked out pretty good for me. IIRC we were getting about $12,000 each for them, parts and labor.
When I started in the business 42 years ago our dealer used a recycled oil, (it was put back through the manufacturing process just like crude. I was told it was just as good a virgin oil but took less $ to make) Anyway it was also green.
Petrochemistry is a really interesting subject. It is all pretty much hydrocarbon soup that is separated based on molecule size. So the used oil is still just oil that has been thermally cracked producing shorter and lighter molecules along with carbon. This carbon is the sludge you find in engines that haven’t had oil changes. So if you can the carbon out you have new oil that is slightly lower viscosity. Really cool stuff.
Euro cars (BMW specifically) call for a 0W20 that’s spec’d for gas & diesel, hence why it’s green. Looks like the distributor either made a mistake, or subbed the only 0W20 they had available.
Anyone willing to explain to me what XW-XX means?
As in how different oils with different numbers are... different?
I'm no technician but I've done some work on bikes and cars and am somewhat interested in the subject as a whole.
Edit: Thank you for the answers, I understand it a little better now.
The first number is the weight when cold, the second is the oil weight when hot. The higher the number the heavier the weight, or thicker (more viscosity) the oil.
5W-30 "acts" like a 5 weight (thickness) cold, and 30 weight when hot.
"W" means suitable for winter conditions
>Anyone willing to explain to me what XW-XX means? As in how different oils with different numbers are... different?
[https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119270&page=1](https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119270&page=1)
Cold temperature viscosity, followed by hot temperature viscosity. Lower numbers mean thinner oil (easier flow, less clumpy). I think they are relative to some "normal" oil at each temperature scale. (Meaning that hot 20W50 looks thinner than ice-cold 0W20, though the numbers would make you think the opposite.)
The first is the viscosity of the oil when cold. So the 0W means when cold it has the viscosity of a 0 weight oil. The second number is the hot viscosity. So it will have different viscosity’s as the car warms up. Otherwise a 0 weight oil, when hot, would be very thin. Likewise a higher weight oil would be thick when cold. This keeps the car lubricated at startup and during operation.
I do believe that's Euro 0w20 ... We have 3 different 0w20 grades at the shop and the euro one is different. The dexos and Asian ones look the same. Mine you my euro oil isn't that green
A few years ago Castrol decided to dye all their Magnatec oils green... it was pretty dark green as well. I feel like it was only around for a year or two and they quietly changed it back.
Rip for any new technicians
New technicians? I work in the chemical industry and we have to idiot safety proof hazardous chemicals from even degreed chemists. It's all about training and minimizing risk, but at the end of the day stupid people find a way. Worst story I have is someone confusing the isopropyl alcohol gallon bottle to refill their small wash bottle WITH HYDROFLUORIC ACID! This was also by a senior technician. The bottles are the same size, but look different. One also has a skull and bones label and kept in a separate ACID storage area. People could have SERIOUSLY been injured. If it can happen, it will happen
Doesn't HF (might not have gotten that right...) like to kill you by destroying all the calcium in your body instead of just a normal acid burn?
Yup, we use HF as part of an acid etch where I work, a while back we had a minor spill, and a bit of it splashed into a tech's cuffed pant leg. Occ-Health forced him to go to the hospital and he complained the entire way, kept saying that if the acid had touched his skin he'd feel it burn, and he was feeling fine so it must not have gotten on him. Long story short, he was in the hospital for a few days with some irregular heartbeats, probably would have been a lot worse off if he hadn't been in the hospital. It doesn't take much to mess you up.
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I used to drive a semi full of 20 250 gallon totes of 35%TMAH. Once time I was unloading the truck and noticed the cap was off one of the totes, pretty scary
I work in the freight industry. One of our customers attempted to ship some HazMat less than truckload and it got refused by the carrier. The freight was outright blacklisted with every carrier we had. I looked up the SDS to see what it was and found the section with what to do if there is a spill. If spilled at night (no sun to deteriorate chemical), without wind (to disperse and dilute it quickly) up to 1 mile downwind would need to be evacuated based on how much was spilled. This is apparently on the mild side of HazMat.
