Pennzoil 15,000/20,000 mile Protection Guarantee

[Best F100]

I don’t know if this has already been mentioned or posted:

In my recent conversation with the Pennzoil 800 number customer relations person, he mentioned that Pennzoil Platinum labels now show a 15,000 Protection Guarantee.

In addition, Pennzoil Ultra Platinum labels now show a 20,000 mile Guarantee. Same formulation as before, he claims.

I was wondering not if, but when, this wording was going to occur. Considering you can already buy a Quaker State Ultimate Protection product with a 20,000 mile guarantee wording on the label. Pennzoil GTL products are supposed to be the flagship Shell motor oils.

All this 20,000 mile talk is in keeping with the competition, I suppose. Mobil 1 and Super Tech have had it on their labels for quite some time. Good luck winning a legal case if your engine has an oil related failure prior to the 20,000 mile mark. Have a good lawyer on standby.

On a side note, I just tried Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5W20 for the first time after using Mobil 1 0W20EP for years. Vehicle being a ‘22 Ford Maverick Hybrid 2.5L engine. I noticed the engine is slightly smoother and quieter at the lower rpms. Don’t know if I will use it long term.

 

[cptbarkey]

Here are the terms.

https://www.pennzoil.com/en_us/warranty.html#iframe=L3Rlcm1zLw

This one disqualifies my fleet. I wasn't looking to anyway.

 

[stormgol]

in Canada the warranty is 20 years or 1,200,000 kilometers for Pennzoil Platinum Ultra. if you use Ultra exclusively.

 

[buster]

When I first joined BITOG in 2002 the only off the shelf synthetic that was actually good was Mobil 1. Amsoil at the time recommended 25k mile drains. Fast forward to 2024 and all the majors now sell a "20k mile" oil.

 

[Escape08]

Whatever what the bottle says in regards to long mileage guaranty, stick with every 5K mile OCI, if you want to keep the vehicle for a very long time.

 

[Best F100]

Whatever what the bottle says in regards to long mileage guaranty, stick with every 5K mile OCI, if you want to keep the vehicle for a very long time

Preaching to the choir fella. That goes without saying.

However, there are instances whereby that scheduled 5000 mile OCI is not going to happen in the real world. What instances? For example, a college kid out of state with the family vehicle. A spouse that continues to drive a vehicle until the dashboard is lit like a Christmas tree - or won’t move at all. A 2,000 mile unplanned road trip. A Son or daughter who continues to drive until someone else mentions it (I have one of those)…….

The appeal in a longer drain product is you (you hope) have more of a reserve built in before catastrophic consequences occur.

By the way, how many miles on that 2008 Ford Escape? What OCI intervals, brand and viscosity? That engine may be related to my current truck and previous Ford Fusion Hybrid with 210,000 miles.

 

[Patman]

Whatever what the bottle says in regards to long mileage guaranty, stick with every 5K mile OCI, if you want to keep the vehicle for a very long time.

Tell that to long term member Tig1, who has done 10k intervals with Mobil 1 for 40 years and all of his cars last a long time. He has well over 300k on one of his Ford Fusions right now actually. The only thing 5k intervals would have done for him is double his costs on oil.

I’m currently at 150k on my Civic with 10k intervals also. I plan on keeping this car a long time and I’m confident I will not have any problem getting to 300k without any engine problems

 

[macarose]

A little story deserve to be shared...

A few years ago I had these two you guys buying cars from me who were just starting up their own imaginary rideshare empire.

They were already about 30 cars in when one of them asked me which 15,000 mile motor oil they should use for a solid 15k OCI.

I explained to them over dinner, "Look. Your average car now cost about $15,000. Right? And your average engine cost about $6000 to replace. Okay? Why the hell would you care about spending $700 extra for a 5,000 mile oil change interval? You're not losing money by doing this. You're gaining insurance."

They blew me off. About six months later I started getting Kias traded-in to me because their engines had blown up. Turns out rideshare drivers don't give a flip if an engine burns or leaks oil. They just keep driving.

They now owned lawn ornaments.

