is Archoil 9100 oil additive total BS?

[cypher007]

maybe not electronic related, but wondering if this or any oil additive actually do anything other than thicken and thus dampen a noisy engine?

[amyk]

Maybe not that one in particular, but "Project Farm" on YouTube has a bunch of videos on oil additives.

[Elghinnarisa]

Oil additives in general has many uses. So the question is rather what specific mix they are trying to sell you and for what reason. And of course, if that is something you need.
When it comes to your average consumer vehicle it is not as important. Oil is definitely a important part of it all but at the same time consumer vehicles are created with such wide tolerances that you can run it on pretty much anything and it wont explode. Rather than looking at additives it would be better to just keep up with regular maintenance. Oil and filter change as well as what else is listed as services for the vehicle you have will make a far greater change than a additive will.
For anyone with experience of high powered machines, racing machines for example, will know that regular oil changes and clean filters will save you much more than fancy oil or extra additives ever will.

As oil degrades many things can happen, it can become acidic and corrode the engine from the inside, fill up with particles and other impurities that can cause damage. Or degrade to the point where it no longer lubricates well.
But generally speaking, anything that just says it would increase power, extend oil change intervals, cleans and all that in one singular product for apparently _all_ machines, is most likely not worth considering.
Oil that you buy for vehicles is normally already mixed in a similar fashion, part oil and part additives to create the specific oil being sold. Adding another part additives to said oil might not always be the best of ideas without knowing what it will do or a specific reason to doing it to start with.

So yeah, it probably has all the additives normally used to balance viscosity, lubricity, corrosion resistant, detergents and the like that is used for what they say it will. But as always there is very little information to find about actual tests done and numbers to look at. Just a sellers claims that its the best thing since sliced cheese.

If it was my choice, I would rather just change my oil than rely on supplying a new mix of additives to already used oil. And if your adding additives to brand new oil its kinda pointless, since oil used for motors, gearboxes and the like already come mixed with additives for that specific area of use. So it already have additives for correct viscosity and lubricity etc. and here you come adding more additives for the exact same purpose.
The main reason these products exist is probably because the average person neglects their service intervals regularly in which case new additives in used oil where the additives may have degraded can be of use. But you don't know that without checking the oil first. And of course people will just buy it, use it and say it "worked" even though it may in reality not have done anything helpful at all. I mean I seen vehicles that haven't had their oil changed in decades and they still work, so there isnt all that much useful information about how well the product actually works.

There is a lot to read up on when it comes to oil used for engines and there are many aspects to consider when creating a mixture of oil to be used. There are many kinds of additives used for many different reasons and they can change widely depending on vehicle of choice, how it is used and where it is used.
And the only way to ever know is to have it properly tested and such testing is few and far between these days.

[cypher007]

Thanks for the very informative and long reply.

The reason I’m looking at using it was someone else’s on Facebook recommended it. It’s boron based.

I recently changed the oil on our car that we recently bought used, and since then I’ve got some soft turbo whine on spooldown when the engine is reved for about the first 30’s to 1min of a drive.  I used 0w30 oil which is apparently too thin for my engine, though shell recommends it for my engine. this additive might help with the turbo apparently.

[pigrew]

I used 0w30 oil which is apparently too thin for my engine, though shell recommends it for my engine. this additive might help with the turbo apparently.

Follow the engine manufacturer's recommendation and not Shell's (unless there's a good reason....). I've also seen advice to avoid "high-mileage oils" as they are designed to deposit stuff in the engine. The engine is qualified to run with the specified oil, with the additives that the oil already has.

For example, my Toyota Matrix's 1ZZ-FE specifies 5W-30 (SL grade or better). I usually use the Wal-Mart synthetic 5W-30 SN oil at a 5000 mile interval. Maybe since it's synthetic, I could delay the oil change to be longer, but oil is cheap enough (~US$12 of oil and $5 for a filter) that there's little reason not to.

Perhaps gasoline-additives have a better use case, in the event that the engine is fouled, but my non-expert opinion is to avoid oil-additives.

Looking at the additive's sell-shell, it looks like it's designed for "fixing" some ~7L diesel engines... Extending the change interval is about the only thing it promises, but even then it says "Oil sampling should be used as a tool to determine if extended drain intervals are right for your application."...

Finally, as has been mentioned, it WILL change the viscosity of your oil. Your engine won't like that.

[bill_c]

As pigrew says, follow the instructions in the users manual for the car, including the service interval.  Too thick or thin can cause problems, as will 30,000+ miles between oil changes.

[james_s]

I'm skeptical of any oil additives. Oil already has additives in it, if a particular additive were worthwhile then it would come in the oil to begin with.

As far as engines go, making sure you always keep an adequate amount of oil in there and changing the oil and filter on a reasonable schedule is far more important than the particular oil you use. Modern engines (as in those made in the last 30-40 years) will typically outlast the car. Usually it's the interior or the transmission that wears out.

Regarding recommended service intervals, keep in mind that the manufacture only cares that the engine lasts through the warranty period, and they have a vested interest in quoting the longest possible change interval. I've always changed oil at 5,000 mile intervals, I run synthetic in turbo motors and regular oil in naturally aspirated, there are several cars in my family with 300,000+ miles on them with the engines still running well.

[cypher007]

Wow 12 is that for 5L?

In UK I paid about £48 for the shell helix.

On the subject of using the manufacturers spec. The oil does meet this and I thought as long as an oil grade covered the range spec’d it would be ok. The manual says 5w30 or 5w40. The Skoda dealer 10 years ago was using 5w40 according to the service history. Not sure what the subsequent indys have used.

So when we got it I thought i would give it some good stuff, with a winter 0w, as we do quite short trips to work.