Valvoline is dirty, or ?

[FastGame]

Yes, Valvoline is dirty or it becomes immune to its self.

My Father-in-Law's 1998 Dodge Caravan 3.0L (98,000 mi.) has used nothing but Valvoline 10W-30 its whole life. He has always changed the oil & filter every 3,000 mi. without fail. The last 5yrs I've changed the oil for him and I noticed the oil looked darker but looked real good...color wise. His dipstick was dark and looking inside the filler hole was dark with slight areas of light sludge...I chalked this up as him being a short tripper type.

3500 mi. ago (I pushed his OC to the limit..hehe) I pulled a trick (didn't tell him) and used QSAD 5W-30

This QS started getting dark after 700 mi. I changed the oil today and it was black as tar and thick...wow ! The dipstick is shiny now...double wow !

What's up with Valvoline ? why couldn't it do this cleaning ? Nothing has changed in his driving habits.

BTW, this OC today I used Pennzoil HM 5W-30 I'm going to see how much more cleaning it'll do.

 

[JAG]

Valvoline currently uses a weak detergent package in most of its oils, in my opinion.

 

[abycat]

I have never been a Valvolene fan. I tried it once in my old mazda van and The engine was really loud only with that oil in it. If we had supertech up here id use even that over valvolene any day. Not bad mouthing ST at all it actually has really good UOA's.

 

[Noshow13]

My brother has always been a Valvoline fan, until about a year ago. He did an oil change on his 2005 Ford Ranger & his wife's Dodge Caravan. He said both of the the motors seemed to start making a "pinging" noise. Next oc's were not with Valvoline & both ran smoother, again. He won't use Valvoline now, which is all he used to use.

 

[Lead Shoes]

I am currently noticing that with Maxlife I have a lot more valve train noise, and the oil was black in no time...

 

[FastGame]

This van runs fine on Valvoline, I was amazed at how much the QS cleaned out after 1 OC.

Maybe it has something to do with 10W-30 for 12+ yr ? maybe an oil cleans yet over time leaves its own deposits it can't clean (becomes "immune to its self") and another oil cleans those deposits.

Over the years I've used Valvoline, liked it..no problem, this made me think.

 

[Merkava_4]

I had some varnish staining in my engine when I first got the car from
its original owner. 1700 miles later with Maxlife, the varnish was GONE.

 

[zyxelenator]

Valvoline is not oriented for extended OCI oil so far. Maxlife is great oil. Can't tell about Synpower yet, have 4 gallons to go (10w-30). But my buddy is being lazy and takes his car to local GoodYear shop, where we used to work. It always gets SynPower 5w-30. Oci 3-8k miles. And he drives known sludger 04 vw GTI 1.8T modded to stage 2.It actually call for 5w-40. Last time I checked his fill hole--everything looked spotless.
Oil color doesn't mean anything.
Any short tripper will sludge up if it has wrong OCI.

 

[FowVay]

After dealing with Travis Montgomery at Ashland I realized that Valvoline is not a company that concerns itself with the needs of the customer. They may make great products for other markets but for their North American customers they're settling for minimum grade.

I don't use Valvoline at all after dealing with their corporate culture.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: FowVay
After dealing with Travis Montgomery at Ashland I realized that Valvoline is not a company that concerns itself with the needs of the customer. They may make great products for other markets but for their North American customers they're settling for minimum grade.

I don't use Valvoline at all after dealing with their corporate culture.

Care to tell us more about what led you to arrive at that conclusion?

 

[uart]

This thread seems to have plenty of hate for Valvoline over what really doesn't amount to more than an anecdote about the color of a drain and a shiny dipstick.

I'm not a valvoline fan boy or anything, but I've used their oils plenty and never had a problem. I'm using durablend at the moment and no problems as yet with my dipstick not being shiny enough.

 

[NHGUY]

Remember,most of America's top mechanics use Valvoline in their own cars.....(they must have did a survey or something).At least thats what their ads say.

 

[LeakySeals]

Opinion: I disagree with those that think black in no time means bad oil. Quite the contrary. I think the oils that run clean through the entire oci are doing no cleaning and lack suspension properties causing sludge over time. I get black in no time changing from dino to M1 every time. M1 creates particulate too small for most filters to trap during initial cleanup. When you see that changing oils it means either it has better cleaning properties than the last

or...

maybe the immune thing has something to it, alternate oils to clean what the other can't.

I base that opinion from several cars. One example, a 00 corolla 148k that suffered from horrible valvetrain noise with a P1349 CEL, also had a flickering oil light. The oil used was unknown dino, but at 3100 miles it "looked great", "crystal clear" on the stick. I changed the oil to M1 HM 5w-30 and after 1500 miles it was filthy rotten. Oil light is out, P1349 is gone, valve train noise has subsided. Now when I see the dirty oil I'm reassured its keeping things clean.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
Now when I see the dirty oil I'm reassured its keeping things clean.


What if the engine is already clean; how can you tell if the oil is cleaning things then?

 

[LeakySeals]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
Now when I see the dirty oil I'm reassured its keeping things clean.


