cheap car oil

Everyone has seen the cheap off brands at the grocery and convenience stores. They must meet the SAE requirements. What is it that makes the brands like Pennzoil and Quaker State better for your car engine ?


Those quick change oil places never say what brand oil they are putting in your engine. Usually they just say "4 quarts of oil and filter, only $ 19.99". Who knows what they put in.

I would avoid the quick change places for $20. Back in y younger days I used to handle insurance claims for the quicky oil change places. They hire the cheapest low down people for $7 an hour and then pressure them to sell parts. Find yourself a good mechanic and have your ca serviced by them.

If you flip to the back side of the container and find the API Service SP (a circular logo with the weight of the oil in the center circle) as long as the oil has it has SN or SP, those will meet all car specifications for 2019 and older.

Other items to look for is the ILSAC GF-6A.

Both of those symbols are rigorous tests by two independent labs that have bought, tested and certified the oil meets the API standards.

As long as those two are on the bottle it doesn't matter what you use.

There must be a difference between brands like Quaker State, Pennzoil, and the grocery store brands.

You pay $30k to possibly $100k for a car and you want to save $5 on an oil change? Doesn't make sense to me. Ever since I got to the point where I could afford to not change oil myself, I take it to the dealer for all the routine service. Costs a little more, but I know it's done right and they'll stand behind it. I've driven Toyota and Lexus products for more than 3 decades, and if you take care of them they just keep running. Probably that's the case with pretty much any brand.

Most of the "major" oil brands have a consistent flow of quality crude. The generally have one or two dedicated refineries to process oil to their specification. But as mentioned above, look in your owners manual and find the oil specification number. As long as the number on the an equals or is greater than the number in the manual, the oil will meet the MINIMUM lubrication standards the manufacturer has established for your engine. One note, unless your car requires synthetic oil, it is not the best of ideas to put it in your engine. It has been known to cause leaks when the engine is not designed for synthetics.

Most of the "major" oil brands have a consistent flow of quality crude. The generally have one or two dedicated refineries to process oil to their specification. But as mentioned above, look in your owners manual and find the oil specification number. As long as the number on the an equals or is greater than the number in the manual, the oil will meet the MINIMUM lubrication standards the manufacturer has established for your engine. One note, unless your car requires synthetic oil, it is not the best of ideas to put it in your engine. It has been known to cause leaks when the engine is not designed for synthetics. Originally Posted by carguy1989

isn't that the issue with the rubber gasket?

I have heard that leak issue with synthetics or products like Seafoam. You can have an engine or transmission with no leaks...put those in....now have many leaks. Somehow they disturb the tiny deposits that have built up that help keep them sealed.



I have always used Quaker State regular engine oil...never had a engine problem or leak. Some vehicles over 250k miles. Hard to believe the oil sold at the 99 cent stores is the same.


I put Castrol high mileage transmission oil in......made a noticeable difference in the smoothness of the shifting of the transmission.

There are a lot of YouTube videos detailing this but the generic brand sold at Walmart gets pretty high ratings. I'd probably be willing to use their super tech synthetic without too many worries. I use more expensive synthetic from Castrol. Another thing to pay attention to is the quality of the oil filter. This is probably more important than the oil and where your $20 oil change might hurt you especially if you're maxing out the change interval.

There must be a difference between brands like Quaker State, Pennzoil, and the grocery store brands. Originally Posted by VitaMan

Quaker State and Penzoil are both owned by Shell Oil. There is only 3 to 4 oil manufacturers left there has been so much consolidation over the years.

This. Talked to a buddy of mine in IT who had to fix a problem with the "line" that was filling high "name brand" quart size oil containers. When he finished they changed the "name brand" to walmart Techron oil containers without changing the source.

I also heard about 20 years ago Ferrari was charging like $400 for an oil change and were just using a similar high name brand product they had repackaged.

If you go to jiffylube or walmart they'll tell you what they are using and give you options. Try their new "Pumpkin spice oil."