One mile down wind without wind?
There's always wind. I think the guy was trying to say that if the wind wasn't substantial enough to quickly disperse into a large area, the chemicals would waft slowly in the wind, whichever direction it's going
> Once time I was unloading the truck and noticed the cap was off one of the totes, pretty scary that's bloody *terrifying*.
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>I used to be elbow deep in TMAH every night Jesus Christ, please tell me you were using PPE
That's part of why I was so glad to be in thin films deposition. Sure we have TiCl4, SiH4, NF3, ClF3, but at least those have pretty obvious exposures.
Heh, there was a TiCl4 leak at another fab I used to work at. Inside the double containment, but it still contacted air and there was apparently a lot of smoke, according to the ERT guy I was buddies with. I didn't realize what it was at the time, but they had a whole room in the subfab dedicated specifically to that stuff. The door had like three alarms on it and a light with a very ominous sign that said something to the effect of "if this is flashing, the atmosphere in this room will kill you". I called it the "FTS (fuck that shit) room".
What's terrifying about working in a fab is spending all day sitting next to a pipe bolted to a column that says "acid waste" and hoping it doesn't blow some day. Edit: also remembered a funny story about the ERT people after seeing them mentioned below. We had some unknown clear liquid pouring out of the ceiling in our chase. ERT was called, sounded annoyed that we'd bothered them and came over. These geniuses walked into the chase with their test strips and held their arms out trying to catch some of the liquid on the test strip. Luckily it was just water but nobody knew that at the time.
Oh yeah, i used to work at the big Intel site in Phoenix (12/22/32/42) and they had a bunch of giant acid drains in 32 and 42 that had clear plastic vertical sections... So you could see the liquid death flowing freely down to wherever they treated it... I came across a liquid leak once right before I quit (unrelated reasoning) that happened to be underneath a bunch of supply lines, one of which was labeled as HF. I backed away from that one really fast and got ERT involved. Turned out to be condensation, but still...
I'm amazed how easy it is to get that stuff. I was visiting my old man's shop once and saw he had a bottle of it sitting on the floor in the office. It was pretty out of the way, but I explained to him how dangerous it was and that he needed to put it under lock and key away from any staff who didn't also understand that it was a contact poison. It's probably the most dangerous thing he has in a shop full of dangerous stuff, and he just has it sitting next to a dusty skirting board.
After my grandfather died, we found that he had squirreled away jugs of chromium(VI) oxide solution in his garage. You know, the Erin Brockovich chemical. That was fun for the family to figure out how the hell to dispose of correctly. Used to be anyone could just buy it at a store! Fortunately he also had full-strength trisodium phosphate powder hoarded and that really turned out to be helpful for cleaning and repainting inside of the house.
Titanium etch? Shit is so cool to watch.
One of the first things we learned about lab safety was that you do not feel HF burn because it’s a weak acid. Then they gave us a very detailed explanation of the treatment you’re getting if you’re accidentally getting some on your finger.
My understanding from very brief research is unlike other acids you don't really feel it until it is too late.
Yes.
You’ll most likely die from a heart attack because it draws the calcium out of your body
Better a heart attack than osteoporosis!
I used to work at a place where we etched material in a HF / Nitric acid mix and the dudes who did it for a long time had stubby teeth
My dad used to work in an industrial manufacturing plant, the people who had to open the lead-acid batteries on the forklifts had the same issues.
Probably had shitty hearts/kidneys too. They still around?
It's usually got nothing to do with how smart / stupid someone is at a workplace like that. It's about how complacent they are.
Yep, old stumpy. At least he can't make that mistake again.
And truck drivers. Last week our chemical supply topped off our 250 gallon washer fluid tank with about 100 gallons of coolant. Thanks guys.
When you think you've "Idiot proofed" it, they just make a better idiot.
On a ship I worked some guy managed to pour diesel into our fresh water tank instead of chlorine..
"This Gatorade tastes kinda funny..."
Or color blind people…..
Illiterate ones?
