White chunks in brand new Quaker State oil.

Never were they going to tell you exactly what the additive is
I mean, would you expect them to? Mind you, most people emailing their support inbox like this aren't people that even know the difference between boron, calcium, moly, etc, so that's why they give generic responses.
 
My issue is that from a quality perspective the batches should be the same at the beginning, middle, and end. If I buy brand new oil, I would expect it to be the norm. Not the outlier that "sometimes happens at the end of a batch". That anomaly should be caught, even if it's harmless, and not sent out.
You can have this. It's small batch boutique oil at 3 to 5x the price. It's not going to be done when blending batches of 100,000 gallons and more.

Despite the fact it was no big deal to shell, how do I know it's no big deal to me if no details were given? It's obviously not something that would be advertised as a positive. Otherwise they would market it as an oil you can see all the additive chunks inside and you shake it before you add it to your vehicle. I bet that would sell really well... 🙄
Details were given. They told you how it happened and what to expect. If it were an issue, they'd have told you not to use, and would have made arrangements to have it returned so it can be investigated.

I feel like they should have at least offered a refund or replacement.
It's not going to happen. Maybe a spiff to assuage your anxiety, but not a refund. When I did field work for customer oil claims, fully half were bogus and the claimant was trying to scam the company. You can thank them for the no freebies policy.

The optics of having bits of "additive" in your oil is bad any way you look at it...to BITOGERs. 99.9% of the public couldn't care less.
 
I have noticed plenty of weird floating debris in many brands of oil over the years. Fallout from the add pack I am sure. Most people would never even notice I am guessing. Most people don't change their own oil or are as vigorous as BITOGer's. When I see a crystal clear motor oil I am immediately suspect. Where's the detergent/anti-foam/dispersant/VII/Ph modfiers etc. I don't trust it. I have yet to buy any of the natural gas based oil as I am suspect. I am probably 100% wrong but superstition and bias have taken my soul like an evil demon.
 
I have noticed plenty of weird floating debris in many brands of oil over the years. Fallout from the add pack I am sure. Most people would never even notice I am guessing. Most people don't change their own oil or are as vigorous as BITOGer's. When I see a crystal clear motor oil I am immediately suspect. Where's the detergent/anti-foam/dispersant/VII/Ph modfiers etc. I don't trust it. I have yet to buy any of the natural gas based oil as I am suspect. I am probably 100% wrong but superstition and bias have taken my soul like an evil demon.
Even the rotella and Quaker State oil thats supposed to be partly gtl has some grey ish material in the bottom. If you shake it it disappears.
 
A bit annoyed I am sitting on 5 more OCIs worth of QS for the Edge, but all I have used so far looked fine. There have also been some VOAs of QS out of grade or having viscosity significantly lower than advertised. Shell needs to get their act together.
 
I have a 5qt jug and a 1qt bottle of QS 5w-30 queued up for my next OC on the 3.6l Canyon engine. Several years ago I got into the habit of vigorously shaking the containers before using. IMHO this will not be harmful in any way. Like SOPUS stated, once in the engine, heated and moved around is will unsuspend.
 
Very interesting thread OP and thank you for the followup response. I would lean heavily towards the manufacturers positive response about how its extra additive leftovers after a batch run. Its a little disappointing, but essentially you are getting a little extra goodness too. A UOA would be very interesting to see.
 
The official response is not a surprise. They’re not going to say that there was an issue on the production line where a specific supply hose was replaced and that goop is an anti-seize product used for the repair. It’s laughable that this same group will tell folks to “just shake it up before pouring it in your engine”. Yes I want a load of sediment or goop run through my oil pump and filter after starting the engine after my fresh oil change. The customer is stupid in their view.
 
Could it be harmless? Yes. Does it sit well with me? No.
It just smells a little off.
 
Where did you get such a box of oil? A question I don't think has been asked 🤔
I got the oil from my local Hyundai dealer. I have no idea where they sourced it from but the date on the box says it was manufactured on 05 July 2023.

Out of curiosity I'm considering fishing some of the stuff out and mixing it with the oil to send out to Blackstone to get it analyzed. Curious what it would show with a large amount of the white stuff mixed in to the sample of new oil.
 
The only time I’ve seen anything like this was in a jug of Valvoline Synpower that had been opened & sat a while in the garage-little white flakes floating in suspension that melted when pressed between my fingers. Unopened jugs didn’t have them. No, I didn’t use mine either!
 
As annoying this might be for the dedicated BITOG member it's nothing compared to what the Global steel makers disclaim about their product. The world's steel makers - all of them - disclaim internal inclusion & contamination failures up to 2% of their product because it comes from the.........earth. That means that anyone making parts from earth sourced steel has an automatic 20,000 ppm failure potential when their end customer demand ZERO ppm.
 
*****UPDATE*****

Here is the response from Shell.

"We appreciate you emailing our company. We understand your concern on the appearance of our Quaker State 0W-20 Full Synthetic Motor Oil. There is no problem with our motor oil. What you're seeing is something that occasionally occurs in oil company blending plants, You have a container that has an abundance of our additive package that sometimes appear at the end of a blending run. It will disappear immediately when the engine is started and running. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact our technical hotline at 1-800-237-8645. Thank you.


My personal opinion is that I'm going to go back to supertech full synthetic, which I have always used and never had a problem with.

I feel like the response was "oh well no big deal goodbye"

-Kevin

I wouldn't use it . They should make an offer of some sort . Never seen what is pictured in 30+ years of using SHELL oils . Your vehicle , your choice .
 
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