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Global shortage has led to motor oil rationing at Costco
- pjdesno 13d agoWhat kind of vehicle takes 10 quarts of oil for a single oil change?
- donbox 13d ago[dead]
- nycpig 13d agoMost v8s.
- mdesq 13d agoMost often diesel engines (I used to be an auto mechanic). Even passenger car diesels can take 10+ quarts. Gas engines typically take less oil but big engines can still take 5-7+.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 12d agoI remember using a large Jerry can of oil to top off a MATV. Google says 19-28 quart capacity- oof!
- chneu 13d agoPatriots love their big trucks. More oil = owning the lib vegans.
- johng 12d agoLots of people haul things. The US is huge compared to what most people expect. Big trucks can be a necessity depending on what you do for a living/your way of life.
- readthenotes1 12d agoThat may be true. However it does not explain how many people have big trucks that are never used as trucks
- tonyhart7 12d agothey want big vehicles to carry their big ego
- bobthepanda 12d agoThe vast majority of pickups are not actually used for workmen like purposes. In fact, as carmakers have started pivoting more towards selling them to affluent suburban households, the usable cargo volume has decreased over time despite increasing size.
- 6SixTy 12d agoRight, but seeing trucks obviously not set up for towing or hauling is becoming more common nowadays. With the level of luxury trims available on some trucks now, it's obvious that they aren't a necessity anymore. This is on top of trucks prioritizing 4 door models and taking bites out of the truck bed
- ebbi 12d agoSame trend here in NZ. People buying utes/trucks just because they want, not because they need. They're not as big as the American F150s etc, more a Toyota Hilux or Ford Ranger. And they're often driven by reckless road ragers, often modified with uncertified suspension, bush lights turned on at night blinding oncoming traffic, and wheels extending past the fender flares. These vehicles are often financed to the hilt, so spending money on certifying the modifications is out of the picture, so a lot of these are not legal to drive on the roads.
- 6SixTy 12d agoRemember that the US is it's own market with different regulations and has a complicated history with imports, so no Hilux. Though it does look like the Ranger is externally the same between NZ and US. I'm not counting maybe 1mm as different. I am somewhat familiar with a Ute since I've seen Subaru Bajas before. Not old enough to see Subaru Brats around or El Caminos. It does seem like those people are emulating Americans though a lot of those mods are passable without certification, and it's up to a cop to pull over people using bush lights (they probably won't).
- bak3y 12d ago[flagged]
- isolatedsystem 12d agoGreat! Hope that works out for you! You seem competent at making sound decisions.
- shoobiedoo 12d agoNot everything has to be political. I live in Japan and raised SUV's with max-grip tires are all the rage here. Just total, 100% useless vanity that wastes fuel for nothing. Flexing useless crap as a status symbol is as old as time
- dietr1ch 13d agoThat's 11.3L for the civilised audience. For reference, my 3.6L 6-cyl boxer needs about 6.5L according to my service notes.
- sdcfgy 13d agoMy 3 cylinder 1.0 litre Citroen takes exactly half that. Interesting.
- dietr1ch 12d agoBut that's an inline engine, right? I think a model based on engine layout, displacement/cylinder, and cylinder count might be quite good at predicting the necessary oil (and will tell you when your car uses a bit too much compared to everyone else).
- taneq 12d agoYou’d need year of manufacture too. There’s been a trend towards larger oil capacities in order to increase service intervals.
- diydsp 12d agoLiters are not SI units. Metric isn't magic. It's not ergnomic nor designed around the human body or everyday experiences. It started arbitrary. Then was defined as in terms of the wavelength of radiation from krypton-86. (the meter was 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of that particular transition to match the original arbitrary metal bar) Then they based it on the distance light travels in an arbitrary amount of time (1/299,792,458 of a second). These were all decidedly non-human scale measurements with no actual scientific basis. Yes they used scientific references, but theyre all arbitrary references.
- dietr1ch 12d agoI didn't say it was SI units, but it's easily convertible to them. Metric isn't magic, but it's a cohesive set of legos that can be transformed easily without requiring messy arithmetic and hard to memorise scale constants. Are you not pretending people use the modern, most-precise definitions in the day-to-day just to give yourself a stab at claiming that Metric is awful? Non-metric would face the same dilemma when trying to establish units in a way that can be scientifically replicated. The counter point is that non-metric is so bad that people don't even bother using it in this endeavor ;)
- whalesalad 13d agoDiesel trucks. My Ram 1500 with the 5.7 Hemi takes 7 qt. The 5.9 Cummins in my Ram 2500 takes 12 qts.
