new valvoline bottles!

[dakota99]

Well in my late night trip to wal-mart i just had to cruise on over to the oil aisle, and what do you know? There's some darn new bottles of valvoline sitting there. I was wondering when they would jump on the bandwagon. Maxlife is now SN, sans resource conserving. Wonder what the formulation is now.

 

[KieferS]

is it just where i live - or is walmart the only place with sn oil?

 

[rshunter]

Originally Posted By: KieferS
is it just where i live - or is walmart the only place with sn oil?

It's no doubt due to the higher inventory turnover rate that WalMart lives by.

 

[Stu_Rock]

No local Walmart here, but the local Kmart is only place I've seen SN oil.

 

[Thax]

Is it still a Synthetic blend , I dont see that listed on the bottle? Did you see it listed on there somewhere?

 

[chubbs1]

Funny it says SM/SN but no "Resource conserving (SN)" instead of "Energy Conserving (SM)". All SN oils I have seen say Resource Conserving. Must be because it is MaxLife. Very fine oil I would assume anyway.

 

[justinf89]

Its about time.

 

[river_rat]

Originally Posted By: KieferS
is it just where i live - or is walmart the only place with sn oil?

Our Walmart doesn't have SN yet. But I bet they will be first.

 

[Errtt]

Not to get off subject and I know this one is about the Valvoline bottle, but wonder if you recall what's the bottle (gray) partially shown to the right in the 1st pic.

 

[Tom NJ]

Note that it does not have a Starburst symbol, but claims on the back that it "meets or exceeds all protection requirements of ILSAC GF-5".

I believe they chose the words "protection requirements" because it does not meet the ILSAC chemical requirements (e.g. Phosphorus < 800 ppms), or performance requirements (e.g. Fuel Efficiency), because it's a High Mileage oil.

This could be a bit deceptive as it may fool some consumers who are reading the label looking for some reference to "ILSAC GF-5" as their owner's manual advises them to do. On the other hand, if it is, in fact, only used in high mileage engines that are out of warranty, then the ILSAC approval is less relevant.

Kind of a gray area that a lot of smaller boutique oils fall into, that is, should an oil make reference on the label to a specification that it does not fully meet?

What do you think?

Tom NJ

 

[Tortured_Soul]

I have a feeling it's not a syn blend anymore. Unless it says it is somewhere, and we just can't see it... I'm pretty sure the silver bottle next to it is the full syn MaxLife.

 

[Mark72]

The reason it doesn’t state syn-blend anymore is because conventional SN oils are in all actuality a syn blend.

 

[buster]

I agree with Tom here. I think quite a few small blenders fall into that gray area.

 

[Brian Barnhart]

Originally Posted By: Tom NJ

Kind of a gray area that a lot of smaller boutique oils fall into, that is, should an oil make reference on the label to a specification that it does not fully meet?

What do you think?


I agree that such wording can be confusing and even misleading for anyone choosing their oil casually. From that viewpoint, perhaps such practices should be discouraged since users could end up choosing an oil that does not meet all of their vehicle’s oil requirements.

However, this also points out why the ILSAC/API’s one-size-fits-all approach is inadequate. There are real reasons and applications that can benefit from something other than the latest energy/resource conserving oils. But the current ILSAC and API approach to licensing has no provisions to help the consumer identify such oils that might be preferred in their application.

Perhaps ILSAC/API should explain why they haven’t developed standards for high mileage and extended OCI oils. The fact that oils targeted for those applications are on store shelves everywhere proves that such markets exist.

 

[Errtt]

^^^^ The bottle cut off to the right I was thinking Amsoil at 1st but then at WalMart, it had to be something else.

 

[Mark72]

I called Valvolines tech hotline. I was just told that they took the name syn-blend off the Maxlife bottles due to marketing. It's always been a syn-blend and they took it off because people always associated the name "synthetic" with expensive. So they felt it was driving down the demand for Maxlife. Still a blend, always has been and always will be. The only thing I find strange is that it would seem people would associate 14.50/5qt jug of Maxlife as "expensive"..LOL

 

[stubbakatt]

Originally Posted By: Mark72
I called Valvolines tech hotline. I was just told that they took the name syn-blend off the Maxlife bottles due to marketing. It's always been a syn-blend and they took it off because people always associated the name "synthetic" with expensive. So they felt it was driving down the demand for Maxlife. Still a blend, always has been and always will be. The only thing I find strange is that it would seem people would associate 14.50/5qt jug of Maxlife as "expensive"..LOL


yeah, and maxlife is only 13.50 here. It's cheaper than PYB

 

[dakota99]

The bottle on the right is maxlife full synthetic. Although i think my walmart is beginning to phase out the full syn version as 10w30 is the only quart flavor left on the shelf. I believe there are a couple 5 quart jugs. Not sure if they just reduced stock or if they plan on totally removing it. My dads camry seemed to like the blend, i switched to PP i guess for a longer drain but i may go back to maxlife. Seems quieter on it.

 

[1 SX]

So is this the same oil as the old maxlife, just with a new bottle? Or is this also a add pack change?

 

[Drew99GT]

Valvoline is always very forthcoming with info and that's one reason I use their products. The latest data sheet is still from 2009 for Maxlife.

http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/Maxlife.pdf