00:00hey everyone so today I want to talk
00:01about my personal experience switching
00:03from the mobile one synthetic engine oil
00:06to the Kirkland synthetic engine oil
00:09that is sold through Costco now I
00:10utilize these oils in my 2015 Toyota
00:13Corolla that I use primarily as a
00:15commuter car and I'm doing the 10,000 M
00:18Oil Change which is kind of
00:19controversial so I've done several
00:21engine oil analysis to see how well this
00:23oil holds up after 10,000 Mi and how
00:25well my engine is holding up in my car
00:28now the mobile one oil I was using
00:29utilizing for the first about 130
00:32140,000 mil in the car and then at about
00:35150,000 Mi I switched over to the
00:38Kirkland full synthetic oil sold through
00:41Costco so let's jump right into the test
00:42I want to be as transparent as possible
00:44I want to show all the tests I've done I
00:45want to show a small issue that I had uh
00:48with the car there was through no fault
00:50of the engine oil itself but it kind of
00:52reinforces why it's a good idea to get
00:54an engine oil analysis done on a car
00:56especially when you plan on keeping for
00:57a while to find any sort of hidden ISS
00:59issues and I did a separate video on the
01:02of the Hidden issue that I initially
01:04discovered so you have two main
01:05categories you have your the larger
01:08section is the elements and parts per
01:10million and on the bottom is the
01:11properties of the oil now on the very
01:13top highlighted in Gray you have the
01:15miles on the oil that's 10,000 miles
01:17across the board because I do 10,000
01:19mile oil change intervals for every oil
01:21change you can see the mileage on unit
01:24starting all the way from the right 130
01:26was the first test I did which was
01:27utilizing mobile one and then the other
01:29two at 160 and 170 we're utilizing the
01:33Kirkland Costco full synthetic engine
01:35oil and at the very bottom you see in
01:38the gray highlighted it says make up oil
01:41added zero across the board that means
01:43my car does not burn any oil and I do
01:45not add oil in between the oil change
01:48interval so partway through the oil
01:49change I'm not adding oil so it doesn't
01:52throw the test result results off and
01:54potentially uh give favorability to one
01:56oil because it would show some better
01:58numbers because I'm adding fresh oil
01:59partway through the oil change but again
02:01I don't do that there's no makeup oil
02:03added because my car doesn't burn any
02:04engine oil so starting from the top for
02:08specifically the three categories
02:09towards the top that I was looking at
02:11are aluminum iron and copper aluminum uh
02:14in my car specifically are the block The
02:17Head and the Pistons and then you also
02:20have iron in my engine which is
02:22basically going to be in any sort of the
02:23shafts cam shafts crankshafts any
02:25hardware inside the engine and then
02:27finally copper which is anything with
02:29brass in it like bearings so again the
02:32130,000 M and 160,000 m test the 130 is
02:37mobile one the 160 is the Kirkland
02:40Costco oil and you can see the numbers
02:42are pretty darn close and pretty on par
02:45now you'll see that the the number seven
02:48on the Kirkland category it's bolded a
02:51little bit I'll explain what that meant
02:53I had a little bit of a problem with the
02:55uh the car that I discovered that was
02:56fortunately uh not a problem and I since
03:00so we Metals look good the both oils are
03:03protecting the engine very well uh next
03:06towards the middle to bottom are the
03:08contaminants that are not part of the
03:10oil that's going to be potassium silicon
03:12and sodium potassium you're usually not
03:15going to find too much of in oils
03:17typically you can find potassium in
03:18antifreeze so if you have a head gasi
03:19leak you might get some pottassium in
03:21the oil uh the main things you're going
03:23to have you're going to find our silicon
03:24and sodium uh silicon is basically dirt
03:30sand basically stuff that's getting
03:32through the engine air filter and
03:34getting into the oil itself uh that's
03:36something that hopefully the oil filter
03:39is catching but you will normally get a
03:41little bit in but that's again no fault
03:43of the oils and sodium uh you'll find
03:47that in some gasoline Blends as an
03:50additive so you're going to get a little
03:51bit of that too but again this has
03:52nothing to do with the oil itself but if
03:53just curious what those numbers or
03:54that's what they are uh the main aspects
03:56we're looking for at the oil themselves
04:00additives so those additives are going
04:03to be starting from the about middle of
04:06the test coming down mbum manganese
04:11magnesium phosphorus zinc and
04:14barium so malum is going to be on uh
04:19some manufactur put on piston rings and
04:20it's an anti-wear additive uh pretty
04:23close on both of the uh Kirkland and on
04:26the mobile one no no huge variable there