- 27183 13d agoThe 3L diesel in my car takes about 8qt per change. The 5.9L diesel in my truck takes 12qt.
- bijowo1676 13d agomost of V8 engines need 10+ quarts
- doodlebugging 12d agoI've owned and driven V8 engine powered vehicles since the 1970's and have never owned one that used more than 7 qts of oil for an oil change. Most use 5 qts plus a filter. That is why oil is sold in 5 qt jugs. That's all that most vehicles need. Of course my vehicles are all model year 2015 or earlier. I checked specs with different manufacturers and find that the V8 engines that need 10 qts of motor oil are the heavier duty trucks typically with a diesel engine. Checking specs shows that most gasoline V8s require 6 qts, some require 7-8 quarts, and the larger diesel trucks require 10 qts, sometimes up to 11 qts depending on the engine. 10 qts of motor oil takes up a lot of space and that is at a premium in most engine compartments. The oil pan would need to be deep and trucks are the only vehicles that have that much room between the engine block and the crossmembers/differentials.
- bijowo1676 12d agoI own BMW and all BMW V8s (engine models N63, N63TU..N63TU3, S63) require 10 quarts. Same for Mercedes V8 engines models M156..159 that require 9-10 quarts
- doodlebugging 12d agoThanks for the added context. It made me think. I guess I should've qualified my comment with a note about those vehicles being American-made V8s. Diesel engines tend to have higher lubrication requirements thus they have larger oil pans. I see that those BMW engines you listed are gassers so I took a look at their specs to see why they would need such large oil reservoirs. Twin turbos. Mounted in the engine valley. High heat in that configuration and high oil consumption as a result - up to 1 qt/1000 miles. [0] That's crazy. I can drive my V8 powered, non-turbo engine Bronco 10000 miles between oil changes using full synthetic oil without needing to add a full quart of oil and it has more than 330k miles on the odometer. I see now why those BMWs may need a huge oil pan. It is an attempt to compensate for the consequences of design decisions that they knew would create problems. Those engines only need a 10 qt reservoir because they would burn through a smaller volume so fast that no one would buy the vehicle because it required them to check the oil every day and to carry oil so that there was less chance of destroying the engine due to running it low. I was not aware of BMW engines having such huge reservoirs and now that I am I can be glad that I have never considered owing one. I didn't look at Toyota or other foreign manufacturers who also built V8 engines. Maybe I should educate myself. [0]https://bmwtuning.co/n63-engine-problems/ https://bmwtuning.co/n63-engine-problems/
- jervant 12d agoOlder Porsche 911s take about 11 quarts.
- sbierwagen 12d agoSpecifically, oil cooled Porsches take that much, because they have to fill the oil cooler at the front and the lines that lead to the engine at the back.
- deleted 12d ago[deleted]
- Onavo 12d agoCessnas.
- deleted 12d ago[deleted]
- bluedino 12d ago2018+ Ford Mustang V8 for one. GM V8's take 8 quarts
- clipclopflop 12d agoAir cooled 911 :)
- OptionOfT 12d agoMy BMW M8 with the S63TU4 4.4L V8 takes 10 liters. Previous one one which had a B58 took 7 liters.
- Vitamin_Sushi 12d agoMy old Mercedes C240 (W203) took about 8qts for a single oil change. I'm glad I got rid of that car.
- arjie 13d agoHuh, neat. There was this Twitter chap who said this was going to happen a few months ago. It was a fun interaction[0]: > > > Just got word Mobil and Shell have informed Costco and Walmart they have no packaged product to send them and to expect bare shelves in the motor oil section in a few weeks > > Lol as if youd be the first person anyone tells. > I am Chevrons largest passenger vehicle lubricant purchaser lol 0: https://x.com/CostaKapo/status/2053948679485009990?s=20 https://x.com/CostaKapo/status/2053948679485009990?s=20
- bethekind 12d agoIf you follow motor oil geek on YouTube, they've started changing the formulations of the premium oils months ago and that's not going to change until 2028 when more American supply comes online
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- s1artibartfast 12d agoI saw this tweet[1] the day after. I go every week and saw shelves were full, but bought a years supply for our cars just in case... https://x.com/GeorgeRoush/status/2054364409812918502 https://x.com/GeorgeRoush/status/2054364409812918502
- doubled112 12d agoI remember some panic and thinking I’ll just hope for the best. With modern synthetics and my driving patterns, that is 1 jug for one of my cars, and 2 jugs for the other. Maybe now wouldn’t be the worst time. It isn’t a lot of space wasted if I didn’t need it.