If you're highway driving 20k a year I can see going 10k on an oil change. That is IF you are topping it off and the engine doesn't burn or leak oil.

But if you drive like the average person just make it 5,000 miles. You can do a pit crew oil change at Walmart. Pay $25. And never think twice about it. The real magic of the 5k oil change is that it helps you remember the other things. Rotating the tires. Replacing filters. Keeping fresh fluids everywhere else at specific intervals.

 

[TomYoung]

Preaching to the choir fella. That goes without saying.

However, there are instances whereby that scheduled 5000 mile OCI is not going to happen in the real world. What instances? For example, a college kid out of state with the family vehicle. A spouse that continues to drive a vehicle until the dashboard is lit like a Christmas tree - or won’t move at all. A 2,000 mile unplanned road trip. A Son or daughter who continues to drive until someone else mentions it (I have one of those)…….

The appeal in a longer drain product is you (you hope) have more of a reserve built in before catastrophic consequences occur.

By the way, how many miles on that 2008 Ford Escape? What OCI intervals, brand and viscosity? That engine may be related to my current truck and previous Ford Fusion Hybrid with 210,000 miles.

I would say that you would probably get away with the 2000 mile unplanned roadtrip. If you are dealing with cars driven by people who don’t care or are oblivious, you can only do the best you can. I have tried with some success to teach oil change discipline in my household to people who don’t care that much. I advocate 5000 mile intervals, which assuredly guarantees a substantial “built in reserve”

 

[Redhawk454]

My dad had a 2016 Yukon with the 6.2 v8 in it, he would put a good 40k miles a year on it. Dealer oil changes. He always rode the oil life monitor to 0%, sometimes a couple hundred miles past 0 %. All on 0w-20

One day he was driving and his check engine light came on. He checked the dipstick and it was bone dry. I’m not sure how many miles he had on that oil change before he noticed his dipstick was bone dry.

I don’t remember specifics but the engine was toast and cost 12-18k to replace

Now he has a 2023 Escalade with the same 6.2 v8. He does 5k mile OCI’s now.

Most of us here can’t afford new engines so it’s just cheaper insurance to change oil more frequently than the manufacturer suggested oci.

Keep in mind those “engineers” don’t have people who want to keep their vehicles for 400k miles in mind when these maintenance schedules are created.

 

[Redhawk454]

I would never in a million freaking years do a 20k mile oci unless it’s a train engine that holds 1,600 quarts of diesel oil

 

[Redhawk454]

I have too much respect for a motor to play the game of extended OCI’s

 

[Patman]

My dad had a 2016 Yukon with the 6.2 v8 in it, he would put a good 40k miles a year on it. Dealer oil changes. He always rode the oil life monitor to 0%, sometimes a couple hundred miles past 0 %. All on 0w-20

One day he was driving and his check engine light came on. He checked the dipstick and it was bone dry. I’m not sure how many miles he had on that oil change before he noticed his dipstick was bone dry.

I don’t remember specifics but the engine was toast and cost 12-18k to replace

Now he has a 2023 Escalade with the same 6.2 v8. He does 5k mile OCI’s

That engine didn’t die because he did longer intervals though. It died because it was run low on oil. Big difference between the two scenarios.

 

[TomYoung]

I would never in a million freaking years do a 20k mile oci unless it’s a train engine that holds 1,600 quarts of diesel oil

Thanks for spelling out that exception

 

[TomYoung]

My dad had a 2016 Yukon with the 6.2 v8 in it, he would put a good 40k miles a year on it. Dealer oil changes. He always rode the oil life monitor to 0%, sometimes a couple hundred miles past 0 %. All on 0w-20

One day he was driving and his check engine light came on. He checked the dipstick and it was bone dry. I’m not sure how many miles he had on that oil change before he noticed his dipstick was bone dry.

I don’t remember specifics but the engine was toast and cost 12-18k to replace

Now he has a 2023 Escalade with the same 6.2 v8. He does 5k mile OCI’s now.

Most of us here can’t afford new engines so it’s just cheaper insurance to change oil more frequently than the manufacturer suggested oci.

