Hi, all:

If you do not like to read about oils, please do not read any further as I titled it "The great confusion at Mobil."

I have been following Mobil's move on new oils very closely and I have posted to the effect (in this forum and several other MB and general auto forums) that the latest Mobil Delvac 1300 Super and, very recently, Mobil 1 Tri-Synthetic SL oil has deteriorated in specs due to the use of inferior (compared to the SJ formula) base stocks. Now I have some proof.

After all other major synthetic oils came out with the SL rated oil, Mobil released its Tri-Synthetic SL rated oil in late March. After it came out, people started wondering why a sudden increase in pour point (10 degree) and stuffs like that.

As of today, Mobil has apparently changed its product strategy. It has removed the product specs of the SL rated Mobil 1 Tr-Synthetic oil from its Website (at the least the link used to work did not work anymore). And the old SJ stuffs are back on the Website.

More importantly, Mobil started a new Mobil 1 SuperSyn series of synthetic oil and the Tri-Synthetic is listed under Semi-synthetic oils now.

More interestingly, please read this post form the Edmonds Townhall Synthetic Oil discussion. I provide the link and also the text below.

http://townhall-talk2.edmunds.com/WebX?50@96.6LJbaUYZ4Sb^1@.ee9950a/3203

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Mobil 1 SuperSyn

Well I saw this formula again today. The 5w-30 said it was for newer engines, the 10w-30 was for older engines and the 15w-50 was for high performance engines. It was ILSAC GF-3 and API SL rated and listed as meeting European ACEA requirements but I don't remember the numbers. There was no mention of "Tri-Synthetic" anywhere. only "synthetic fluids". The person stocking the shelves believed that this was replaceing the Trisynthetic formula. I looked throug Mobil's product data sheets but found no mention of the SuperSyn formula. I did notice that the Trisynthetic formula is now listed under the Semi-Synthetic Automotive Engine Oil group. see...

https://dallnd6.dal.mobil.com/GIS/MobilPDS.nsf/Automotive?ReadForm&Start=1&Count=30&Expand=4.17

paste the 2 pieces together

Strange that it says "The Mobil 1 Tri-Synthetic Series motor oils are manufactured from 100% synthetic base stocks" but is listed under semi-synthetic. Has Mobil joined the dark side of synthetics? It also lists the Trisynthetic blend as API SL rated but only ILSAC GF-2 even though I had bought some MObil1 10-w30 SL oil that stated it was GF-3. I have been a long time satisfied user of Mobil1 but I'm becoming wary. Chevron Supreme is looking better all the time. Anyone have any insights into what's going on at Mobil?????
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If all this is true and Mobil did not make a mistake in their information, then the Tri-Synthetic oils many of us have been buying are really (. . . filling the blank here . . .) as some of us were suspecting after Mobil lost the law suit against Castrol on the definition of "synthetic."

Bo