What if the engine is already clean; how can you tell if the oil is cleaning things then?

Would expect dirty oil regardless of the physical cleanliness, just take longer into OCI. The oil itself is still getting dirty from contaminants, fuel, etc. less cleaning of old stuff going on. I dont want new stuff settling, I want it to drain out

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
Now when I see the dirty oil I'm reassured its keeping things clean.


What if the engine is already clean; how can you tell if the oil is cleaning things then?

Would expect dirty oil regardless of the physical cleanliness, just take longer into OCI. The oil itself is still getting dirty from contaminants, fuel, etc. less cleaning of old stuff going on. I dont want new stuff settling, I want it to drain out

My engine is clean, at least looking at the fill hole, but my oil always gets dark brown towards the end of my usual 5-6k OCI. I guess it's a combination of oil cleaning and fuel dilution as my commute is mostly stop and go. On the other hand, I bet we have guys here that never experienced this due to long highway commutes. Hence one of BITOGS most important rules is TO NOT JUDGE OIL BY ITS COLOR.

EDIT:

Even though color is not an indication of oil condition, a sudden change of oil color, like in OPs case, is an indicator that something is happening, so monitoring oil color is a good thing.

 

[Klutch9]

Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Remember,most of America's top mechanics use Valvoline in their own cars.....(they must have did a survey or something).At least thats what their ads say.


Mechanics typically know very little about motor oil. I'd ask my mother about motor oil before I'd ask a mechanic.

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted By: FastGame
Yes, Valvoline is dirty or it becomes immune to its self.

My Father-in-Law's 1998 Dodge Caravan 3.0L (98,000 mi.) has used nothing but Valvoline 10W-30 its whole life. He has always changed the oil & filter every 3,000 mi. without fail. The last 5yrs I've changed the oil for him and I noticed the oil looked darker but looked real good...color wise. His dipstick was dark and looking inside the filler hole was dark with slight areas of light sludge...I chalked this up as him being a short tripper type.

3500 mi. ago (I pushed his OC to the limit..hehe) I pulled a trick (didn't tell him) and used QSAD 5W-30

This QS started getting dark after 700 mi. I changed the oil today and it was black as tar and thick...wow ! The dipstick is shiny now...double wow !

What's up with Valvoline ? why couldn't it do this cleaning ? Nothing has changed in his driving habits.

BTW, this OC today I used Pennzoil HM 5W-30 I'm going to see how much more cleaning it'll do.


Try Valvoline MaxLife. Before you go busting on Valvoline, about why their oil doesn't clean as well as somebody else's High Mileage oil, try theirs as well.

 

[FastGame]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Originally Posted By: FastGame
Yes, Valvoline is dirty or it becomes immune to its self.

My Father-in-Law's 1998 Dodge Caravan 3.0L (98,000 mi.) has used nothing but Valvoline 10W-30 its whole life. He has always changed the oil & filter every 3,000 mi. without fail. The last 5yrs I've changed the oil for him and I noticed the oil looked darker but looked real good...color wise. His dipstick was dark and looking inside the filler hole was dark with slight areas of light sludge...I chalked this up as him being a short tripper type.

3500 mi. ago (I pushed his OC to the limit..hehe) I pulled a trick (didn't tell him) and used QSAD 5W-30

This QS started getting dark after 700 mi. I changed the oil today and it was black as tar and thick...wow ! The dipstick is shiny now...double wow !

What's up with Valvoline ? why couldn't it do this cleaning ? Nothing has changed in his driving habits.

BTW, this OC today I used Pennzoil HM 5W-30 I'm going to see how much more cleaning it'll do.


Try Valvoline MaxLife. Before you go busting on Valvoline, about why their oil doesn't clean as well as somebody else's High Mileage oil, try theirs as well.


I wasn't busting on Valvoline nor was I looking to bust on any oil ! I wasn't even looking to change oil brands.

I didn't try Valvoline MaxLife because I had the PHM bought on sale, had the VML been on sale that's what would have gone in. I have no clue what the VHM will do because I just put it in, it was *QSAD that started all this.

Now, for the doubting Thomas/s...When 12+ yrs. of exact same OC & driving habits= same results, and deviating from that 1 time= *black thick tar like oil-deposit stain dipstick turns shiny....like it or not, that means something.

I'll make all of this real simple.

Can an oil, any oil, become *immune to its self over time ?

 

[ABerns]

Originally Posted By: FastGame

Can an oil, any oil, become *immune to its self over time ?


I recall a thread here recently (can't seem to find it now) about somebody offering up an idea that perhaps switching oil brands every once in a while to get different detergents/add packs was a good idea. Perhaps they can chime in again?

I know next to nothing about anything, but perhaps Valvoline's detergents don't remove some substance X very well, and this X causes a coloration, and switching to another brand with a different chemical detergent that does bind to X cause the coloration to be removed? This goes in the line that another poster was saying in that mystery thread I can't find, that perhaps prolonged use of ANY oil can cause a buildup in that oil's "cleaning hole"...

I know this post doesn't add much. Probably shouldn't even post just my uninformed musings, but hey, it's the Internet!