Hello!

I was about to change oil on my 2010 GT3, but when I opened a 1L bottle (out of the 12-pack I purchased from a reputable seller) it had a kind of weird industrial smell. Luckily I had another 1L bottle I purchased directly at the Porsche Service a couple of months ago, so I opened that and the smell was totally different. The color looks kinda similar, but not quite (see attachments). The only difference I could find on the bottle was that the level indicators (100, 200, 300ml ...) and the bottoms of the bottle (see attachments).

What do you guys think?



Left is from Porsche, right is from a car parts store.

Left is from Porsche, right is from a car parts store.

Left is from Porsche, right is from a car parts store.

 

I think you're probably fine tbh. Hard to tell the color difference especially since the container on the right is a bit more opaque. I ordered 6 cases from Summits BOGO a while back and my bottles look completely different. The text font on my bottles match yours on the right if that helps put your mind at ease

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/mob-122075/overview

 

You could send a sample to Blackstone or whoever you like for an analysis

 

I've been using this oil since 2013 without issues-I have 10 qts just purchased from Napa from their annual sale a few weeks ago. I'm still a few months from my oil change so I don't really want o open them right now-
I did notice that bellow the "approved for" section of the back label there seem to be serial numbers. I got 6 at first and had to come back the next day, and these serial/lot numbers are slightly different, but otherwise they look the same-

 

Also, upper corner of the front label says FSX2

 

Thanks everyone!

Yeah I guess the packaging differs a bit between the US and EU market. I've heard quite a few theories as to why they would have a different scent and color - a friend who's a Porsche factory driver said that according to the numbers at the bottom of the back side (76476A) the contents should be 100% the same. That means same base, same detergents, etc. His reasoning was that they might've been stored differently and one developed a smell and one didn't. I think what I'll do is just bite the bullet and buy 9 litres of oil from Porsche to change it now and send the two samples to analysis. There's a German company that does that (closest to me) and we'll have to see.

I'll keep you updated!

 

Mobil 5W-50 was first introduced to the European market in 1986-they called it Rallye Formula or something like that.

 

Yeah it still says "Rally Formula" below 5w-50!

 

I believe the rally/race formula may contain higher levels of Zinc which may add to the smell?

 

That could be possible, but the one I got from Porsche service does not have such a strong smell. They should smell identical and there's only 5 months between their manufacture date. So weird!

 

That's not the same oil sold in the US, at least the bottle is quite different. And here they say FSX2 which is the latest version. And it says Made In USA, from domestic and/or imported components
Also, Mobil had the first metal can in the 70s or 80s, and eventually started making plastic bottles, then all others followed suit-

 

dude, nobody is counterfeiting mobil 1

 

I found 20 pages on the oil-club.de forum about potential counterfeits. Granted, it was mostly ebay purchases, but some people actually tracked their car with fake Mobil 1.

 

didn't realize you weren't in the us. anything goes rest of world haha

 

One of the reasons why I like Redline oils is because they come directly from Redline.. Every once in a while I see these name brand oils on Amazon for unusually low prices and it always makes me wonder what I am getting.