I was very skeptical about the cost of synthetic lubricants and the whole idea of extended oil change intervals. My introduction to Amsoil began some 30 years ago, where I signed up as a dealer at a trade show.
I heard about the benefits of synthetic lubricants and how they offered extended protection compared to conventional lubricants. Back then, when conventional oil was about .43 cents a quart, and synthetics were over $2.00 per quart, I thought it was hard to justify buying one quart of synthetics for what it cost to buy the entire oil change using conventional oil. My driving habits were that of going back and forth to work and driving around town. There were no real major trips where I put many miles on my vehicle; I never pursued using Amsoil Lubricants and let my dealership expire.
Then my driving habits changed.
I quit my 40/hr/week factory job and went on the road doing contractor safety oversight and started driving up to 300 miles per day. With my belief of changing oil every 3,000 miles, I was in an instant oil change about every 2 to 3 weeks. I could see where this was costing me a lot of money and downtime, so this is when I started looking into Amsoil again. I was going to try the idea of extended oil change intervals, but again, I was still skeptical.
I purchased an Oil Analysis Kit, which Amsoil said I needed to do with extended oil change intervals and continued to monitor the oil in my truck. When there were about 12,000 miles on the oil the oil looked pitch black and being still skeptical about this whole idea, I decided to change out the oil and send in a sample to Oil Analyzers. The sample came back ok for continued use and I could not understand this given how the oil looked.
This was about the time I met Steve Tarini, Certified Lubrication Specialist and Amsoil Independent Distributor. I was still having second thoughts and had all kinds of questions for Steve about Amsoil Extended oil change intervals. What Steve told me made sense to me, “Just because the oil looks bad doesn’t mean the oil is bad, it simply means the oil is doing its job by cleaning the engine”. He further added that proper filtration is required to filter the oil, which Amsoil offers a complete line of filters and filtration systems.
He also said, “Oil does not cause problems in engines, engines cause problems with the oil”. I was confused about what that meant at first but Steve explained that an engine could have a bad injector, causing fuel dilution in the oil and you would never detect it when you changed your oil every 3,000 miles with no Oil Analysis performed on your oil. Steve further educated me on the benefits of using Amsoil Lubricants and this helped me understand the scientific approach behind extended oil change intervals.
I started becoming less skeptical about the idea and on my next oil analysis, I had more questions about the results and the testing criteria. I called Amsoil Tech Support myself and started asking them all kinds of questions on the results of my sample. They went into detail, explaining to me and giving me answers to all of my questions, eliminating any second thoughts I was having.
Today, I use Amsoil for everything and wonder where I would be if I did not have second thoughts 30 years ago.
