A glamour photo shoot for a bottle of motor oil?

As much as we all love our cars, they often need to feel that love.  In the form of Full Synthetic.

 

Cranked over the Subaru today and it was very unhappy. Battery self-discharging seems to be fixed – but I am now trapped in AutoZone hell.

This one failed after three months, the one before: six.

They are getting less polite at handling the returns, and will only process the exchange with a stink-eye.

Why is this relevant? Mobil 1 is absolutely the best motor oil available.

It is affordable, measurably enhances engine smoothness, and rarely needs the sludge-bottom scenario that follows years of unchanged conventional motor oil.

Store-brand batteries break, things that are too cheap break, and cars break. I break my car alot, and it is so filthy inside with beach sand and dog hair — you would gag.

But when it comes to troubleshooting a rough idle or any grumpiness on early revs: a top-up of Mobil 1 generally is just what the doctor ordered.

My Subaru Legacy GT is a heavily-modified 2005 manual wagon. The points these expert technicians make and demo in the video below are pretty informative.

They highlight the critical nature of really good engine oil in turbocharged cars. Basically, the engine oil needs to be constantly circulating inside the latest IHI and other turbos. All turbos.

A series of very important oil lines provide this task in the Subaru, but here is the catch:

–each oil line has multiple filters inside the hose tubing itself. When these filters get clogged, it starves the turbo of oil.

Worst-case scenario? Happened to be at Tanquamenon Falls in Upper Michigan on a late friday afternoon. Oil shooting from an exploded return line proceeded to cover the entire exhaust manifold with smokey, burning oil.

So, lesson learned: good oil is critical. Too little oil is very noticeable in how the car drives. But too much oil can cause the exploding vacation described here.

Next Time: on how I abuse my Subaru: blowing the clutches and all differentials driving to play with Jeeps on some huge Michigan sand dunes.