04:29uh manganese didn't really have any in
04:33this it's kind of a trace and you'll
04:34find that in some uh additives uh none
04:38in this oil uh Bor Boron is a detergent
04:43SL dispersant detergent meaning an
04:46element that's designed to help clean
04:47the inside of the engine and dispersant
04:49meaning it's designed to disperse the
04:51contaminants in the oil essentially all
04:53the little particles of soot and carbon
04:54that are floating around in the oil it
04:56separates them and keeps them from
04:57clumping together and forming larger
04:59particles that could damage the engine
05:01or then turn into sludge over time so
05:03disperse but literally means keep them
05:05dispersed and keep them apart from each
05:07other so uh the Kirkland had seemed to
05:10have a little bit more on the test that
05:12I did with that a little bit of an edge
05:15one and then getting towards the bottom
05:18uh next you had uh calcium which is also
05:22a detergent and dispersant there was a
05:24noticeable jump it seemed over mobile
05:26one in the uh Costco Kirkland oil there
05:30significant jump there it seemed next up
05:33you had the Magnesium also a detergent
05:35and dispersant little bit of an edge to
05:37the mobile one it seem to be a little
05:38bit higher on the test that I did so
05:41little bit of edger for the mobile one
05:43and then towards the bottom you have
05:45phosphorus and zinc those are both
05:48additives uh pretty not a Hu not a
05:52massive difference but significant I
05:54would say the phosphorus and zinc was
05:57noticeably higher in the Kirkland Costco
06:01oil uh modern mot oils don't have as
06:03much phosphorus and zinc in them that
06:04was kind of an older standard and
06:05they're not good for catalytic
06:06converters and they're not good for
06:09so the oil companies have kind of been
06:11forced to lower those numbers they are
06:13more important in older engines that
06:14have flat tap at cams because they would
06:15form a sacrificial layer on any parts
06:18that would have metal to metal contact
06:20UM more modern engines have rollers
06:22inside them so you don't have that those
06:24uh more harsh metal to metal contacts in
06:26them and then barium there's another
06:28detergent dispers and there's none in uh
06:31in these oils so overall I would say it
06:35wasn't a complete blowout but there was
06:38a noticeable amount more of the
06:40additives in the uh Kirkland Costco oil
06:44so uh it did pretty well and then moving
06:46to the bottom category the
06:48properties uh the main things for the
06:50engine oil for the properties are the
06:52viscosity and the TBN number on the top
06:55is the viscosity you see there's two
06:56different ways that they measure it
06:58they're basically two different uh ways
07:01that they're essentially two different
07:03units of measurement for them so it's
07:05basically kind of like a standard vers
07:07metric kind of thing um overall they
07:10were pretty darn close not a huge
07:11difference the viscosity held up really
07:13well and they were both within specs so
07:16they were both fine uh they held up very
07:19well after 10,000 mies on the very
07:20bottom of the test the TBN total Base
07:22number of additives that's basically the
07:25uh resistance of the oil from becoming
07:27acidic oil starts off as more of a b
07:29base and then as it get gets
07:30contaminated it becomes more of an acid
07:32so you see it needs to be at least one
07:35you had 3.7 for the mobile one 3.3 for
07:37the Costco Kirkland so a little bit of
07:39an edge there for the mobile one but
07:40overall they did very well you still
07:41have a significant amount of active
07:43additives left after 10,000 Mi to keep
07:46the oil from becoming acidic over time
07:48so now the only concerning result in
07:50these tests was if you look towards the
07:52bottom in the properties of 160,000
07:54miile category the first Kirkland test I
07:56did you'll notice the flash point in
07:58degrees F it's bolded at
08:02360° now I the issue that I found that I
08:05didn't know about till I did this test
08:06was I likely had a leaking injector
08:09whether it was clogged leaking dirty
08:11some sort of injector issue so I decided
08:13all right let me run a few bottles a
08:15fuel system cleaner through it and see
08:16what happens if it kind of cleans up the
08:18problem I wasn't sure if it would but
08:19let's give it a shot that's a cheap fix
08:21if it works and it appears that that may
08:24have fixed the issue because my fuel
08:28percentage jumped to 1.3 at 160,000 Mi
08:31versus it was half a percent and the
08:34flash point was higher on my initial
08:36test when I did the most recent test at
08:38170,000 Mi you can see the flash point
08:40went right back to 395 and half a
08:43percent fuel dilution so uh it basically
08:46went back to right where it should be
08:48and in the comment section from
08:51Blackstone uh they thank me for noting
08:53that I put injector cleaner cleaner in
08:55it they said it might have helped uh the