Keep in mind those “engineers” don’t have people who want to keep their vehicles for 400k miles in mind when these maintenance schedules are created.

Going for a long oci and running the engine dry are not the same things. There is an argument for longer ocis. There is no justification for running a car low on oil.

 

[demarpaint]

20K on Ultra? I'll pass, in my case I'd be flirting with disaster. Maybe if I lived out West somewhere and drove 50 miles each way to work on the highway, and never saw traffic. At that point I would UOA a 10K run and see how the oil did. Blindly following blanket statements can be a very costly mistake.

 

[Redhawk454]

20K on Ultra? I'll pass, in my case I'd be flirting with disaster. Maybe if I lived out West somewhere and drove 50 miles each way to work on the highway, and never saw traffic. At that point I would UOA a 10K run and see how the oil did. Blindly following blanket statements can be a very costly mistake.

A DIY oil change with pennzoil ultra platinum is still pretty darn cheap if you want to do it every 5k miles. Or 3k miles. Not only is it cheap but it is cheap insurance too

 

[demarpaint]

A DIY oil change with pennzoil ultra platinum is still pretty darn cheap if you want to do it every 5k miles. Or 3k miles. Not only is it cheap but it is cheap insurance too

I agree, although I think there are better options with similar pricing.

 

[Tgator]

At that point I would UOA a 10K run and see how the oil did. Blindly following blanket statements can be a very costly mistake.

Two solid nuggets of wisdom...and as RedHawk's dad found out the expensive way...still gotta check the dipstick on some regular interval. Even if your vehicle has never burned or leaked oil to date, stuff happens, & there's no guarantee of the "up to now" continuing.

On the UOA note...I've done that a few times several years ago with high-end off the shelf synthetics, up to 10k OCI (when the max claimed life was 10k), and consistently had the analysis show good numbers, with the analyst's comments including "you could definitely go at least another 2-3k safely". Planning to do one next OC (@ 10k OCI) on wife's Camry, in which I've been running Mobil 1 EP. My disconnect in the overall comments in this and other BITOG threads seems to be...lots of guys stick to their number, like several mentions of 5k in this thread, others go much longer with good results based on the oil mfg's claims, the seemingly fine results (and maybe some UOAs?)

So my question is...if you're in the stick to the more conservative number camp, have you done UOAs at that (or any) mileage, and if so has the analysis pointed you to that conservative number? Or do they say "you could go much further" and it's more the "better safe than sorry" logic behind sticking w/ the 5k (or whatever pretty conservative number)?

My conclusion to this point has been...if I've done the UOA on a given oil in a given vehicle, it's tested to have plenty of life left at a given OCI, and I'm paying attention to checking the stick, noticing if there are new drips, and keeping in mind our recent driving patterns and whether those have changed, I'm thinking the 10k or whatever "tested good" number should be fine. At least at that point it seems like a pretty informed conclusion. Or do some folks not put that much store in UOAs?

 

[tvaughn]

In the TOS:

ANY CLAIM IS LIMITED TO $5,000.00, OR THE ACTUAL CASH VALUE OF THE ELIGIBLE VEHICLE, WHICHEVER IS LESS, IF YOU JOIN THE PROGRAM WHEN YOUR VEHICLE HAS LESS THAN 75,000 MILES. IF YOU JOIN THE PROGRAM WHEN YOUR VEHICLE HAS 75,001 - 125,000 MILES, ANY CLAIM IS LIMITED TO $2,500.00, OR THE ACTUAL CASH VALUE OF THE ELIGIBLE VEHICLE, WHICHEVER IS LESS. YOUR REIMBURSEMENT UNDER THIS PROGRAM WILL NEVER BE THAN QUALIFIED REPAIR EXPENSES. YOU MAY ONLY HAVE ONE (1) CLAIM PER ELIGIBLE VEHICLE UNDER THE PENNZOIL LUBRICATION LIMITED WARRANTY.

In other words, any reman engine and labor won't be fully covered. If you have a car with a ton of miles, they will cut a check for its "cash value," which is likely very little. I guess it's a nice thing to have versus nothing if you plan on religiously sticking with their oil.