- whynotmaybe 12d ago
- hypfer 12d agoYouTube channel Regular Car Reviews also predicted this ca 3 months ago. So now it's here. Or.. there? How's the situation in the EU?
- MandieD 12d agoI looked up the motor oil for my car; it's still about the price I would expect (high compared to US normal, not exorbitant) and allegedly available at the nearest branch of a large German retail car parts chain, as is the transmission oil. ... think I'll pick some up if they do indeed have it. Our gasoline is well into the 2.20+ EUR/liter range, and diesel is even more.
- adamsiem 12d ago[flagged]
- phoghed 12d agoWhy didn't you go with the shaft and hinge?
- medler 12d agoNot having to deal with oil changes is one of the many benefits of driving an EV
- sschueller 12d agoIs there really nothing that has oil in it that at some point needs changing?
- what-the-grump 12d agoIt does, plenty of things inside the EV require all kinds of oils, just the maintenance cycle isn't gallons and gallons every x months. You are looking at years. I got service centers trying to rotate my tires every 3k miles because "ev". The oil change as well, oh you need to change oil every 5k because... because why?
- WarmWash 12d agoBy "plenty of things" you mean one thing with a 10yr service interval?
- what-the-grump 12d agohttps://service.tesla.com/docs/Public/diy/model3/en_us/GUID-A84FDD77-7A8C-42F6-9385-E3F9CEE245A4.html https://service.tesla.com/docs/Public/diy/model3/en_us/GUID-... You got brake fluid, calipers, but it’s not even close to a regular car. The dealerships and shops are doing every one a huge disservice by lying about how frequently engine oil needs to be changed. It’s in the manual but even that should be on page one. And then they set reminders on the car inside whatever last changed or when near, miles. So they’ll set it for 5k instead of 6-8k as the manual says and reminder at when you hit 3k. Like cmon. Or tell me that I need a balance every 3k miles in a Tesla. Shameless.
- mikestew 12d agoplenty of things inside the EV require all kinds of oils I can come up with one. What's your list?
- lampe3 12d ago[flagged]
- cute_boi 12d agoRam Shortage, SSD shortage, CPU shortage, GPU shortage, diesel shortage, now motor oil shortage....... Are we going to have shortage of everything now ......
- readthenotes1 12d agoAnd the promise is that we will have a shortage of shortages!
- walt_grata 12d agoDont forget beef
- LeBit 12d agoI realize the shortages you enumerated have different reasons , but a highly respectable French engineer, Jean-Marc Jancovici , has been repeating for years that we are heading into an inevitable age of "degrowth". It is not an "if". It is now inevitable. He is very pro alternative sources of energy but he clearly explains nothing can replace petroleum right now. Petroleum is used to build everything. Gas for your car. Your clothes. Plastic bags. Our beloved computers. Everything uses petroleum one way or another. We are doomed. I’m just happy I’m too old to go through all the bad times that are coming.
- deleted 12d ago[deleted]
- icantevenhold 12d agoYou can definitely replace petroleum for many of the things you listed - or find alternative technologies that don’t require it. You can live without plastic bags or plastic clothes for instance. It’s just that a lot of companies (and people) get very rich from it and they invest A LOT into making sure that petroleum alternatives are not viable. Of course there are some things were petroleum cant be easily substituted but I would argue the vast majority of use cases doesnt require it. Energy is probably the most important and there it’s laughable easy to replace.
