Valvoline 5w30; 3,000k; 2001 Toyota Camry V-6 1MZF

[BlackHawk1]

Hi. I would greatly appreciate some feedback on this UOA. The car is a 2001 Toyota Camry with a 3.0L V-6 1MZFE engine that has spent it's entire life in the northeast. I have always used conventional oil since it was purchased new and it currently has 60,000 miles on it. This particular sample is Valvoline (CONVENTIONAL) 5w30, it had a production date of July 2011, and I changed it after 3,000 miles. I forget the exact time I did the change, but I want to say October or November of 2014 I think. The car is driven hard, but maintained well. Being in the northeast I tend to warm this car up via remote start in the winter months so it does a fair amount of idling. The oil filter used was a Napa Gold. Occasionally I switch from Valvoline to Castrol 5w30 conventional when I see a sale. Thanks for the help!

 

[bbhero]

Well this proves that Valvoline makes a darn good conventional oil. No surprise in that. And you obviously take good care of your car.. My lady has a 98 Camry LE with the 2.2 four cylinder motor that runs like a top. I would be happy with a report like this on her car. And that car was like a barn find in the sense that it was extremely well maintained. Hard to beat Toyotas.. Your car will last who knows how long ?? . pretty cool actually.

 

[3800Series]

Looks good. Silicon is low, copper and lead are also low which shows no sign of excessive bearing wear.

All in All looks good. Have you added anything to the oil?

 

[BlackHawk1]

Originally Posted By: bbhero
Well this proves that Valvoline makes a darn good conventional oil. No surprise in that. And you obviously take good care of your car.. My lady has a 98 Camry LE with the 2.2 four cylinder motor that runs like a top. I would be happy with a report like this on her car. And that car was like a barn find in the sense that it was extremely well maintained. Hard to beat Toyotas.. Your car will last who knows how long ?? . pretty cool actually.



Thank you for the feedback. I try to do a good job with the fluid changes... oil, power steering, antifreeze, brake fluid, and transmission. It had the original spark plugs (no issues) but I recently replaced them simply because of time. Outside of fluid changes, regularly replacing the air filter, PCV valve, brakes, a serpentine belt, and a wiper motor this car has not given me one problem... knock on wood! Everything else is original including the timing belt and exhaust. A relative of mine has a 97 or 98 Camry with the 4 cylinder and it's still running great and in good shape except for some rust. They bought a new Rav 4, and kept Camry as well. Agreed... hard to beat Toyota. I had a Cadillac and a Mercedes once and never again... money pits. Thanks again!

 

[BlackHawk1]

Originally Posted By: 3800Series
Looks good. Silicon is low, copper and lead are also low which shows no sign of excessive bearing wear.

All in All looks good. Have you added anything to the oil?



Hi and thank you for the feedback. If you mean some kind of oil "additive" in addition to the Valvoline... No I have not added anything to the oil. I never use additives, these days I don't believe in them. In the 80's and part of the 90's I did at times add BG MOA to my oil at times, but I stopped believing in those things. So I take it having low silicon, low copper and lead are what we want? You don't see any weak areas at all in this report? I was a bit concerned when I found out the oil had a production date of July 2011. I was worried about "shelf life." I will probably switch to Castrol conventional 5w30 over the summer to see how it does in comparison to the Valvoline. I was a BIG Castrol fan for years until I kept seeing Valvoline sales and I switched to it.

P.S. If by add you mean do I ever have to add oil to it between changes... no, it doesn't burn one drop. The level is exactly the same when I go to change it.

 

[3800Series]

More or less. Silicone is one of the hardest minerals on earth so if silicone high wear follows closely behind.

Low lead and copper just tells you the bearings are not going nuclear (for lack of better phrasing).

Just seen viscosity was low but nothing major.

Alright, adding oil can throw off the additives in the oil and TBN and can make the test look better then it should.

Just look for wear metals that can give you a sign of something bad/starting to go bad.

Oil is still good 4 years is acceptable.

 

[BlackHawk1]

Originally Posted By: 3800Series
More or less. Silicone is one of the hardest minerals on earth so if silicone high wear follows closely behind.

Low lead and copper just tells you the bearings are not going nuclear (for lack of better phrasing).

Just seen viscosity was low but nothing major.

Alright, adding oil can throw off the additives in the oil and TBN and can make the test look better then it should.

Just look for wear metals that can give you a sign of something bad/starting to go bad.

Oil is still good 4 years is acceptable.



