What could have going wrong with this oil?

[Bullet]

I changed the oil this afternoon in the SUV. The oil was 5w30 Nexgen I got on clearance. One jug had 4 quarts and the other had 3 quarts. I poured in the jug with 4 quarts. Then I added another quart from the other jug and warmed up the engine to circulate the oil and fill up the filter. Then I topped it off - the engine takes 5.5 quarts.

When topping it off I noticed something in the oil as I poured it in the engine. At first I thought it was air bubbles. So I poured some into a jar.

In the jar the oil looked like it had white wax shavings or flakes. Any ideas what happed to the oil. In the morning I'll be doing a couple of drains and refills.

 

[jdavis]

Some friction modifier probably.. why did one just have 3 quarts and one jug have 4 quarts?

Luck of the draw? lol

I would use real oil next time (no offense)

 

[Bullet]

Originally Posted By: jdavis
Some friction modifier probably.. why did one just have 3 quarts and one jug have 4 quarts?

Luck of the draw? lol

I would use real oil next time (no offense)


I had opened one and used some and the same with the other and didn't realize I already had one opened. I do that sometimes when I have to much oil around. Valvoline Nextgen isn't real oil?

 

[jdavis]

It sounds like it was sitting around for a while.. funny, there was another thread just the other day with oil from Valvoline and pictures included that showed similar white stuff that you describe.

 

[jdavis]

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/3837886/

 

[Wolf359]

Nextgen was fine oil, especially when it was free after rebate. Used a bunch of it. My guess is that it sat around too long. Did you shake it up? Maybe the additives settled. I think I remember that sale was about 2 years ago or more.

 

[Bullet]

Originally Posted By: jdavis
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/3837886/


Thanks, that's exactly what it looks like.

 

[Bullet]

I have Trop Artic oil from Dollar Tree that is like 12 years old that looked fine and per Blackstone it did well in our other car.

 

[jdavis]

Yeah, it is strange for sure they are both Valvoline oils.. I know people running 20+ year old Mobil 1 oil that didn't look like that.. have you tried shaking one of the jugs up?

 

[SR5]

How old is the oil?

Sounds like Valvoline has a quality control issue.
What else do Ashland make over there ? NAPA ?

They will probably get on top of it very quickly, but the internet stories will last for years.

 

[donnyj08]

i love Valvoline Products and i believe they are a top notch blender.

With that being said i never bought into the "nexgen" oils. And apparently no one else did either.

Synpower and VWB are great lubes, and some of my favorites.

 

[Pontual]

Last 2 looks like fish oil capsules ...

 

[donnyj08]

edit because of repost

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: donnyj08
i love Valvoline Products and i believe they are a top notch blender.

With that being said i never bought into the "nexgen" oils. And apparently no one else did either.

Synpower and VWB are great lubes, and some of my favorites.


I bought lots of it, never fully appreciated that the deal would end, at one point it was basically free after rebate every month for several months so after my shelf was full I stopped, but there hasn't really been a good deal like that since. Maybe with oil prices down, the days of free oil will come back.

 

[SR5]

Originally Posted By: donnyj08
i love Valvoline Products and i believe they are a top notch blender.

With that being said i never bought into the "nexgen" oils. And apparently no one else did either.

Synpower and VWB are great lubes, and some of my favorites.


Same here DonnyJ,

I like Valvoline products, so I wish they would stop annoying me on such a regular basis. Their product information sheets don't always ring true to me (e.g. having their SynPower MST oil rated ACEA A3/B3/B4/C3 with a TBN ~ 7). Now reports of wax like flakes in their oil. Humph !

Still, I recently got a good deal on SynPower 0W40, and happily added it to my stash, and will happily run it in my car.

 

[Bullet]

Update: Using a heat gun I heated the oil in the jar to about 120 degrees and the flakes dissolved into the oil. Not sure what that means, but I did a drain and refill.

Originally Posted By: Bullet
I changed the oil this afternoon in the SUV. The oil was 5w30 Nexgen I got on clearance. One jug had 4 quarts and the other had 3 quarts. I poured in the jug with 4 quarts. Then I added another quart from the other jug and warmed up the engine to circulate the oil and fill up the filter. Then I topped it off - the engine takes 5.5 quarts.

When topping it off I noticed something in the oil as I poured it in the engine. At first I thought it was air bubbles. So I poured some into a jar.

In the jar the oil looked like it had white wax shavings or flakes. Any ideas what happed to the oil. In the morning I'll be doing a couple of drains and refills.

 

[Solarent]

This most likely means that the VM did not solubilize correctly and it somehow missed the QA process - this can happen sometimes when a blender is using solid polymers and a solubilizing machine in their blending process.

Heating and mixing vigorously is the solution.

 

[Joe90_guy]

If you had to heat the oil to 120C, then odds on, it's VII polymer. Most DI components dissolve easily into oil at far lower temperatures. Only solid VII needs truly high temperature.

I'd speculate that the VII was some sort of high ethylene OCP. Their behaviour can at times be decidedly weird. You blend them up and all looks fine. They cool down and look fine. You test them and they test out fine. You look at the sample a couple of weeks later, it looks fine. You leave oil to sit quiet for a year and the polymer has created a weird lattice in the oil. Sometimes you can only see this blobby lattice by pouring the oil out of the can. Just my personal opinion though...

 

[SR5]

Bullet, 120 degrees F or C ?