Quaker State and Warranty

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First post, but been reading these forums for a while now and haven't seen any one talk about this subject: Quaker State Warranty. Have a new Accord, V6 and must use 5W-20. Anyway, the local quickie lube mistakedly put Quaker State in it even though I've been using Pennz. What the hell, no problem because the wife averages about 1K miles a week in it. Well, a week later I get this pamphlet from Quaker State saying that if I continue using their oil, and document it and change every 4K, I will stay enrolled in their 10 year/250K lubrication limited warranty and did not mention anything about FILTERS. WHAT??? Read the fine print and basically if any part of this engine fails ( pistons, oil pump, timing chain, cam, rods, crankshaft, etc. etc.) they will replace the engine for free. I have NEVER heard of this but was well surprised. Now, I am not, nor have I ever been a QS man. BUT, you got to think these guys got some big 'nards to put out that kind of warranty, IN WRITING.
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The warranty card has the vehicle VIN and serial number on it.
My question: have any of you come across this? Is it junk? Another question on the 5W-20 never ending saga: No one ever talks about or brings up QS 5W-20. Is this stuff that bad? What is the general feelings or facts from the oil brethrens????
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[ May 13, 2003, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Schmoe ]
 
IMHO mostly marketing Schmoe, I haven't specifically tested the QS 5w-20 formula.

Shell owns the Brands we knew as Pennzoil and QS now, I don't know how true to the original formulations they are. I suspect the brands are in a state of flux now.

Johnny could answer questions about that from an insiders point of view.

The warranty will rarely if ever be useful in todays cars. Proving oil related failure is tough at best.

I would be happy to test the formula in your Honda to see how its holding up. In 4000 miles I would think it would be fine. A cleaning periodic cleaning with Auto-RX would help.

PS
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Schmoe !

[ May 13, 2003, 01:58 PM: Message edited by: Terry ]
 
Like the Amsoil warranty it is not worth the paper it is printed on. As terry noted, one can never prove the cause of engine failure is due to the oil. Catastrophic engine failure is a component that dies or poorly designed. Other then that wear occurs over time and impossible to prove the oil was the culprit. One missed documented oil change (not much risk either in a 4000 mile change interval) or wrong brand (not QS) or wrong weight and they ahve an out as well. And for 99% of the drivers out there a 10 year waranty is 100,000-150,000 miles not 250,000.

Ask them if they have ever paid off on that warranty to anyone????

[ May 13, 2003, 03:16 PM: Message edited by: Spector ]
 
The warranty applies to most (all?) QS oils, not just 5W20. Details are on their web site. I am intrigued.
 
I never used or like Quakerstate, but a friend of mine who kept track of his oilchanges using Quaker state, endend up getting a new engine paid for by quakerstate, this was about 5 years ago. I still wouldn't use it.
 
I just had the oil changed in the mother-in-laws car at the Oil Exchange they use Citgo oil. The sign on the wall and pamphlet they gave me say Citgo has a "Lifetime Warranty" on your engine with their regular oil changes. "Lifetime" is as long as YOU own the vehicle.
 
Well, I called the service group and they stated they have had very little as they called it warr problems. And to add give the benifet of the who converstation, they also stated they have had many who have exceeded the warr miles on their engine with no problems with this program.

Here is the fine print...

It covers fifteen (15) engine parts lubricated by motor oil against lubrication caused failure. It does not extend the vehicle manufacturer's limited warranty. It contains certain conditions, exclusions and service requirements

She stated that if there is a problem, they take a sample of the current oil and test it to ensure it isn't bad, and if it is, then they repair the motor. Anyone seen a bad oil through all of the analysis we see? None of which would cause engine damage. This type of warr is very mis leading on how they market it and many fail to see or understand it like some other companies are praying on the ignorant which IMO is not uncommon.
 