Thanks, that helps me better understand this. I did edit my post to address your "add" question and just saw that you caught it. Yep... nothing added between changes ever. Any idea what would cause the viscosity to register low? I was thinking the production date of the oil and or my driving habits which is to drive it hard and let it idle (warm up) a good bit in the winter months. It can get very cold here.

 

[3800Series]

Engine shearing can lower the viscosity. So can oil additives.

But it's nothing major to really be conspired over it does happen.

Squuzing oil threw the engine puts pressure on it that breaks down the oil at a molecular level. When that happens it thins out. Engines natural shear oil but some shear less then others.

 

[BlackHawk1]

Originally Posted By: 3800Series
Engine shearing can lower the viscosity. So can oil additives.

But it's nothing major to to really be conspired over it does happen.



Thanks. I'm looking at my report more and I see some things that I wonder about especially the ones with lopsided numbers...

Molybdenum at 1 and Universal Averages at 65

Boron at 4 and Universal Averages at 44

Sodium at 276 and Universal Averages at 33

Calcium 1349 and Universal Averages at 2036

Magnesium 18 and Universal Averages at 170

Phosphorus 722 Universal Averages at 706

Zinc 777 and Universal Averages at 822

These are things I would like to look into further to see what they mean just like you educated my on the silicon, lead and copper.

 

[3800Series]

Originally Posted By: BlackHawk1
Originally Posted By: 3800Series
Engine shearing can lower the viscosity. So can oil additives.

But it's nothing major to to really be conspired over it does happen.



Thanks. I'm looking at my report more and I see some things that I wonder about especially the ones with lopsided numbers...

Molybdenum at 1 and Universal Averages at 65

Boron at 4 and Universal Averages at 44

Sodium at 276 and Universal Averages at 33

Calcium 1349 and Universal Averages at 2036

Magnesium 18 and Universal Averages at 170

Phosphorus 722 Universal Averages at 706

Zinc 777 and Universal Averages at 822

These are things I would like to look into further to see what they mean just like you educated my on the silicon, lead and copper.


Thoses are oil additives. They are added to the oil to help clean and reduce wear.

Moly is anti-wear

Boron is also anti-wear/anti oxidation

Sodium is used as a cleaner and a signiture valvoline additive. It can some times appear as a possible coolant leak.

Calcium is a cleaner

Magnesium is also anti-wear

Phosphorus is anti-wear

Zinc is anti wear also.


Valvoline changed their blend a few years back so I wouldn't be to worried why they don't line up.

 

[53' Stude]

Only thing I would say is dont be concerned with Sodium as its used in Valvoline oils, and older Maxlife oils (valvoline by the way) used moly.

 

[BlackHawk1]

Thanks 3800Series and car51! That helps me understand this much more!

 

[3800Series]

No problem

glad to help.

 

[sicko]

Originally Posted By: BlackHawk1
Originally Posted By: 3800Series
Engine shearing can lower the viscosity. So can oil additives.

But it's nothing major to to really be conspired over it does happen.



Thanks. I'm looking at my report more and I see some things that I wonder about especially the ones with lopsided numbers...

Molybdenum at 1 and Universal Averages at 65

Boron at 4 and Universal Averages at 44

Sodium at 276 and Universal Averages at 33

Calcium 1349 and Universal Averages at 2036

Magnesium 18 and Universal Averages at 170

Phosphorus 722 Universal Averages at 706

Zinc 777 and Universal Averages at 822

These are things I would like to look into further to see what they mean just like you educated my on the silicon, lead and copper.



Those are all items that Valvoline puts in the oil to help it perform better. Each company comes up with the formula they feel performs best, and that in part is one of the differences between different motor oils.

Of the ones you listed, the key one to focus on is Sodium. Sodium can also indicate a leak in the cooling system as sodium is often an indication of coolant getting into the oil. However, in your instance it's nothing to worry about because sodium is a known additive used by Valvoline in their oil. Now in the future if you do another UOA, and there's a large sodium spike, then it becomes something to worry about. But with Valvoline, having sodium in the 200's is the norm.

Check out the Oil 101 articles in the Oil University on the front page of this site for more info.

 

[badtlc]

this is the sludger 3.0L V6, right? My only $0.02 is to use some cleaners at some point to protect yourself. Maybe Rislone or something. I had one of these that died the sludgy death on 3k OCIs.