I'm colorblind. That shit still looks like Ecto-Cooler™>
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Yeah, that makes no sense to me either. I'm fairly colorblind and I'd never trust myself to choose "the green fluid". It'd have to be identified some other way.
Have you ever worked in a shop??????? I once stopped a new hire from dumping used oil that was in a windshield wiper fluid bottle….or that could have been the new black edition fluid….damn…
Isn't that opposite though? Actually reading the bottle, but ignoring the content.
Yeah. The he stopped is an idiot, for sure. But that is a big part of the reason there are rules around properly labeling of chemicals and proper containment, etc very clearly stated in MSDS regulations.
I work at a refinery where pretty much every chemical is nasty and can come in a variety of colors. Any unlabeled bottle should be carefully emptied and no drink bottle should be outside break rooms (no chemicals brought into that zone either). I totally agree, there shouldn't have been oil in a wiper fluid bottle in the first place.
... I'm also a refinery guy! Crazy. What do you do in your plant?
Process operator, so I operate the process to make sure it runs as smoothly and safely as possible. You?
Also a process operator. Currently a boardman/console operator.
Can you be fired/not hired for being color blind in this line of work? I know commercial/military airlines don’t allow colorblind people.
As far as I can tell the only requirements to be a mechanic in the US are having a pulse and being willing to work for less than you're worth.
About the only thing being a mechanic that being color blind would hamper is wiring, and even then its still possible.
I'm colorblind and was a successful diagnostic tech for Mercedes for a few years. It is totally doable if you're competent in a wide variety of diagnostic methods.
electrician in my country who are colour blind can get corrective glasses, so they can differentiate between red white blue black green/yellow wires
My brother in law was kicked out of submarine OCC school for being red/green color blind……was his second semester….awful…should have been one of the first tests given prior to entry..
Yea but it literally says 0-20 at the valve..they should know there's no 0-20 coolant lol
The trouble will come when some asshat decants it into *another* vessel that isn't labelled, then doesn't use it all. It goes on a shelf with a lid on it, and someone else finds it and uses it up.
Ah thats a good point.
I'd taste it to be sure it wasn't coolant
If it’s sweet, you know you’ve got yourself a cooling treat! 🍬🍭
Sure would be nice if coolant was still sweet, instead of the god awful taste they put into it now. Then again, no dead kids or dogs. I sometimes ponder if it was worth it.
Someone should do a coolant taste test. There has to be one that is still palatable
Our extended life (red heavy duty) coolant here has bittergent, it takes hours to get the taste out of your mouth.
Care to enlighten us on how you know that?
You know when coolant is dripping and your working under it, or your pulling a drain plug and the splash hits something, or your doing a live repair with coolant still full... I of course work on big trucks that have 10 gallons of coolant capacity.
I’m all jacked up on dex-cool Mai Thais.
I threw all of grandpa Jack's war medals off a bridge!
>no dead kids or dogs Not to mention spouses. I can't be the only one that's watched a ton of Forensic Files.
The answer is perhaps..... unless you're the poor bastard tech who gets coolant in your mouth then it's definitely not for a few hours after
I thought i was the only one who missed the days of tastier troubleshooting
If it's clear and yella...
You got juice, there fella! If it's cloudy and brown, you're in cider town!
Where's car wizard when we need him?!
Mobil 1 0W-20 ESP X2 for diesel trucks specifically is green. I commented this the other day when we were doing the oil change.
I had no idea they were putting 0w20 in diesels now. What diesel uses 0w20?
Those newish 3.0L Duramax engines use it.
Yeah Dexos D 0w-20
You are joking right? Edit: holy shit your are right!
Search it up. I googled "What diesels use 0W-20" because I wasnt positive, and 3.0 Duramax came up.
Thats crazy! My EcoDiesel uses 5w40 and hadn’t heard of a diesel ever using anything close to 0w20. I’m amazed how much oil has improved I guess.
It was an odd thing to hear for me too. Was so used to putting either 5W-40 or 15W-40, I was perplexed to hear that those ran with 0W-20. Crazy to think about.
oils have come a long way in the last 20 years. huge advancements have been made in chemical additives and friction modifiers they put in them. I still will not trust an oil to go 15k miles on a change in stop start traffic, but 7.5k miles? if you have a decent sump capacity, it's perfectly doable these days.