08:571.3 wasn't anything that I needed to
08:59take corrective action for immediately
09:01but it was just something to kind of
09:02keep an eye on and that they noted that
09:04the TBM number jumped a little bit as
09:06well so the TBN was looking really good
09:094.3 that means there's a lot of active
09:11additives Le left and that they said the
09:14test looks spotless at 170,000 miles so
09:18my opinion on this on utilizing these
09:20oils and the 10,000 M Oil Change do I
09:23think that the Costco oil is good
09:25absolutely a lot of people kind of
09:26question that when this came out of
09:30what is this stuff who makes this stuff
09:32I think this stuff is just is basically
09:34more or less on par with mobile one the
09:36mobile one is made by mobile xon this
09:37has been kind of a benchmark for a very
09:39long time a lot of Manufacturers use
09:40mobile one because it's a very good oil
09:43the Costco oil the Kirkland oil is made
09:45by a manufacturer called Warren
09:47distribution they are an enormous
09:49petroleum manufacturer that makes
09:52various products for a lot of different
09:55companies they make the supertech oil
09:57for Walmart they make the
09:59Amazon Basics oil for Amazon they're
10:01basically a massive company that other
10:04companies come to them and say look we'd
10:05like you to make us oil because
10:06manufacturing oil is very complicated
10:09and expensive and Costco's not going to
10:11go out and start a Refinery it's much
10:12easier for them to go to a company like
10:13Warren distribution and say hi we want
10:14you to make us an oil and I'm sure they
10:16basically say look what they're looking
10:18for in the oil and they can change and
10:21tweak the additives packages and the
10:22base oil and they basically produce this
10:25for Costco under the Costco name so
10:29as you saw from the test results the
10:31additives were a little bit there was a
10:33little bit of difference in the
10:33additives between the two oils I don't
10:35think it's anything really huge and of
10:38concern the two main parts of your
10:39engine oil are going to be the base
10:41stock oil whether it's crude natural gas
10:44synthetics depending on what the base
10:45stock of the oil is made from and then
10:47the additives packages all those
10:48additives I was talking about before
10:50mbum manganese Boron calcium magnesium
10:52phosphorus zinc it's basically a game of
10:55they decide how much what percentage of
10:57Base oil they want do they want to put a
10:59little bit more additives and a little
11:00less base oil back and forth what of
11:02each element do they want a little bit
11:03more of another it's it's basically a
11:06huge strategy and a lot of testing of
11:08which blend they want to go with and
11:10there's almost an infinite amount of
11:11combinations they can do and they
11:13basically come up with a additiv package
11:15for the base oil that they think works
11:17now when you go into an oil store you're
11:19going to see full synthetic on almost a
11:24there these are basically group three
11:27oils which is uh technically not a full
11:30synthetic oil it's essentially a
11:32hydrocracked crude oil without getting
11:34too technical into it it was kind of an
11:36advertising thing that they came up with
11:38years ago that they call it full
11:40synthetic because of how highly refined
11:42it is but technically it is based off of
11:44crude oil and they just extensively
11:46refine it so most oils are going to be
11:49group three oils that's still still very
11:50good oils are better oils out there
11:53absolutely there's group four and group
11:55five oils that are very extremely good
11:58oils but but for the average person it's
12:00kind of a waste those oils are typically
12:02really expensive you're talking you can
12:03easily exceed $ 20 $30 a CT for some of
12:06that really Exotic super expensive oil
12:08does it offer better protection yes but
12:10you need to kind of take into
12:11consideration what you're using the oil
12:13for if you're using it for an everyday
12:15car driving back and forth whether it's
12:17you running errands commuting whatever
12:18using it for this type of oil is
12:20perfectly fine for something like that
12:22you really need in my opinion only need
12:23to get into that really exotic oil if
12:26you have a very specific category if you
12:28are racing a car then you spend the
12:30money in a much more exotic and
12:32expensive oil but for your average
12:35publicly driven car that's being used
12:37for a wide variety of tasks that the
12:39average person uses I think that these
12:41oils are perfectly fine I think they're
12:43basically on par with each other these
12:44oils I have nothing wrong see nothing
12:46wrong with mobile one but I like the the
12:48Kirkland because it's readily available
12:49and it's uh it's available at a very
12:51very good price as well so uh my opinion
12:55on oils nowadays is that the days of
12:57conventional and synthetic blend oil I
12:58personally think are over synthetic oils