OK, from what I'm understanding, it's a play on advertising that is designed to lure you in to use their product, BUT, to be able to show (by their methods) that their oil is responsible for you engine failure would be hard to prove. I knew that QS and Pennz. were owned by the same company, but thought they had different formulations. I guess what I'm wondering, and I've pretty much read all the previous posts on the 5W-20 arguments, should I stay with these guys, without having a UOA, or change to something better. Wife averages about 28K miles a year and I religiously change oil/filter every 4K. Using Purolator Plus oil filters because of their decent flows. 90% of miles are at 70+ mph, tach around 2400 rpm. Or, being so anal retentive about oil changes, don't worry about it and just continue to do what I'm doing.
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I'm sure they have paid out. If they never made a claim it would really look like a scam. I'm also sure that it's very rare as per Bob's points. Very few oils would actually fail before 4000 miles. We seem to have a shortage of QS users, so why don't you keep using it and do a UOA.

I remember the guy on the Edmunds Toyota sludge boards who pushed Amsoil to 25K regularly, tried to go after Toyota and then turned to Amsoil for their warranty. He wound up eating that weenie.
 
Based upon the type of driving your wife does I would say the only and major advantage to a synthetic for you is extended drains. With her driving I would say 7500-10,000 would be fairly easy to do. So in lieu of changing the oil every two months or so you would do it 4-6 months. Highway driving is the easiest on the oil and with synthetic should be a breeze.
 
You know, I think I will do that exact thing. Take a oil sample of the car. I'm hoping to get 200K out of this baby (actually, when it gets paid off, I get it and the wife gets a new one......you know how that works
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) By that time and this rate, the car will be in the 125 to 150K range. Who or what company would be the best one to use for UOA. But, I'll need the help of my fellow brethren, because the results really won't tell me much as far as how the engine is doing and how the oil is holding up. How much does a UOA costs?
 
quote:

Originally posted by Schmoe:
Who or what company would be the best one to use for UOA. But, I'll need the help of my fellow brethren, because the results really won't tell me much as far as how the engine is doing and how the oil is holding up. How much does a UOA costs?

Check out this link:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/terry.html

Get the Blackstone package from him. I believe it's $35. Blackstone does the UOA, with TBN, then sends the results to Terry to interpret for you.

[ May 15, 2003, 05:01 AM: Message edited by: Patman ]
 
WARRANTY: Both Quaker State and Pennzoil have warranties. Quaker State is 10 years/250,000 and Pennzoil is 10 years/300,000 miles. If your car is less than 36 months old and has less than 36,000 miles, it can go on these warranties. No matter what brand of oil you used before that. These warranties are not SCAMS. They are great public relation tools. If you are a loyal customer of these products and maintain your vehicle and have a problem, they will fix it, or replace your engine if needed. This is the cheapest form of advertising there is. You have one very satisfied customer that tells all his or her friends what a stand up company this is. Most major brand oil companies have some kind of warranty.

FORMULATIONS: The Pennzoil and Quaker State brands are different formulations. My personal opinion is that the Pennzoil formulation is best. Neither of the formulations have changed since SHELL purchased us.

HOWEVER: If you are looking at doing 10,000 mile oil changes, do not use these products as they were not designed for this purpose.

I now have a Ford Tarus for my company car and I am changing the oil every 5,000 miles using Pennzoil 5W20. I do about 80% highway and 20% city driving. So I follow Fords recommendations. On the other hand, my wife never leaves the city and her van never sees more than 45 mph. I change the oil at 3,500 miles on this one.

I hope this info helps some.

[ May 22, 2003, 08:03 AM: Message edited by: Johnny ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by Johnny:
WARRANTY: Both Quaker State and Pennzoil have warranties. Quaker State is 10 years/250,000 and Pennzoil is 10 years/300,000 miles. If your car is less than 36 months old and has less than 36,000 miles, it can go on these warranties. No matter what brand of oil you used before that. These warranties are not SCAMS. They are great public relation tools. If you are a loyal customer of these products and maintain your vehicle and have a problem, they will fix it, or replace your engine if needed. This is the cheapest form of advertising there is. You have one very satisfied customer that tells all his or her friends what a stand up company this is. Most major brand oil companies have some kind of warranty.

