Engine oil change DIYers?

[AndrewF]

The worst AI hallucination I have ever seen.

This is totally not a diagram of the GM 3800 V6.

1. The "AI" points to the crankshaft harmonic balancer (which is in the wrong position) and this is apparently the oxygen sensor!

2. The three sided serpentine belt... (my favorite)

3. The timing chain oriented incorrectly and as a belt.

4. Points to an alternator and labels it a "throttle body".

5. Adds imaginary coolant elbow leading to nowhere, puts it on the bottom rear of the engine, and calls it a fuel rail. (Which should be on the top of the engine.)

6. The "crankashart"? ROFL

7. The pre-catalyst oxygen sensor should be on the back of the engine, on the exhaust manifold, not on the front, and the post-catalyst is plugged into the rear of the catalytic converter, which is about halfway down the exhaust pipe. It is nowhere near the engine. Its job is to verify that the catalytic converter is working right and the pollutants it removes from the exhaust stream are within acceptable legal levels.

8. This ignition coil pack is "meta", yo! Actually there's three of them and they're on the passenger side of the engine right next to the engine, mounted into the Ignition Control Module. Nothing like this "diagram". "AI" thinks you can run six cylinders on one coil. Apparently that's one hell of a coil and all the cylinders on a V6 don't need a firing order?

9. Pistons on the bottom of the engine? Okay then....weird.

10. Der Motor stotterte, bis ich merkte, dass das Problem am "crankenshat" lag — danke, AI‑Mechaniker!

11. Oh wait, there is another ignition coil in the exhaust header leads. Wow. The alternator is in there too, apparently.

And so on....

Anyway, this is what's wrong with "AI slop" it will happily generate wrong information, then people paste it into a website, then it gets indexed by search engines, and it just wastes everyone's time.

[AndrewF]

Changed my oil two days ago and used Mobil 1 Advanced Clean 5w30 and a Purolator One filter on the Buick.

The car ran like absolute crap for about 50 miles and I was wondering if there was something going on that was hurting the engine, then after abut 50 miles it quieted down a lot and it's been running better than it has since I've owned the car.

There's very likely something in this formulation that's finding some deposits and breaking them down, but be advised that the car might run poorly for a day or so.

ExxonMobil has a patent on and is manufacturing a relatively new kind of Group V motor oil called an Alkylated Napthalene and that's part of the blend that they use in this oil.

It's not a cleaner per se, but apparently the stuff does swell and loosen deposits, so it indirectly makes them softer and easier for the detergent components to disperse and remove.

AN is also superior against bearing wear compared to PAOs.

AN is very expensive to make so I wonder how much could be in an oil that sells for $26 at Walmart. ExxonMobil probably won't say anywhere, but I guess anything from Mobil 1 is a perfectly fine motor oil for an old Buick.

[AndrewF]

I did my good deed for the day.

Someone at Walmart let a customer return a pile of used dirty oil filters. So that the filters wouldn't leak, the customer put packing tape on the side that screws onto the housing.

I handed them to the person at the automotive counter.

I put in 31 job applications at the local Walmart stores yesterday, including in the automotive center.

You'd think with one job to do they could handle a simple oil change.

I've ran into people there that managed to get oil all over my car exterior and my steering wheel, overfills, and one that broke my dipstick and then shoved it back in. Luckily it did not go down the tube and wrap itself around the timing chain. Had to get needle nose pliers and get it out and replace it though.

If I get an interview for this one, I might mention that it just pains me to see sloppy work because someone didn't care, and that I would treat every car as if I was working on my own.

I looked at Alkylated Napthalene some more and ExxonMobil is really pitching this stuff. Even at just 10% of the base oil component, it reduced bearing wear by over 80% compared to their previous formulation.

The interesting part of my test will see if the engine noise that it quieted down comes back after I change it out for another brand. I'll probably be using Pennzoil Ultra Platinum again next time so that will be the "Brand X" to compare with.

It's also possible that the noise is going away because the "Advanced Clean" formulation is finding deposits and getting rid of them.