Micro Lubricants - zMax or others?

Saw a comercial about this product and was wondering if anyone has used it or something similar? From what I've seen here Micro pitting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , it seems these types of lubricants are designed to stop wear and tear on engine/transmission internals. The website zMax shows all the upsides, but its always easy to find positive testimonials. I haven't been able to find much negative about this product. Could anyone speak to potential downsides of putting a micro lubricant like this in our cars?

My view - why bother? Your engine is likely to last longer than you're likely to use it just by sticking to synthetic 0W40 oil. If you're a nervous nelly, change your oil more often. Leave the highly marketed additives on the store shelf.

There is a really good forum for these kinds of additives here: Bob Is The Oil Guy - Powered by Motor Oil Scroll down to the "Oil Additives" forum. I just did a search for zMax on that forum and got several results: Z-max - Bob Is The Oil Guy zMax additive for oil - Bob Is The Oil Guy There are more if you are interested. In general, I think you'll find that additives advertised to protect your engine are generally frowned upon. Good oil is the best you can do. Additives that clean, on the other hand, are a different story. I used to be totally against any and all oil additives until I tried Auto-rx in my 993. Auto-rx is advertised as a cleaner, not a protector. From the results I got in my 993, I believe my rings were gummed up and not providing adequate compression. This was after ~100,000 miles, all of it on good quality Mobil 1 synthetic, with short (< 5,000 miles) drain intervals and a lot of hard/hot running. After running Auto-rx for a couple thousand miles (it's advertised as a SLOW cleaner), the engine was running much, much stronger and smoother. I had a smog check done and the numbers were far cleaner than my previous test. I was convinced. I'll probably use it in my Cayman at some point. Right now it doesn't have enough miles for anything to have accuumulated on the rings.

From long years of experience with testing these kinds of products I do recommend putting your money toward reasonable oil changes recommended by Porsche and not products who are a "product" of advertising (pun intended). Anything more frequent than the factory suggests is wasteful but otherwise not harmful. Anything less frequent is experimental. Super duper solutions exist only in the minds of the seller.

Thanks for the replies, links and suggestions. I've yet to use additives in my vehicles, but guess I got bit by the marketing hype this time. I may look into the Auto-rx once my mileage climbs into 6 digits, but for now just going to stick to my regular maintenance/oil change routine.

Just a thought... Another option is to use the "maintenance" approach using AutoRX. The idea is that you prevent from letting internal contamination from building up and thus there's not need to do an AutoRX cleansing treatment at a higher mileage point. I currently add approximately 6 oz. of AutoRX with every oil change.

I'll probably do that soon. 6 oz seems a bit high, though. Don't they recommend 3 oz? I know we have an 8 quart sump and the instructions are for a 5 or 6 quart sump, so perhaps a bit more than 3 oz, but not double?

zMax in particular has questionable advertising. The FTC sued them in 2001 : FTC Sues Speedway Motorsports and Oil-Chem Subsidiary I would not put their stuff in any car, nor would I buy any of their products. Interestingly enough, the FTC alleges that zMax is nothing more than color dyed mineral oil!

Just reading the 'Basic Application' instructions for AutoRx, it says 'For best results, Auto-Rx should be added to a fresh charge of conventional ( non-synthetic ) oil....' I assume that those that have used it, used it with synthetic without issues? -Moto

Yes, you can use it with synthetic. Remember, the “basic application” is mostly for really dirty engines. They recommend a clean phase (AutoRx + non-synthetic) and a rinse phase (plain non-synthetic). For the maintenance application, using synthetic is fine. My understanding (for what it’s worth) is that AutoRx is a polar molecule (e.g. has a north and south magnet). This helps with the cleaning, but also tends to cause the molecule to stick to metallic surfaces. Synthetic oil also has polar molecules, which competes with the AutoRx during the cleaning phase and holds the dirt in the engine during the rinse phase. They recommend oil without polar molecules during the rinse phase, so the molecules don’t stick to metallic surfaces, holding the dirt on them. On the other hand, many people, including myself, use AutoRx with synthetic oil without issue. I had very good results on my 993 with synthetic oil, and in hindsight, I think my 993 engine had a lot of carbon build-up. You can read a lot about AutoRx on the oil forum mentioned above.

Carrol Shelby uses it! In everything! So it must be good. That one commercial even shows his ' 700hp super snake' spinning its tires on wet grass - you couldn't do that with regular synthetic. Thinking about it, maybe they put the z-max on the wet grass and then the supersnake could spin its rubber? It is called 'snake oil' after all.

I've never known someone to blow there engine because they changed there oil as scheduled..................A crusty wise old mechanic told me that once and it kinda stuck with me.

Great response! I started building engines in the eighties and have used the product extensively with great results on american V8's. My Boxster just ran out of warranty and I decided not to purchase the extended one and do the maintenance myself. Not having experince on flat 6's (rebuilt several Volkswagen's in college) I was skeptical about adding it without further research... not any more, thanks!

Biggest negative is the hole in your pocket. Consumers Report did tests in taxi cab engines for 100,000 miles, synthetic vs. dino oil. Tore down engines after 100,000 miles and could not discern any difference in wear. I'll stick with Mobil per Porsche recommendations, BTW.