- 3eb7988a1663 12d agoThings are really about to hit the fan. The world has been surviving off of strategic petroleum reserves, but those are quickly hitting the bottom. The US last reported at 285M barrels[0]. There is a legal floor of ~250M, after which it is reserved for government national defense. Usage has been all over the place, but the drawdown has been somewhere in the region of 1M barrels per day. Public analyses have said that the cavern integrity becomes threatened once levels fall below 300M. Current government claims the "real" floor is at 70M, but I believe this is a transparent ploy to assuage markets. The Saudi pipeline that was attacked had a capacity of 7M barrels per day. Gone for who knows how long. That 7MBPD that needs to come from somewhere. Edit: Should add - the big tankers require ~month to move oil to most consumers. So, there is one month of breathing room before the new pipeline loss materializes. [0] https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCSSTUS1&f=W https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W...
- spicypixel 12d agoIt’s doubly bad now China is back buying oil.
- toomuchtodo 12d agoNot at volume yet. How quickly they return and what volumes will determine how fast oil prices go up. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49368661 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49368661 (oil futures market participant)
- shoobiedoo 12d ago[dead]
- WarmWash 12d agoTrump will 100% ignore the defense reserve. Congress won't stop him either.
- dools 12d agoExpect many “court finds that Trump …” headlines with zero consequence.
- Pxtl 12d agoThe ladies at Tran Girlismo called this soon after the blockade started.
- tonyhart7 12d agowith AI booming and Iran war that affect us all is this really the worse time that we can get fck in both ways from "new world" and "old world" ???????
- ungreased0675 12d agoThis is because of the Pearl refinery in Qatar going offline after being attacked by Iran. That was the source of a lot of synthetic oil base stock.
- WarOnPrivacy 12d agoMy son bought 144 bottles of Castrol 10w40 on closeout for $110. This was 2 or 3 years ago. We drive old iron and have been steadily using them up. What felt like a wall in our garage now feels like a security blanket.
- bluedino 12d agoKind of an odd viscosity unless you have classic cars or live in a hot climate
- WarOnPrivacy 12d agoFlorida. 89 Dodge p/u, 92 Buick, 96 Toyota and my son daily drives a 63 Dart. We have a 61 Sunliner I drive when the weather cools down.
- djriley 12d agoHe says "old iron", that could mean anything, but in my personal opinion it's probably for the best to bump up a weight once a car gets over 150k on the odometer. You get a little thicker film to compensate for wear, a bit higher viscosity to cut down on any leakage, and the same low temp performance. I would not play around with it on anything with VVT, but it's a pretty common "hack" for pre-2010'ish motors and probably even a good idea.
- doodlebugging 12d agoI saw this mentioned somewhere several weeks ago. I used my driving data and maintenance records and projected mileage forward two years for each vehicle and bought the amount of oil I would need to service each vehicle for two years of driving at current monthly mileage rates. I already had transmission fluid for all of them and serviced differentials (usually something you do above 100000 miles) so I won't need other oil products for a while. Good luck y'all. Now I wait for the inevitable switch to EVs to create discounts on ICE vehicles as people finally get the message that EV is the future. I will buy the pickup I need at a discount to today's prices as that shift gets going.
- bluedino 12d agoI started buying some this year when Slickdeals would post something, whether it was from Amazon or closeouts at the auto parts stores. Even grabbed some $18 Walmart Supertech.
- xnx 12d agoAnother win for EVs from this war.
- hnburnsy 12d agoFYI, $58 is the price delivered to your front door, it is cheaper in stores, and the mid $30's quoted old price was when on sale. I don't remember exactly but I can't imagine that 20 years ago I paid much less than $5 for a quart of synthetic.
- Founderarcstone 12d agoGood thing I have an electric lawnmower.
- loeg 12d ago20 qts every 7 days is far more than any home consumer needs -- this must be to prevent shops from just buying out their entire stock.
- OptionOfT 12d agoI wonder if this will change how often people in the USA change their oil. Comparing BMWs (which are worldwide cars), the oil change intervals in Europe are literally 2x what they are in the USA. E.g. my previous 2019 M240i (B58 i6): Europe: every 30,000km or 2 years, whatever comes first. USA: every 15,000km (~9,000 miles) or 1 year, whatever comes first. I get that fuel is dirtier in the USA. I get that engines work harder in the USA because of the heat, but a 2x reduction in lifetime? And this is applicable to ALL the BMWs I've seen.
- UltraSane 12d agoTrump wrecks everything he touches.
- Zopieux 12d agoOops! Car dependency has consequences!