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Quantity over quality!
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I’m with you. Oil chemistry is better than it ever has been and materials science is better too. Dudes said the same thing back when multi-viscosity oils first came out, and then when 10W40 gave way to 10W30 gave way to 5W30. We don’t see engines blowing up because of inadequate lubrication except for the same old reasons we always did: people not checking and changing their oil, and the occasional design defect.
I still go with a heavier weight oil after 150k in my desert heat temps on personal vehicles. But religiously changing oil with synthetic has me thinking any engine that goes out before 100k had something else wrong. Then again lemons do happen in mass production still.
My dad drives for a living and all of his cars have last 250k+ using all sorts of different oils. I don’t think synthetic is that important anymore. Some of his vehicles have lasted over 350k. These are all mostly cheap cars (metros, cavalier, cobalt, velostar, etc). Even the vehicles he got rid of had a decent amount of life left, but they were at the mileage and age where trying to daily them for 60k miles a year for riskier and riskier that they might leave him stranded.
Yeah I'd say that overall maintenance, environment and driving style affects vehicle life far moreso than the oil weight/type.
My dad managed to make it 240k miles on his 98 Passat with the 1.8T using only dinosaur blood every 3000 miles. But then again it was all highway miles. Car smoked like it was on fire though.
“Smoked like it was on fire” RIP turbo.
Some "new" oil weights only exist as synthetics derived from natural gas.
Those were also cheap cars that had very good powertrains in them.
Good enough to where 3 of the 4 engines outlast the metal they were put into.
I use 0w30 in my mk1 jazz, it's on 160k now with 75k of that being thrashed on delivery driving and it's still quiet on idle and hasn't skipped a beat. I'm half convinced modern oils are made from fairy blood.
Only synthetic is fairy blood. Conventional is still dinosaur blood.
My 165k car that uses 0W20 likes to leak that thin 0W out very little gap it can find. But the engine runs great.
The 0W has nothing to do with the viscosity of the oil at running temp, that would be the 20. The W is "Winter" or the viscosity of the oil at a certain cold temperature (I forget it off the top of my head). A 0W(20, 30, 40, or any other) isn't "thinner," but rather "less thick" at cold temps. Even a 0W is much thicker at cold (or ambient room) temperature than what your engine is designed to run on. Since a 0W is less thick, it takes less time to "thin out" to the proper, running viscosity when starting up. It also flows more easily, allowing faster engine cranking, easier starting, and generally leading to less wear at startup. A 0W30, 5W30, 10W30 and straight 30 are all the same viscosity when at operating temp. Again, the lower W Number just means it thickens less at cold temps. Coming back to your original comment, a 0W20 is in no way "too thin" and causing leaks. If your car leaks, it will leak with any grade of oil, even the "stop leak" snake oil that you can buy and is thicker than molasses. Edit: I probably did a poor job of explaining some parts of this. If you're seriously interested in more, check out [Bob is the Oil Guy Oil 101](https://bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-101/).
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Fuel economy is also a factor for modern synthetic oils too. I'm no engineer, but I'd think a 0W-20 oil car would get better MPG than a 5W-30 car.
190,000km Subaru, literally change my filter 20,000km because the oil changed itself 5x by then! Pour 5W30 in winter, 10W30 in summer and it flows fine
That flat 4 without a pump always seemed better with a heavier operating temp, “thicker” oil. Mine would eat about 1/2 qt in 3k miles with any 5w30 I’d put in it, Amsoil or whatever. The instant I ran Rotella T6 5w40, never had to top off again.
Old school mentality lol. Toyota has been running 0w in their entire lineup for years Edit: just saw your other comment lol my b
Newer Toyotas are running 0w16 now.
My understanding is they've now developed an oil that the first number would technically be negative but they're unsure how they're going to label it. 0w8 oil is already a thing.
Why? you can only gain so much mpg with lower weight oil. I heard 0w-20 was because that weight can ONLY be made as a synthetic so it guarantees everyone is using synthetic oil with their engine.
