ClubCJ - The CJ Lancer Club

I had my VRX in the local dealership for its 30,000km / 24 month service (only travelled 22,00km) the other day. When I dropped it off I specifically told them not to touch the oil as I'd only changed it 2,000kms ago with Castrol Edge Sport and didn't want it replaced. A couple of hours later I get the phone call to pick my car up and find that the invoice says the oil had been changed with Valvoline Pro-Blend 15w 40, which appears to be a synthetic fortified oil. I cracked it as they had it written on the job card to leave it, so they took $100 off the service price but I'm unsure of how good this oil is. Since new I've only ever used the Edge Sport and have never had an issue. Other friends who have used Valvoline are frequesntly having problems with engine sludge.

I plan on changing the oil with Castrol again ASAP but I suppose I'm just keen to find out more about the stuff my dealership has used.

I suppose it's the same with most things but you seem to remember the negative comments more than the positives and I've heard quite a few negatives about Valvoline.

The dealership here in Darwin are usually quite good. For most of my services they only charge me $80 for the vehicle inspection as I do my own oil & filter every 7,500km and they don't feel it's fair to charge me for more than what they've done. The 24 month was so expensive because they had to do the coolant & brake fluid. I was quoted $450 but as I said they took $100 off that for the stuff up. So in fact they did more than I asked for a lower price. Just a bit peeved that now I have to use some of that $100 to buy another filter and 5L of oil to keep myself happy.

I'd only travelled 150km with the Valvoline oil in my engine before I got around to replacing it. MY GOD!! It was a jet black goop. Engine needed a good flush before I'd put my oil back into it.

So if anyone else is thinking of using Valvoline ProBlend, or their service department uses it, I highly suggest using something else.

Well..... 2 factors come up here imho.

Firstly, when they drain the oil - they really don't have the time to wait for all the old oil to drain out - so it'll start partially black.

I also am led to believe that synthetically fortified is NOT a synthetic oil. In all my research, it's just the same as Castrol Magnetec. A full mineral oil with Synthetic like properties. And $100 for the oil is just plain STEEP.

Hope that helps.

exaltd wrote:;) Well..... 2 factors come up here imho.

Firstly, when they drain the oil - they really don't have the time to wait for all the old oil to drain out - so it'll start partially black.

I also am led to believe that synthetically fortified is NOT a synthetic oil. In all my research, it's just the same as Castrol Magnetec. A full mineral oil with Synthetic like properties. And $100 for the oil is just plain STEEP.

Hope that helps.

I'd hope that they'd drain out all of the oil, but having said that, I dropped just over 5 litres out of my car when I changed it, so it was overfilled by nearly half a litre. This is the first time I have changed the oil in this car and it has been black. The full synthetic Castrol Edge Sport I use has always come out a slightly darker amber colour than when it went in, so I can only assume that the black is just the normal colour of the Valvoline oil.

Also the $100 was reimbursement to cover the labour that I had agreed with the service department wouldn't be carried out and the $70 for the oil and filter that I told them I would be buying to replace their stuff. I didn't even ask for it, they just straight up admitted it was their screw up and took it off of the invoice price.