MaxLife Payouts

[MolaKule]

Good morning!

So I was in the process of starting a thread where we could post technical details of various manufacturer specs. For example; Dexos1 has limits on piston deposits, reduced NOACK limit, etc. I was trying to create a centralized post where people could share the tech details they've been able to find, as these can be difficult, if not impossible to obtain. While researching this to get the ball rolling I happened to stumble on the following document from the FTC. I haven't had luck in finding why this was put together, but it starts with Dexos1 manual references then transitions to MaxLife and some payouts (Nissan, Honda, and Toyota) that were made due to manufacturers denying claims. I have a hunch that this involved (involves?) Magnuson-Moss and the argument that these manufacturers were in violation of the act, that's speculation on my part though.

Document can be found here.

Well, your first couple of sentences were referring to motors oils in the context of Dexos specs.

In the future you may want to discard non-topical text.

 

[Silver]

Damage resulting from the use of transmission fluid other than Honda ATF DW-1 is not covered by the Honda new vehicle warranty.

So... either these mfg's must provide ATF for free or they're breaking the law.

Correct?

 

[Hall]

So... either these mfg's must provide ATF for free or they're breaking the law.

Correct?

A law with little to no enforcement.... Has anyone ever sued or enforced a manufacturer on this ?

 

[JustN89]

Unfortunately, nothing here is really evidence that Maxlife was the failure, or on the other hand, that Maxlife was suitable in these applications. All we really know from the link is that a handful of tickets were submitted to Valvoline, and one was paid out despite no real evidence to the fact that the Valvoline fluid was to blame. Valvoline did request the transmission core back, but we have no idea what was found and if the fluid was at fault. It does look like there were some highlighted portions of different owner's manuals where what was written was clearly borderline infringing upon the MM Act, but that's a different topic than whether or not Maxlife really isn't suitable for the applications that Valvoline claims it to be.

 

[RamFan]

A law with little to no enforcement.... Has anyone ever sued or enforced a manufacturer on this ?

Not sue, but I did submit a claim to the FTC against FCA for their SGA shenanigans on 2018+ vehicles. Essentially it is impossible to complete certain maintenance items and reset the appropriate systems without utilizing an FCA scan tool. My argument was that the resetting of these systems should be offered by the dealerships free of charge or they should be required to remove the SGW. Didn’t hear a peep.

 

[Hall]

Didn’t hear a peep.

Seems that the law is just fluff, huh ?

 

[haggler]

Does anyone see the commonality here? It appears all of those claims were after transmission flushes. I seriously doubt these failures were fluid related but its a strong case for drain and fill rather than a flush.

 

[MolaKule]

Unfortunately, nothing here is really evidence that Maxlife was the failure, or on the other hand, that Maxlife was suitable in these applications. All we really know from the link is that a handful of tickets were submitted to Valvoline, and one was paid out despite no real evidence to the fact that the Valvoline fluid was to blame. Valvoline did request the transmission core back, but we have no idea what was found and if the fluid was at fault. It does look like there were some highlighted portions of different owner's manuals where what was written was clearly borderline infringing upon the MM Act, but that's a different topic than whether or not Maxlife really isn't suitable for the applications that Valvoline claims it to be.

A good summary.

I have seen no technical reason in any of the documents posted where this ATF failed to perform or were this ATF caused any problems.

I do see innuendos and inferences by someone stringing together a number of situations in which no technical "smoking gun" can be identified.