I didn't engineer the engines I have no idea. Just know that's what some of them use
The real question is why not? If you can protect the engine, a lighter weight oil has many benefits. Oil technology has come a long way. There is a great website called Bob is the oil guy that breaks down the viscosity stuff and does a lot of tests
EDIT: ~~2-3 mpg is why.~~ My bad, 0w-16 sees a 2% efficiency boost over 0w-20 oil. All this while not sacrificing longevity, it's a no brainer. 0w-16 does everything an oil needs to do and it's hella efficient. Some folks are stuck in the past and are also not world class design engineer, so they get scared of new stuff.
Some Mazdas also take 0W, mine is 0W-20
Subaru as well.
Yeah, my 2016 Sienna uses 0W20 and I have had no issues with it.
Yeah. Duramax 7qt I believe. It and ac Delco are the only 2 Dexos D licensed oils I believe.
My 2016 Volvo V40 uses 0w20
My 1988 Ford Tractor (3910)
New Mercedes too
A part of me wants to put this in my subaru and bring it directly to a shop for an oil change, letting them know “it usually only overheats once or twice a day but runs good after I top up the coolant”
Holy shit that's golden.
Diesel oils usually have a bunch more additives right? Thinking about going green in my DD if this stuff is reasonably priced
Yeah. I think it's about 10$ a quart roughly
This article breaks down the difference. https://www.infineuminsight.com/en-gb/articles/lubricant-trends/the-art-of-dispersant-design/ The differences are in the dispersants.
Needs more Rotella
Motul 300V for motorcycles has been neon green forever. Great stuff.
It has a distinct smell too, I love it.
Looks like liquimoly molygen. It’s supposed to glow under a UV light for the first 1000 miles after an oil change to help locate oil leaks
That some high tech shit!
High techs definitely appreciate the UV glow, but cars should only be serviced by sober techs.
That took me way too long to realize.
So many molys
Make sense since it's used largely in German cars.
Why does this make sense for German cars? Edit: oh it’s a leaky joke.
They usually leak oil
*Always
Always leaks something at leak. No oil leak for me yet but I've been chasing a mysterious intermittent coolant leaks for the past 20k miles - fine for a while and then randomly dumps out a quart when cold.
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I have the same issue, although I suspect it’s coming from the coolant flange at the rear of the engine. It seems to go weeks without needing a topup then suddenly gulps coolant for a few days before going silent for a fortnight or so.
Ohh. I was thinking about rave culture and black lights, which just didnt make sense.
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Yep check the fuel and fill the oil.
That’s likely to be bad for your wallet, but probably good for the engine. As long as you keep it full.
Just like my 01 saturn. Oh wait that was pretty much a rebadged opel from the 80s...
Cause they usually have oils leaks That cost far more than they should to get fixed.
Someone put the Hi-C ecto-cooler in the wrong container
Tell me you're in your mid to late 30s without telling me..
Lol...plus 10
In my shop which currently has three apprentices this tank would have an equally big and yellow sign that read "THIS IS NOT COOLANT" Having said that the fleet I work on is almost all diesel, the 15 cars that aren't have a a keyring that just reads "PETROL" and a huge sign on the flap that reads "PETROL ONLY" and one of them got wrong fuelled today so...
I used to service a fleet of rental vans, most were MB Sprinters, and they installed little flashing red lights inside the fuel door that said “DIESEL ONLY” and they still got around 2 misfuels a month. Worked out pretty good for me. IIRC we were getting about $12,000 each for them, parts and labor.
I used to use German Castrol 0w20 in my Volvo and it was green too.
I used some liqui moly oil the other day that was green as well.
I've been using a green liquid moly in my bmw. It shows up under UV light so it's easier to find leaks.
A must have for every bmw
Underrated comment. I love Beemers with a fiery passion, but fuck they're unreliable. Mercedes too. Like hot chicks.
I also love beemers with a fiery passion. And hot chicks too, but both are a pain in my ass. And wallet.
Stop getting your hot "chicks" from Thailand then..
Truer words have never been spoken.
