My 2 Cents. When I was in High School, I worked at a Jiffy Lube and all they put in the vehicles(unless you ask specifically for something else) is Pennzoil. One day the manager told me when i was changing oil in my car not to use Pennzoil, I asked him why and he showed me. There was a Ford Fleet car(we'd get tons of those) that belonged to AT&T down the road that came in on regular intervals. It had(around) 32k miles on it and we were doing a tranny pan service. He showed me a 1/2'' layer of waxey type substance on the bottom of the pan. I'm not saying that I wouldn't use Pennzoil, I have in the past. I think if I change my oil every 3k I'll be allright.

 

Well, dtpatt2, that was a transmission and we have really been discussing engine oil here, but I will still respond to the information you have presented:

1. Most of the same sludge rules that apply to engines can be applied to transmissions. Do a google and you'll find a whole bunch of information on it.

2. Are you sure the ATF wasn't still from the factory fill? I guess I'd be surprised that a fleet vehicle of any kind would be in for more than one trans fluid change in its leased life, much less one with only 32,000 miles on it.

3. Fleet vehicles are notoriously undermaintained and abused. The reason for this is pretty obvious - the people that drive them don't own 'em.

4. Jiffy Lube would actually be a great source of information on the relative quality of Pennzoil products, since that is the vast majority of the oil they use. If the brand of ATF was really to blame for the customer's transmission problem, don't you think it's strange that you are aware of only one vehicle with this transmission problem? I'd expect to see this pretty regularly.

5. Did your Jiffy Lube normally do fluid changes without dropping the pan? If so, I have seen some information that says this is not a good idea and can actually contribute to sludge formation.

For the time you worked at Jiffy Lube, did you run into scores of vehicles with sludge problems? Those shops do hundreds of oil changes a month, right? I would think if anyone was going to see a product problem you would. I'd like to see your thoughts on this.

 

&*#!$& My bad, got mixed up. I got my story jacked up, I've been working for 16 hours straight and am tired! Only 8 more to go! They would only drop the pans they had gaskets for. The tranny fluid would be really dirty...Don't know why, that only changed 30% of the fluid anyway.
Anyway's back to the ENGINE OIL...I do remember the manager not liking Pennzoil and the sludge thing came up a lot. But we changed oil in over 120 cars a day, a very busy JL, 95% of them got filled with Pennzoil. I never heard of an engine failing.

 

If the smell of the oil new out of the can had anything to do my choice of oils, I would definatley not use the motorcraft oil. I've used castrol most of my driving life in my vehicles, and switched to the motorcraft oil based on some of the reviews I have heard about it in this forum. Never in my life have I changed an oil after only 500 miles to get rid of that NASTY smell. It even stunk when I opened the bottle when I poured it in. The castrol did not smell like that. I normally dont stick my nose into the fill plug of my engine, or into the bottle, but dayum that is some stinky oil.

Now I have noticed that with the castrol in my rebuilt 460, it did leave a greyish ash looking deposit on my upper end after about 4,000 miles, with about 4 oil changes on it (one at breakin, 50 ish miles, 500 miles and at the 3k change interval)

What does any of this prove?? Probably nothing, but if opinions were a______, mine would stink too.

 

Been using Pennzoil for over 20 years and many hundreds of thousands of miles in Fords and some other brands. Never had the slightest problem with it. No sludge or black film or anything else. So there.