Blurb on Lucas bottle :P

[aquariuscsm]

Read the blurb on this bottle of Lucas,"Eliminates noise and wear associated with today's light weight motor oils". I saw this at Walmart today. I thought everyone here would get a kick out of this!

Discuss:

 

[jagdriver727]

You’ve been here since 2006 and you haven’t seen a Lucas hate thread before?

In on this one.

 

[Brian123]

Marketing at its finest. JMO

 

[slacktide_bitog]

I like how it actually says "IT WORKS"

 

[OVERKILL]

How they are able to sell this stuff is completely beyond me.

 

[RDY4WAR]

When they say "It works" they mean marketing works, not the product.

 

[PimTac]

Just another bottle of goo.

 

[Davejam]

Is this the antithesis of 'snake oil' then?

 

[tnt_motorsports]

You guys can hate on Lucas oil but they do make SOME products that work... Yes they may have snake oils but I have a testimonial on a success for the transmission fix.

Transmission Fix – Lucas Oil Products, Inc. – Keep That Engine Alive!

lucasoil.com

I managed to get over 60,000 additional miles out of a 1998 Chrysler T&C transmission once it started to slip with the Lucas transmission fix. Yes I tried a regular fluid and filter change first but it would still slip and shutter. On a hunch I added 1 quart of transmission fix to the ATF fluid and it got significantly better. I kept this recipe for the vehicle for about 3 years and changed the fluid every ~20,000 miles. It was significantly cheaper than a transmission rebuild.

*** I understand that Chrysler's need to have the specific ATF and that fluid was used in all changes.

Todd

 

[OVERKILL]

You guys can hate on Lucas oil but they do make SOME products that work... Yes they may have snake oils but I have a testimonial on a success for the transmission fix.

Transmission Fix – Lucas Oil Products, Inc. – Keep That Engine Alive!

lucasoil.com

I managed to get over 60,000 additional miles out of a 1998 Chrysler T&C transmission once it started to slip with the Lucas transmission fix. Yes I tried a regular fluid and filter change first but it would still slip and shutter. On a hunch I added 1 quart of transmission fix to the ATF fluid and it got significantly better. I kept this recipe for the vehicle for about 3 years and changed the fluid every ~20,000 miles. It was significantly cheaper than a transmission rebuild.

*** I understand that Chrysler's need to have the specific ATF and that fluid was used in all changes.

Todd

You markedly increased the viscosity of the fluid (which is pretty much all their product does besides introduce aeration) which would increase line pressure and thus reduce slip. It didn't "fix" anything, it was a bandaid to limp along a product with an obvious mechanical issue like somebody using fence wire to hold together a ball joint or putting 20w-50 in an engine with 5psi of oil pressure to keep the idiot light off.

 

[RDY4WAR]

Charge pressure is exactly right. A friend of mine limped along a slipping 4L60E in his Silverado for several thousand miles by just driving everywhere in Tow/Haul mode. T/H mode increases charge pressure which kept the clutch packs engaged and firmed up the shifts. It would slip in 3rd and 4th with T/H off.

Exactly as @OVERKILL said, increasing viscosity increases pressure. Something like Red Line High-Temp ATF (KV100 = 9.5 cSt) would've been a better choice than adding Lucas.

 

[tnt_motorsports]

You markedly increased the viscosity of the fluid (which is pretty much all their product does besides introduce aeration) which would increase line pressure and thus reduce slip. It didn't "fix" anything, it was a bandaid to limp along a product with an obvious mechanical issue like somebody using fence wire to hold together a ball joint or putting 20w-50 in an engine with 5psi of oil pressure to keep the idiot light off.

Fair point OVERKILL. I drove a 1991 Mazda pick up truck an additional 125,000 miles with 10W40 in the winter and 20W50 in the summer. Heck of a lot cheaper than a rebuild to go through 1 quart of oil every 3,000 miles than to redo valve guides in that motor, so point taken. My opinion was merely that people make choices like using snake oil because it is cheaper than a mechanical fix, or using an oil filter for 2 changes etc... It's not necessarily right or wrong, decisions have consequences. For me the snake oil was cheaper than a re-build in both cases. Happy motoring!

 

[OVERKILL]

Fair point OVERKILL. I drove a 1991 Mazda pick up truck an additional 125,000 miles with 10W40 in the winter and 20W50 in the summer. Heck of a lot cheaper than a rebuild to go through 1 quart of oil every 3,000 miles than to redo valve guides in that motor, so point taken. My opinion was merely that people make choices like using snake oil because it is cheaper than a mechanical fix, or using an oil filter for 2 changes etc... It's not necessarily right or wrong, decisions have consequences. For me the snake oil was cheaper than a re-build in both cases. Happy motoring!

Sure, and as long as somebody is aware of the fact that there's no guarantee that the bandaid is going to last and are subsequently going into it with both eyes open, that's OK. It might get them 5 miles or 50,000, so it might be worth the roll of the dice or it might not.

In the context of the OP, the advocacy by Lucas is for the use of this garbage in a new car, which is completely nuts. There are plenty of other companies out there that make "extend that end of life product a bit longer" that don't try to lure in folks with new or healthy vehicles. Lucas is a peddler of snake oil of the highest order and for that reason I wouldn't use anything they make.

 

[DGXR]

Yes Lucas has some decent products but this oil stabilizer is not one of them. I am amused at the suggestion that modern lightweight motor oils cause extra engine wear -- far too many accounts of engines going 300k miles (and more) on 0w20. This is just marketing strategy and cashing in on the Lucas name.

 

[Creekside]

Yes Lucas has some decent products but this oil stabilizer is not one of them. I am amused at the suggestion that modern lightweight motor oils cause extra engine wear -- far too many accounts of engines going 300k miles (and more) on 0w20. This is just marketing strategy and cashing in on the Lucas name.

My mom’s Taurus has 350k miles on the 3.0 Duratec. That’s all on GTX 5w20. There were several orange can filters in the beginning before I understood filters and it gets Wix or Baldwin now. Never needed any additives to get it here.

 

[RDY4WAR]

I have a 1991 Nissan D21 (KA24E) with 482k miles. It got whatever cheap 30 grade or 40 grade was available. Never had any additives. No issues oiling wise (fuel system is another story).

 

[nthach]

FWIW, I’ve added Lucas Trans Fix to a now former’s friend power steering, he didn’t want to buy a new pump or get the GM bypass kit to remove the EVO. It was leaking and losing fluid. The Lucas slowed it down.

never again, unless the car’s last stop is the junkyard.

 

[admzn]

I tried the stop leak, I think it actually made the leak worse... Driving from Vancouver BC to Ottawa ON, I was pissing oil from the rear main, I bought the lucas stop leak and several others as test on that drive. None made a difference btw. Still had to add almost a quart per day of driving, depending on how hard the engine was working (hills vs flat land).