inliner311

i searched and saw one person got good result with putting it in....just wondering if it was a one time occurance or if anyone else have had good results.

Ritz

Very often the "max life" oils don't meet more modern SAE specs. If you've got a leak, deal with the leak. Putting heavier oil in to put off a necessary repair is foolish.

Dr.Pooley

it doesn't stop regular leaks caused by damaged gaskets, pinhles in hoses, or anything like that- it just has additives that keep rubber seals soft. Valvoline and the other major brands don't have particles to clog up leak or anything. They look a bit darker than regular Valvoline, but you wouldn't be able to tell a difference otherwise.

A problem a lot of people have that switch from "regular" oil to synthetic after their engines have many miles on them is that the engine tends to leak after a while since the synthetic doesn't keep seals lubricated.

I used Valvoline MaxLife as the only oil in my high mileage GTI VR6 and didn't leak a drop of oil at 150+kmi. Its a bit of extra cheap insurance on a high mileage car.

things are a bit different on a turbo car, an owner may need to check the bottle to see if safe to use on turbo cars. I use Mobil1 on my 2.7T and as long as you start early with synthetic and stay with it on all changes then you shouldn't need to worry about switching to high life oil since the synthetic has most likely prevented some of the long term wear anyway

Gerry

It was a V8, cast in Aluminum with a well known propensity for seal leaks, (never burnt any) and switching to the Valvoline long life product reduced the leaks considerably, probably about 75-85 percent. Enough to put off a rebuild for quite a number of years and there was definitely no measurable wear when it finally did get opened up later. In fact when opened up at 110K (last 40k with high mileage oil) measurable wear was trivial in all areas. We put it back together with a new cam, high compression pistons (desired, not required in both cases) and new seals and its still going strong 40k later. Those oils aren't a cure but they do reduce the symptoms and buy a little time. Your mileage may vary and I haven't a clue how my Audi V8 would do in the same situation, but I don't think I'd hesitate to try if the mileage were up there.

inliner311

cool....its a 2.8 which i failed to say before.

Gerry

The TR8 engine was an old enough design that it used the classic cord or rope type main seals. Those types are very responsive to the softening and swelling effect of the "high mileage" oils. I really don't know if todays more modern (and more inert) polymeric seals would respond quite as well.