Originally Posted By: 3311
When was the reformulation making Maxlife no longer acceptable for Mazda M-V? I have a letter/email form them stating that it was. I believe the letter is form last year, I will have to check at work.
Edit: Someone else posted the same letter which was emailed to me regarding M-V and Maxlife compatibility.
http://www.mazda3forums.com/showthread.php?t=400055
In about 2008, Valvoline reformulated MaxLife by
reducing low temperature viscosity, in order to be able to recommend it for Dexron VI applications, which require low viscosity at low temperature. Prior to that, Mazda itself had issued a TSB that clarified that Mazda M-V (Type M5) is different from Mercon V (that is, "M-V" is not an abbreviation for "Mercon V") because the Mazda M-V specification requires a
higher low temperature viscosity than the Mercon V specification. In another publication, Valvoline specifically recommends its "regular" (that is, non-MaxLife) Mercon V ATF for Mazda M-V applications, directly in conflict with the Mazda TSB.
Prior to the reformulation of MaxLife, the back label of the MaxLife bottle specifically listed Mazda M-V as a recommended application. At the time of the reformulation, Valvoline affirmatively
removed Mazda M-V from the back label of MaxLife DEX/MERC and from the product data sheet and from the MSDS for the product.
Subsequent to that, Thom Smith, a marketing and sales person at Valvoline, not on the engineering side of the company, circulated the "to whom it may concern" letter to which you link. (The earliest version of the letter that I have seen is dated April 2009.) If you read the letter carefully, you will see that its wording is very cagey, slipping back and forth between the verbs "recommended" and "supported" and between a listing of
specific applications that Smith does
not designate as "recommended" and a general statement of "a broad range of applications."
Quote:
Valvoline
recommends MaxLife ATF in a broad range of transmissions. The list below is just a sample of applications where Valvoline
supports the use of MaxLife ATF... Use of MaxLife ATF in transmissions where
recommended by Valvoline WILL NOT void the vehicle’s warranty. ... Valvoline has conducted extensive testing and has a long history of successful use of MaxLife ATF in a broad range of applications.
I engaged in an extended discussion of this matter with BITOG regular
buster, whose opinions definitely are worth considering, a couple of months ago, and the matter was left with us agreeing to disagree. My conclusion was that Mazda knows what is best for the transmissions of Mazdas, and that Valvoline knew at least as much what it was doing when it
removed Mazda M-V from the back label of MaxLife DEX/MERC as it did when it
had listed Mazda M-V on the back label prior to the Dexron VI reformulation. You can read the back and forth
here and come to your own conclusion.
