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OEMs Inflate Price of Inferior Lubes to Profit From Consumer Assumptions of Quality

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) typically recommend their own brands of motor oils and lubricants for their equipment. Consumers believe those "brand name" lubes are the best for the motorcycles, snowmobiles, ATVs, outboard motors and other recreational equipment they buy.

"Consumers often operate under the premise that the manufacturer not only knows what's best for the equipment but also provides the best," said Dave Anderson, AMSOIL technical product manager. "Their impression is that the OEM oils are always the best, and in many cases nothing could be further from the truth." Anderson has more than 25 years of experience at AMSOIL and has conducted numerous comparison tests throughout that time.

Consumers falsely assume OEMs actually manufacture the oils and lubes that carry their brand name.

However, OEMs typically buy low-cost and sometimes low-quality oils from lubricant manufacturers, put their labels on them and send them out for distribution at dealerships.

"Manufacturers can command higher prices simply because the consumer perceives it to be more appropriate for the application," Anderson said.

Contrary to consumers perception, research indicates OEM lubes often aren't equal to the performance quality of the cheapest aftermarket oils on store shelves.

"Manufacturers probably do know more about the equipment," Anderson said. "If indeed they know what's best for their product, their lubricants should outperform - or at least meet the performance levels of - the other products out there. But results show that in most cases OEM oils were inferior to others."

Consumers are sometimes let to believe that using any other oils or lubricants will void their factory warranties.

The federal Magnuson-Moss Act of 1975 was enacted to protect consumers. It says in part: "No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer's using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under the terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade or corporate name." - United States Code, Title 15, Chapter 50, Section 2302 (c).

Results of lubrication comparison tests follow:

4-Ball Wear Protection Test (ASTM D-4172)

The ASTM D-4172 4-Ball Wear Test determines an oil's ability to minimize wear in case of metal-to-metal contact.

Four steel balls are placed in the test oil with one held in place and rotated under a prescibed load and temperature against the other three.

After a one-hour period of constant load, speed and temperature, the lower three balls are inspected at the point of contact. Wear appears as a single scar on each of the balls. The lower the average scar diameter, the better the wear protection of the oil.

AMSOIL 20W-50 Synthetic Motorcycle Oil (MCV) offers significantly better wear protection than competing OEM motorcycle oils.

The High Temperature/High Shear Test measures an oil's viscosity (thickness) at high temperatures under shearing forces. Shear stable oils that are able to maintain high viscosity at high temperatures perform well in the HTHS Test. The test combines viscosity, shear stability and viscosity index. It's important because bearings require the greatest level of protection during high temperature operation. The higher the test result, the greater the level of protection offered by the oil.

AMSOIL 20W-50 Synthetic Motorcycle Oil significantly outperformed competing OEM motorcycle oils in High Temperature/High Shear Testing.

"In order for AMSOIL to do our job properly, we have to have an intimate knowledge of the products it's going to be used in," Anderson said. "We focus on the lubrication needs. We know more about how to meet those needs because that's our job. We make the best motor oils and lubricants - that's what we do."

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