 

[BlackHawk1]

Originally Posted By: badtlc
this is the sludger 3.0L V6, right? My only $0.02 is to use some cleaners at some point to protect yourself. Maybe Rislone or something. I had one of these that died the sludgy death on 3k OCIs.



I am well aware of the sludge claims, even with 4 cylinders, but yours sludging with 3k OCI's is extremely hard to believe. I'm not trying to offend, but to be honest, I don't buy it for 1 minute. Ones that had sludge issues were due to people who didn't change their oil when they should have. Toyota said you could go with 7k OCI's with these and people extended that. Design was said to be part of the problem, but those that neglected their cars were really the ones with issues. I know people with 200k on these motors and never once had sludge issues because they changed the oil regularly. I appreciate your concern, but I would never put any kind of engine cleaner/flush or whatnot in my motor especially since there's no need to. If I took off my valve cover at worst I would see normal varnishing. The car runs very strong, like new actually.

 

[BlackHawk1]

Originally Posted By: sicko
Originally Posted By: BlackHawk1
Originally Posted By: 3800Series
Engine shearing can lower the viscosity. So can oil additives.

But it's nothing major to to really be conspired over it does happen.



Thanks. I'm looking at my report more and I see some things that I wonder about especially the ones with lopsided numbers...

Molybdenum at 1 and Universal Averages at 65

Boron at 4 and Universal Averages at 44

Sodium at 276 and Universal Averages at 33

Calcium 1349 and Universal Averages at 2036

Magnesium 18 and Universal Averages at 170

Phosphorus 722 Universal Averages at 706

Zinc 777 and Universal Averages at 822

These are things I would like to look into further to see what they mean just like you educated my on the silicon, lead and copper.



Those are all items that Valvoline puts in the oil to help it perform better. Each company comes up with the formula they feel performs best, and that in part is one of the differences between different motor oils.

Of the ones you listed, the key one to focus on is Sodium. Sodium can also indicate a leak in the cooling system as sodium is often an indication of coolant getting into the oil. However, in your instance it's nothing to worry about because sodium is a known additive used by Valvoline in their oil. Now in the future if you do another UOA, and there's a large sodium spike, then it becomes something to worry about. But with Valvoline, having sodium in the 200's is the norm.

Check out the Oil 101 articles in the Oil University on the front page of this site for more info.



Thank you for this information. I see what you mean about companies coming up with a formula that they think is best. Looking at some brands I noticed that Valvoline and Castrol have next to nothing in the way of molybdenum in their conventional oil. Now whether that is currently the case or not I don't know, but from what I saw these 2 brands are very similar to each other in makeup when it comes to conventional oil. I did read that sodium is used to fight off acids. Other brands seem to put little to no sodium in their formula for some reason and those that don't seem to add a good bit of Molybdenum. From your findings does that seem to be true?

 

[badtlc]

Originally Posted By: BlackHawk1
Originally Posted By: badtlc
this is the sludger 3.0L V6, right? My only $0.02 is to use some cleaners at some point to protect yourself. Maybe Rislone or something. I had one of these that died the sludgy death on 3k OCIs.



I am well aware of the sludge claims, even with 4 cylinders, but yours sludging with 3k OCI's is extremely hard to believe. I'm not trying to offend, but to be honest, I don't buy it for 1 minute. Ones that had sludge issues were due to people who didn't change their oil when they should have. Toyota said you could go with 7k OCI's with these and people extended that. Design was said to be part of the problem, but those that neglected their cars were really the ones with issues. I know people with 200k on these motors and never once had sludge issues because they changed the oil regularly. I appreciate your concern, but I would never put any kind of engine cleaner/flush or whatnot in my motor especially since there's no need to. If I took off my valve cover at worst I would see normal varnishing. The car runs very strong, like new actually.


it was 3k OCIs on Pennzoil 5W30. Engine sludged up around 150k miles approximately from memory. It has been about 8 years since I had that car.

An uncle has the very next car off the assembly line after mine. He has no issues but doesn't have as many miles and runs nothing but Amsoil SS 5W30 for about 5k mile OCIs.

 

[Oil Changer]

LOL! No Moly. No Boron. Lots of Sodium. Low/lower than average Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, and Zinc. Average wear metals with 2,200 miles less than average service. Yep, that's Valvoline. Looks like a great 20-grade oil alright.

Originally Posted By: bbhero
Well this proves that Valvoline makes a darn good conventional oil.

 

[wemay]

Consistency is a virtue. One thing that is as consistent as Valvoline Premium Conventional's good UOA's is Oil Changer's poor opinion of the brand.