Valvoline Maxlife ATF(RED) VS. Valvoline Full Synthetic(BLUE)

[The Lube Guy]

A lot of majors use custom DI packages - that is nothing new. When you have volume, you get the privilege of working more closely with the additive supplier to develop something that satisfies your performance standards.

99.99% of consumers don't do what we do here, trying to dig up information about what's in the lubricants we buy & use. Most of these MV ATFs carry no OEM approvals, and are not licensed. How can we objectively compare their performance, other than trying them? How can the average consumer make an informed decision other than trusting the blender's claims?

 

[The Critic]

99.99% of consumers don't do what we do here, trying to dig up information about what's in the lubricants we buy & use. Most of these MV ATFs carry no OEM approvals, and are not licensed. How can we objectively compare their performance, other than trying them? How can the average consumer make an informed decision other than trusting the blender's claims?

You can't - that's the crux of the issue. As you're aware, AT fluid composition is arguably very complex (due to the FM properties) and any changes to the "recipe" can affect performance. It can sometimes work fine in one application and not the other due to application differences in TCM programming.

If you're buying a MV ATF, you better trust the blender's marketing....and hope they've done some testing of their finished product. Most of these blenders have done very limited testing, if at all.

I personally stick to buying ATF's from the dealer and just change them more frequently.

 

[The Lube Guy]

You can't - that's the crux of the issue. As you're aware, AT fluid composition is arguably very complex (due to the FM properties) and any changes to the "recipe" can affect performance. It can sometimes work fine in one application and not the other due to application differences in TCM programming.

If you're buying a MV ATF, you better trust the blender's marketing....and hope they've done some testing of their finished product. Most of these blenders have done very limited testing, if at all.

I personally stick to buying ATF's from the dealer and just change them more frequently.

That was my point with @Sayjac earlier as well. I like MV ATFs, but I also put in the effort to make them work in the vehicles I use them in (TCM reset, etc.). However, that doesn't always work 100%, and shift quality is usually a dead giveaway. I'm not as concerned about hard shifting, as I am concerned about slipping. With that said, no matter what MV ATF I used, I never had one slip. I did, however, had some shift harder than others. A relearn can only do so much.

The safest route is to use what the manufacturer recommends, though Lifeguard 8 is a high quality fluid when compared to something like SP4-M. The SP4-M tends to oxidize pretty fast and lose its anti wear properties. My rule of thumb is: use OEM fluid, unless there is higher quality fluid available that is proven to work in your specific application.

 

[PAcrude]

Comparing the "Typical Properties" of the pictured EP vs MLFSMV side by side from their Product Info Sheet pdfs. the ONLY difference looking 'perhaps' significant between the two is the Brookfield Viscosity, 11k for ML vs <10K for EP. Otoh, KV40, KV100, and VI are identical. So for me, despite the EP marketing not enough difference to pay price premium for EP vs ML and change from my long time use of MLMV.

That said, despite what MLMV bottle says now I would not use it for CVT. Valvoline makes a dedicated CVT fluid in blue bottle which I have used/am using in Nissan application.

I actually found the opposite effects for my honda civics cvt. I used valvoline cvt only fluid and noticed right away it shifted differently in a worse way.. so i switch to maxlife after like 1000 miles because i saw it included honda cvts. And it started shifting normally again like before.

I eventually succumbed to the honda fanboys ln the civic forums claiming any non oem fluid put in a honda will make the car explode instantly. So after 5000 miles of maxlife i went back and put it honda oem fluid. But noticed no change whatsoever in shifting.

I know cvts are finicky but after that if i inly had 2 options for valvoline cvt or maxlife id go maxlife. Also moticed the valvoline cvt only fluid was alot thinner at room temp compared to honda oem and maxlife