I respect your opinion but as stated earlier this is not worth the paper it is printed on! If it has ever paid off (which I doubt seriously) the hassle and time were probably enormous and also may have been done for purely marketing purposes at that time.
 
As stated above, it is for marketing purposes. Any warranty from any manufacture is for marketing purposes. They have paid off and to process a claim takes about 14 days. This is not just my opinion, it is fact. The paper it is written on may not be worth much, although I suspect the bright colored brochures cost something, but the owner that just had his $5,000 engine replaced last week is very happy and continues to be a loyal customer. I know, I processed the claim. And by the way, we do not think it was the oils fault, but he was a loyal customer that has always used our product and his car was out of warranty with 82,556 miles on it. It happened to be a Volvo.

However, I do respect your opinion, and if you choose not to except these warranties that's alright by me. We have not been the #1 selling oil for over 20 years and stayed in business for over 125 years by being dishonest.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Spector:

I respect your opinion but as stated earlier this is not worth the paper it is printed on! If it has ever paid off (which I doubt seriously) the hassle and time were probably enormous and also may have been done for purely marketing purposes at that time. [/QB]

Spector-you may very well be right and we have discussed the Amsoil Warranty. Amsoil's warranty to me (even as an Amsoil-friendly person) is a lesson in "double-speak". The Quaker State Warranty though appears to be straight forward. They give a phone# for additional details. I tried to call buts its Sat.-
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) Maybe we are writing off this warranty to quickly. Johnny may have a point.
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http://www.quakerstate.com/pages/promotions/index.asp
 
I was tempted to continue using Quaker State because of the warranty. I own a Saturn car and Quaker State is (or at least was) the oil installed in Saturns at the factory. They use Quaker State at the dealerships and you see this paperwork at the dealership about the warranty.

I used Pennzoil and sometimes Quaker State for many years in my vehicles. Then I started hearing some bad stuff about these oils and decided to switch. Guess which brand I switched to-Valvoline, which is not highly regarded, it seems, at this site!

As far as I know, Pennzoil and Quaker State are still the best selling motor oils in the USA. It used to be said that east of the Mississippi River Quaker State was number one, and west of the Mississippi River it was Pennzoil.

Now that all of these companies are merging together, I wonder how it will affect the motor oil formulations. Will someday Shell, Pennzoil, and Quaker State all be the same oil? Will Exxon and Mobil oil be the same?

One thing that is strange is that Quaker State is rarely mentioned at this site. I wonder how it compares to Pennzoil, Chevron, Castrol and other oils. Pretty weird considering that I think it is the number two oil sold in the country. The only thing I have heard is that Pennzoil is supposed to be somewhat better, but there does not seem to be any VOA or UOA to back this up.

Anyway, I am using Schaeffer's Oil now, and I was using Chevron.
 

quote:

Originally posted by troy_heagy:
doubt it.

Yeah, I do too, since the Toyota sludge monster motors came by their reputation from inherent design considerations, not the motor oil. Pennzoil's and Quaker State's warranties cover oil related engine damage...
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However, it depends on your definition of design issues. If the oil was changed as recommended in the severe schedule there were no (I believe) instances of sludge. If you went beyond 5000 is when the problems occurred regardless of the oil. So is that design or oil that cannot handle beyond what the manufacturer said it should have been changed at? If Amsoil or QS was changed at 5000 and no problems occurred but if one went to 7500 and sludge appeared is that the engine or oil. As 90% (IMO) of drivers fall into severe category.

Since Toyota extended the warranty everyone is now simply saying it was design. We all know from the UOA board that Amsoil rarely can make it to 15,000 and in my Cmary is shot at 7500 so is it the chicken or the egg. QS no different. In reality the oil cannot handle the demands of the engine beyond 5000 miles(which is when it should have been changed if QS) , so we blame the engine when we probably should be blaming the oil.

[ May 20, 2003, 02:37 PM: Message edited by: Spector ]
 
I wonder if any Toyota Sludge owners used Quaker State? I wonder if Quaker State replaced their prematurely-dead @ 20,000 mile engines???

I doubt it.
 
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