Maxlife 5w20?

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Yeah, its been out for a bit. It's even up in Canada!

Should be a good oil, but I wonder: For someone with a high-mileage '5W-20' spec'd car, wouldn't it be just as effective to deal with consumption by just going to a 30-weight oil?

Once you have high enough mileage to require a HM oil, you are probably well out of warranty, so the need to 'stick' to a 20-weight isn't there. Yes, I know that HM oils have other benefits besides increased viscosity, but a thin oil in a 'worn' HM engine still seems a bit silly to me......
 
I was sort of thinking that myself. I suppose the contrasting approach would be to engineer into the oil other consumption countermeasures, such as aggressive seal conditioners. This would allow the user to enjoy both the benefits of the HM oil and the lower vis at the same time.
 
It would make sense to have a 5w20 HM oil. If you needed it. It isn't always about tolerances and oil burn off. Sometimes folks neglect their car for many many miles and the low viscosity HM oil helps clean and soften seals. I probably won't use it, but I feel it has its place. IMHO.
 
Originally Posted By: killagt
it can be use in a new car too.


I agree. In fact someone posted an email from one of the HM manufacturers (thought it was maxlife) confirming same.
 
I have a 5 quart container in my garage of the 5W20 semi syn Maxlife. I read somewhere that it is on the heavy side for a 5W20.
 
It's been available for a few years. I used it on one of my new vehicles (bought on sale at AAP) af few years ago. I was surprised they carried that weight (in stock) at the time.
 
I have a 2004 Honda Civic. I drive less than a mile to work. Come home for lunch ( I have to let the dog out ). Drive home after work. Some light driving around town during the week. A fifty mile round trip a couple times a month. The car has about 37,000 miles on it. I've been doing 3 month oil changes with all the name brand oils since new. Honda manual says 6 mo. OCI for severe service. I emailed Valvoline a couple months back. They recomended that I stick with the 3 mo. OCI, and use Maxlife 5w20 over their conventional. They said it would hold up better under my severe short trip driving conditions. Right now it has 5w20 synpower in it. I may try 4 mo. OCI with that since Valvoline's new warranty says 300,000 miles on Synpower, and 225,000 miles for Maxlife.
 
When I wanted to buy some Maxlife Synthetic all they had listed on the site was 5W-30 and 10W-30, and this was just a couple months ago.

I hope Walmart starts carrying Maxlife Synthetic again.
 
20 weight oils generally feature high moly, so MaxLife's existing formula fits right in a thinner application.
 
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