13:00are not expensive anymore they kind of
13:02used to be expensive years ago they're
13:04not anymore now that so many companies
13:06are making them it's a little bit more
13:08than a convention oil is going to be but
13:09I think it's going to offer much better
13:11protection especially in modern engines
13:13that run hotter than engines used to
13:15before you have more forced induction
13:16systems like turbochargers and
13:17superchargers on cars that kind of get
13:19the oil hotter than it used to get years
13:21ago so I think everybody should be
13:23running synthetic oil nowadays because
13:25it's really not expensive and it's very
13:27easy to get and I think it offers
13:29considerable more protection than
13:31conventional or synthetic blend oils are
13:33going to offer now as far as the oil
13:35change intervals again I like I stated I
13:37do the 10,000 M Oil Change which is very
13:40controversial to a lot of people now a
13:41lot of people out there say that
13:43everyone should stick to 5,000m oil
13:46intervals I don't believe in blanket or
13:48generic or catch all statements like
13:50that I think you really need to look at
13:53see how the oil hand uh holds up based
13:56on your type of driving and what the oil
13:58manufacturer and the engine manufacturer
14:00the car manufacturer
14:02recommend also often you look in in a
14:04lot of Owner Manuals it says do certain
14:06mileage based on the type of Drive
14:08you're doing I'm at the extreme end of
14:11one because I do a lot of highway it's
14:14low engine hours low heat Cycles but
14:17it's a lot of actual miles itself and I
14:19think that the heat Cycles are really
14:20the most detrimental thing to the oil
14:22basically you start the car the oil gets
14:24warm you turn the car off it cools off
14:26again that creates a chemical change
14:28just like High School science class
14:30chemical versus physical change heating
14:33an element causes a chemical change so
14:34if you start the car and drive for 5
14:36minutes or start the car and drive for 5
14:37hours that's one heat cycle so I'm at
14:40the extreme end doing a lot of highway
14:43so I think for the people like me who do
14:46driving are if your if your owner's
14:48manual and your manufacturer recommends
14:50it you can potentially qualify for that
14:52but always a good idea to get a test
14:53done for the average person doing 10
14:5512,000 m a year doing mixed driving
14:58little bit bit of Highway little bit of
15:00local driving stop and go the The
15:03General mix of driving that's I think
15:06good for a 5,000 Mi interval if you're
15:08using a synthetic oil but again check
15:10what your owners manual and at the other
15:11end of that I don't think everybody
15:13qualifies for 5,000 because there's
15:15people that do extreme City driving that
15:17should probably do it in less than 5,000
15:19miles if you're doing the most severe
15:21Duty driving maybe you drive as a ride
15:24share driver you live in a major
15:26Metropolitan City where you start the
15:27car and you don't go very far you turn
15:30the car on or off for a couple minutes
15:32at a time you're sitting in traffic
15:33idling your fuel dilution is going to go
15:35up because you're just sitting idling
15:37and traffic and maybe over the course of
15:39a year you only do a few thousand miles
15:412,000 3,000 4,000 you're not even
15:43getting to 5,000 now you're still want
15:44to change it they usually recommend once
15:47a year or 5,000 but in that under onee
15:50point if you're doing a lot of sitting
15:52in traffic and a lot of idling that's
15:54very severe Duty on the oil and you
15:55might be wearing it out in less than
15:575,000 so for the average person average
16:00driving I think five is a pretty good
16:01number if you're a lot of Highway
16:03potentially go further Beyond 5,000 if
16:05you're a lot of City you might want to
16:07do less than 5,000 and these oil
16:09analysis tests are not too expensive and
16:10it really gives you a good insight into
16:12what's going on with your oil and what's
16:14going on with your engine if you're
16:15going to keep your car for a long period
16:16of time I think it's a worthwhile
16:18investment so um it's a good idea to get
16:22these tests done like I said I had the
16:24hidden problem with my uh engine oil
16:26that I never would have found that the
16:27fuel delusion had jumped up
16:29fortunately I think that that fuel
16:30system cleaner fixed the issue it jumped
16:32right back I don't know if it was a test
16:33contamination I'll never know what the
16:35actual issue was but as of right now
16:37we're right back to where we were good
16:38fuel dilution good flash point and these
16:41synthetic oils are holding up very good
16:43the engine looks really good my uh
16:45contaminants relatively low there's very
16:47low wear Metals in the oil and this is
16:50uh basically protecting the engine as I
16:53would uh expect it to so I hope you
16:56enjoyed the video thanks for watching
