I'd imagine Valvoline is going to want proof that the transmission was maintained by the book prior to using their product.From what I'm reading on the Mercedes forums, Castrol and Valvoline aren't on Mercedes approved list because they didn't pay the fee. And "if a transmission fails because of a Valvoline fluid that was spec'd for the vehicle, Valvoline covers the repairs."
One thing I've noticed is that MV ATF's never appear on approved lists. I think it's in part because Shell develops a lot of ATF's for automakers and they typically release a new specification for every new design. For example in the BMW world there's ZF LifeGuard 6 (Shell M-1375.4) and LifeGuard 8/9 (Shell M-L12108) for the 6 and 8/9-speed AT's. As you can see these ATF's are based on different Shell Fluids but Maxlife can allegedly be used for both units. I can understand the business reasons for MV ATF's at it's a cost saver for Indy shops, but I don't understand the business reasons for developing different ATF if there's no performance difference in doing so.
Another example if Ford. Mercon SP/LV cannot be mixed with any other Mercon ATF but Valvoline says no problem. How?
US_Val_MLMultiVehicle_ATF_EN.pdf - DocuSign CLM
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