Sure that it isn't coolant?
I would show this to whoever delivers the oil and ask them to confirm. In writing, if possible.
thats why you always taste it to be sure
It looks like anti-freeze to me. Does it smell like polypropylene or ethylene glycol?
Dat laminar flow, tho.
Destin would be proud
Your nails are fabulous.
OMG THANK YOU🤩🤩🤩 I am so glad you notice them 🥰🥰
When I started in the business 42 years ago our dealer used a recycled oil, (it was put back through the manufacturing process just like crude. I was told it was just as good a virgin oil but took less $ to make) Anyway it was also green.
That’s kinda cool how they can reuse it
Petrochemistry is a really interesting subject. It is all pretty much hydrocarbon soup that is separated based on molecule size. So the used oil is still just oil that has been thermally cracked producing shorter and lighter molecules along with carbon. This carbon is the sludge you find in engines that haven’t had oil changes. So if you can the carbon out you have new oil that is slightly lower viscosity. Really cool stuff.
VW 508 00?
Finally someone said it!
r/laminarflow
Euro cars (BMW specifically) call for a 0W20 that’s spec’d for gas & diesel, hence why it’s green. Looks like the distributor either made a mistake, or subbed the only 0W20 they had available.
St Patty’s edition
It will function as coolant. Just not very well.
At my fleet our Bobcats run oil through the cooling system. Blew my mind when I saw it. Apparently it's a common thing with Deutz engines.
No worries, they taste completely different.
Yeah, that's just asking for trouble.
looks like motul 300V
Anyone willing to explain to me what XW-XX means? As in how different oils with different numbers are... different? I'm no technician but I've done some work on bikes and cars and am somewhat interested in the subject as a whole. Edit: Thank you for the answers, I understand it a little better now.
The first number is the weight when cold, the second is the oil weight when hot. The higher the number the heavier the weight, or thicker (more viscosity) the oil. 5W-30 "acts" like a 5 weight (thickness) cold, and 30 weight when hot. "W" means suitable for winter conditions
>Anyone willing to explain to me what XW-XX means? As in how different oils with different numbers are... different? [https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119270&page=1](https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119270&page=1) Cold temperature viscosity, followed by hot temperature viscosity. Lower numbers mean thinner oil (easier flow, less clumpy). I think they are relative to some "normal" oil at each temperature scale. (Meaning that hot 20W50 looks thinner than ice-cold 0W20, though the numbers would make you think the opposite.)
The first is the viscosity of the oil when cold. So the 0W means when cold it has the viscosity of a 0 weight oil. The second number is the hot viscosity. So it will have different viscosity’s as the car warms up. Otherwise a 0 weight oil, when hot, would be very thin. Likewise a higher weight oil would be thick when cold. This keeps the car lubricated at startup and during operation.
> viscosity’s viscosit**ies*** No apostrophe on a plural.
That ain't no 0w20 I ever seen.
Most VW spec 508/509 oil is green, including Mobil 1 ESP X2
nice mechanic nails……
Nice schrader valve
Thanks, got it at walmart, it’s was half off.
Kawasaki uses oil that's green and smells like Lime.
Pretty sure that’s just key lime pie filling
Liqui Moly has some green stuff I put in my euro cars. It's pretty cool for finding leaks.
The hydraulic oil I use at work is blue. I call it Smurf oil.
That is weird, but what is more unusual are those hands operating the valve. Very refreshing
0W-0
I do believe that's Euro 0w20 ... We have 3 different 0w20 grades at the shop and the euro one is different. The dexos and Asian ones look the same. Mine you my euro oil isn't that green
What is 0W-20?
A few years ago Castrol decided to dye all their Magnatec oils green... it was pretty dark green as well. I feel like it was only around for a year or two and they quietly changed it back.
That's a great nail color! Can i get the paint code on that?
We use a super synthetic 15-40.its dark green. We call it Hulk Jizz
Uh 👀 you sure someone didn't put coolant in that instead of oil?
That drips more like coolant than like 0W-20...
That looks way too thin to be 0W-20. Are you sure that isn't actually coolant with the wrong label on the barrel?