Oilman, expert advice needed

[jimsinessex]

The thread "What oil should I be using" on this forum has raised doubts about the quality of a batch of Mobil 1 oil.

The post is from China but raises the spectre of multiple MB engine failures for which Mobil have picked upthe bill.

Can you find out whether the rogue batches of oil were distributed in the UK and can they be identified by batch numbers?

Jim

 

[mioba]

good question i was thinking the same, i noticed a reasonably priced lot of the stuff on ebay recently. MAde me think about it!

 

[BarryG]

Hmm China where they still counterfeit 99% of all things sold there.
Not beyond the realms of my devious mind that they are refilling Mobil containers with some local junk?

Barry

 

[Blobcat]

Hmm China where they still counterfeit 99% of all things sold there.
Not beyond the realms of my devious mind that they are refilling Mobil containers with some local junk?

Barry

You would never get a full boat into a 4ltr Mobil 1 container. Not without grinding it up.

 

[shj]

to clever by half,it took me awhile to get it

 

[jimsinessex]

Hmm China where they still counterfeit 99% of all things sold there.
Not beyond the realms of my devious mind that they are refilling Mobil containers with some local junk?

Barry

I take your point but what grabbed my attention was the claim that Mobil paid for the rebuild. That suggests it was genuine Mobil oil

Jim

 

[Rory]

I take your point but what grabbed my attention was the claim that Mobil paid for the rebuild. That suggests it was genuine Mobil oil

Jim

I'm a bit dubious that engines would have been destroyed as quickly as the original poster claimed - any slippy stuff would work for a while.

 

[eric242340]

I am the original poster and trust me - so far in my workshop 26 engines and thats only my place. Yes the Chinese are known for their fake stuff. But Mobil agreed to pay. Apparantly there was too much of one particular chemical in this batch. The oil at a certain temperature turned to rubber (sort of) anyway it was tested by experts here and they claimed the oil was the problem. Im told, because I dont watch Chinese TV, that it was on the news. Im sure Mobil dont want a bad name and therefore collected the tab. It doesent rubberize straight away and takes approx 2000km

 

[Rory]

OK, fair enough - sorry for doubting you.

I would have thought that there would be a lot of vehicles, of all different makes, affected then? (Unless only your garage got the problem oil).

 

[jimsinessex]

Eric,

Can you supply more specific details of the rogue batches of oil concerned. "distributed in July and August" is a bit to vague to condemn all Mobil 1 oils worldwide. I am would be surprised if all outlets worldwide would be supplied from the same refinery and the mistake in the production process is likely to be confined to a particular batch from a particular refinery.

It shows the power of a forum such as this that we can be alerted to such a potentially catastrophic problem but it can also start scare stories if the information is not sufficiently detailed to assess the risk to each of us in different parts of the world.

Jim

 

[eric242340]

Dear rory, or does that sound old fashioned now? yes many vehicles were effected and not just mercedes. However, who is going to pay for an expensive oil like mobil and put it in a spam can? So, of course the only cars affected were "expensive cars". Hope you get my drift.

 

[eric242340]

dear jinsinessex, I cant give specific details. But as I understand it, the problem only occured in China. I dont know if any parts of this batch were distributed worldwide. I hope not. I will, however, say that all of our customers are still using Mobil I. This sort of thing can happen to any manufactuer. In this case Mobil paid the bill. Which to me means they are being honest and it was a one off problem.

 

[eric242340]

Oh sorry,thats Jimsinessex and not Jinsinessex. Need glasses

 

[eric242340]

I cannot give you the batch details, as I simply do not have access to that information. However I can assure you that this was a local problem and the batch was produced in China for China. Further, our customers respect the fact that Mobil agreed to pay the bill. They still use Mobile 1. Its an unfortunate fact that industrial processes do and will continue to go wrong. Also I feel Mobil, by agreeing to foot the bill, did the right thing. Remember guys it could have been Shell or BP. Would they have been so forthcoming?

 

[jimsinessex]

However I can assure you that this was a local problem and the batch was produced in China for China.

Thanks Eric, that was the info I was looking for. Those of us outside China can sleep easy now.

Jim