Valvoline Restore & Protect 5w-30 (Gonna Take a Chance)

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researcher said:
Exactly.. it's all we have right now.. If the promises of what this oil can do turns out to be true.. Then that would be awesome and I'm all for it!
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I agree. As it stands now I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and wait for pictures of cut open filters, down the fill hole, and whatever else Bitog uses to judge the cleaning ability of an oil or additive. Then decide for myself if the product has merit or not.
 
“Restore & Protect” is the result of three years of intensive development. It stands as Valvoline’s most technologically advanced engine oil to date.

The product incorporates two of Valvoline’s proprietary technologies: “Active Clean,” which removes deposits and restores engine performance, and “Liqui-Shield,” which proactively prevents deposit formation and shields against future damage.

Not much to really go off of.
 
Marketing claims that are vague, exaggerated, or unprovable are known as "puffery", such as the pizza box that says "Best pizza in town". These are generally not actionable unless they go too far. In my opinion, the claim here - "Removes up to 100% of deposits" - is pretty clear and distinct. While the "up to" caveat does provide a degree of vagueness, if they lack bona fide data to show substantial deposit removal, including some at 100%, I would expect their competition to come down heavy, probably through the NAD. I expect they know this and have some data, but still putting the "100%" in the claim is pretty daring.

One possible way to substantiate the cleaning action is to assemble a Sequence IIIH engine with dirty pistons and then measure deposit removal in subsequent runs with their oil.
 
researcher said:
It's too early to know if it works or not. Right now it is only "Marketing", but if their claims fail to provide the results they do.. They can be in trouble with making false claims with the FTC.. Don't worry this is where the lawyers and the FTC get rich in a settlement but the consumer gets a big "sorry about that" excuse.

We have to wait and see.. I know.. what an idea!!
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They have a built-in legal protection valve: “up to 100% piston cleaning”. That means it could be zero, it could be 100%, or any fraction in between. Marketing doesn’t get to say anything publicly without legal signing off on the fact that there are no provable legal ramifications by the wording used in marketing.
 
Scott S said:
Yes there Molly numbers, are high on all there synthetic oils, especially the maxlife synthetic. I believe it's the advanced maxlife that has the highest Molly.
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Moly tends to show some impressive friction reduction characteristics in the lab, but I don’t think there have been any companies who’ve published results on any wear or mileage improvements; and that’s on top of the variance in all the different forms of moly available.

It may look good on paper, but if it doesn’t translate into any real-world benefit, the moly level means absolutely squat. There are oils with zero moly that have essentially identical UOAs as those with 700ppm… it’s no silver bullet, that’s for sure. Do you have any data that shows otherwise?
 
They do go one step further and call out a specific number of oil changes needed, but in doing so, adds even more ambiguity.
From their FAQ section: "Up to 100% piston deposit removal when used as directed for four or more consecutive oil changes at standard maintenance intervals, based on adapted sequence IIIH testing."
What is considered "standard maintenance intervals"? Depending on a manufacturer's maintenance interval, that could mean a severe service 3,000 mile or normal service 7,500-10,000 mile interval.
 
subyski said:
They do go one step further and call out a specific number of oil changes needed, but in doing so, adds even more ambiguity.
From their FAQ section: "Up to 100% piston deposit removal when used as directed for four or more consecutive oil changes at standard maintenance intervals, based on adapted sequence IIIH testing."
What is considered "standard maintenance intervals"? Depending on a manufacturer's maintenance interval, that could mean a severe service 3,000 mile or normal service 7,500-10,000 mile interval.
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And even the phrase, "four or more consecutive oil changes". So say you ran this for ten consecutive oil changes and challenged Valvoline that it did nothing. They can say that they said it could take an unspecified amount of time to make progress in your engine, with no limit or cap on when the "restoration" will occur by. Which obviously they can't account for every single engine on Earth that are in varying conditions, but again, the marketing is completely open and promises nothing. It dangles an idea in front of the customer, but it's jargon that doesn't actually create any confidence that it will do anything.

Their buzz around this oil effectively states that this oil may do something or may do nothing, after the conclusion of between four to infinity oil change intervals.
 
buster said:
Remember, for the last 22 years on BITOG people also thought Red Line cleaned. It doesn't.

It would have been nice to see before/after photos of a piston over a specific OCI.
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To take it a step further, when I first got to this place many years ago now, Pennzoil yellow bottle conventional was frequently recommended for it's "cleaning ability".
 
SubieRubyRoo said:
Moly tends to show some impressive friction reduction characteristics in the lab, but I don’t think there have been any companies who’ve published results on any wear or mileage improvements; and that’s on top of the variance in all the different forms of moly available.

It may look good on paper, but if it doesn’t translate into any real-world benefit, the moly level means absolutely squat. There are oils with zero moly that have essentially identical UOAs as those with 700ppm… it’s no silver bullet, that’s for sure. Do you have any data that shows otherwise?
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Nope, I don't even use Valvoline, I have just seen VOA's on their oils.. I use M1
 
Tom NJ said:
Marketing claims that are vague, exaggerated, or unprovable are known as "puffery", such as the pizza box that says "Best pizza in town". These are generally not actionable unless they go too far. In my opinion, the claim here - "Removes up to 100% of deposits" - is pretty clear and distinct. While the "up to" caveat does provide a degree of vagueness, if they lack bona fide data to show substantial deposit removal, including some at 100%, I would expect their competition to come down heavy, probably through the NAD. I expect they know this and have some data, but still putting the "100%" in the claim is pretty daring.

One possible way to substantiate the cleaning action is to assemble a Sequence IIIH engine with dirty pistons and then measure deposit removal in subsequent runs with their oil.
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Assuming you used it in a brand new engine, with 8 miles a vehicle we will say.

Would it not be 100% removal, if there was nothing measurable to start with? Nothing to prove it didn’t clean everything. Nothing to prove it did clean anything.

The problem with making these claims in their wording, is absolutely what you’re stating. We saw this in the Delvac / Rotella purse swinging contest a few years ago. Competitors could come down on them. But, those competitors have to finance coming down on their claims. They have to pay for the lawyers, the counter marketing, all the testing that says Valvoline’s claim is BS.

All that is, very expensive. All the engine tear downs just so that Valvoline doesn’t have a “gotcha” moment Ala the “synthetic” case. Somethings are best left undone and unsaid.

In this case, I don’t think there’s enough money currently in the PCEO business, for Mobil / pennzoil / Chevron / etc. to do much more than pen an angry letter in jobbers world.

This is just the next line of Valvoline’s marketing. Now with more protection than before! Triple protection wasn’t enough. Now they have to restore what they protected, so they can protect it some more!
 
SubieRubyRoo said:
They have a built-in legal protection valve: “up to 100% piston cleaning”. That means it could be zero, it could be 100%, or any fraction in between. Marketing doesn’t get to say anything publicly without legal signing off on the fact that there are no provable legal ramifications by the wording used in marketing.
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I'm surprised that we haven't seen the simple statement of "Results may vary".
 
subyski said:
I'm surprised that we haven't seen the simple statement of "Results may vary".
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Because “results may vary” doesn’t sell any product.

Certainly not like “UP TO 100% CLEANING IN JUST 4 OIL CHANGES!!!”

We here at BITOG “should” have known better, when we have a board sponsor who blends some of the most advanced engine oils available, and even they don’t make claims like Valvoline.

Because integrity matters more than a couple extra bucks in the bank to them.
 
I say before we pass judgement, lets wait and see some filter dissections, and maybe even some before and after pictures. Given some time we'll be seeing them, at that point we can determine if their claims are substantiated or BS.
 
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