API Finds One in Five Licensed Oils Off-Spec

According to the American Petroleum Institute’s 2001 Aftermarket Audit Report released in May, more than one in five API-licensed oils were found to be off-spec in 2001. Collecting and testing over 600 bulk and bottle samples of API-licensed engine oils, API found 16 percent had “marginal” deviations and five percent had “significant” deviations from the API-issued specs. According to API, the five percent identified as having “significant” deviations “are so far outside compliance limits that they could potentially raise short-term or long-term engine operability concerns.”

Oil samples were obtained from various locations. Bottle samples were taken from retail outlets, while bulk samples were taken from quick lube facilities, auto repair shops, service stations, auto dealers and truck facilities.

API licensed a total of 6,500 lubrication products last year, 18 percent more than in 2000. The 602 products tested represent nine percent of all API-licensed products, falling short of API’s original goal of testing samples of all brands and viscosity grades under current API license.

Poor performance in low temperature has been a problem in many currently marketed engine oils, and the API numbers show a one percent cold cranking simulator and pumping noncompliance rate and an even more significant three percent foaming noncompliance rate. The viscosity was out of grade for less than one percent of the oils tested, and the only SAE 5W-20 oil tested failed wear measurements for three of 12 camshaft lobes in the Sequence IIIF engine sequence test.

The oils tested were not broken down according to which countries they were obtained from, so the out-of-spec products could have potentially been blended by any of API’s 561 licensees in 49 nations. However, over half of all API licensees are in the United States and Canada, with another 20 percent in Asia.

Under API Publication 1509, API has several options in their attempts to remedy the situation, including “Temporary suspension of the authority of the licensee to use the API Mark, termination of the authority of the licensee to use the API Mark on an individual product or on all API-licensed products, and requiring the licensee to remove non-complying products.”

No specific information is available concerning what course of action API will take following the 2001 audit, but an API spokesperson said, “Licensees have changed suppliers, put new quality control procedures in place to prevent possible mixing of products, removed products from licenses, run additional tests on samples, and reformulated products. These actions and responses are typical of those that we have received over the last five years. API has even asked for product recalls and cancelled licenses. Both of these have occurred in the last two or three years.”

Six hundred audit samples are scheduled to be tested for 2002, including 120 API SJ and 300 SPI SL engine oils and 180 diesel oils. Up to 20 engine sequence tests are planned, split between Sequence IIIF and VG tests.

While some motor oils fail to meet the minimum standards issued by API, AMSOIL continues to set its sights well past API standards. AMSOIL Synthetic Motor and Diesel Oils are world-class lubricants that exceed the toughest worldwide specifications, providing second-to-none protection and performance for extended drain intervals.