With a final retort to complaints from independent lubricant blenders, the committee drafting the GF-4 passenger car motor oil specification voted last week to adopt the standard. After approving the specification Thursday at a meeting in Detroit, ILSAC/Oil Committee members said they had received information rebutting independents concerns about base oil availability and the schedule for phasing in GF-4. Our role was to write a specification that would accomplish certain things while making sur...

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issued a stop sale order late last month on an undetermined quantity of 5W-30 motor oil packaged by Coastal Unilube Inc. The product in question, which was being sold through Advance Auto Parts and AutoZone stores, failed to meet cold crank requirements. Officials at Coastal, which is cooperating with the recall, said it accidentally packaged 10W-30 oil in containers labeled 5W-30. The West Memphis, Ark., company said it believed...

After losing the Mars Polar Lander four years ago, Americas space agency was thrilled this month when the first of two Mars Exploration Rovers landed safely and began sending back information about the Red Planet. One specialty lubricant company was proud to say that it played a part – even if doing so meant providing more, not less friction. Landing is the toughest part of the 35-million-mile journey. The spaceship must slow from a speed of 17,000 miles per hour before it entered Mars atm...

A three-judge federal appeals court in Philadelphia heard arguments Friday in a suit brought by unions trying to force the United States to tighten regulations limiting worker exposure to metalworking fluid mist. The United Auto Workers and United Steelworkers of America asked the court to compel the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration to lower the current standard, which is 5 milligrams of oil mist per cubic meter of airduring an eight-hour day. Lawyers for the unions and the ag...