A Call to Action: Help Stop the Slop of Harmful Engine Oils Sold in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
The Petroleum Quality Institute of America just completed a tour collecting engine oils and transmission fluid samples in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Whereas we will publish the test results of these samples in a few weeks, we feel a sense of urgency to advise consumers about the proliferation of engine oils on the shelves in these states that can cause serious harm to your engine.
If you care about the car you, your wife, husband, son, daughter, auntie, uncle, cousin or friends are driving in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, read on. And when you do, get the word out to your friends on Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, and any others. This is an important message!
The many convenience stores PQIA visited in Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, particularly in such urban areas as Detroit, Dearborn, Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago, are heavily populated with the Bullseye, and City Star brands. These are brands previously tested by the Petroleum Quality Institute of America where we have issued CONSUMER ALERTS advising that their use can cause engine damage. 
Specifically, the samples of these brands tested seriously failed to meet their labeled viscosity grades and/or lacked the additives necessary to protect engines. Further, they contained contaminants that can cause damage to your engine.
It is also important to note that whereas the Department of Weights and Measures in North Carolina had the data and power to order the City Star brand off the shelves in North Carolina, this brand shamefully remains on the shelves in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. See article.
If you have trouble getting your arms around the words in this story, shake the bottles bearing the Bullseye and City Star labels. These bad oils will sound more like water in a bottle than oil. In fact, each time PQIA visited a store selling these brands and asked the manager and/or owner of the store to shake the bottles, they all said something close to "this doesn't sound like oil." In fact, many added, "I don't think you should buy this product - there must be something wrong."
You bet there is something wrong!
The wrong is that these harmful engine oils are being served up to innocent consumers trying their best to maintain their cars. Worse yet, and you can't sugar coat this, these brands are most often found at stores in low-income neighborhoods where consumers are doing their best to stretch a dollar and can ill afford to spend big bucks repairing an engine or buying another car because the one they have has gone South due to bad oil.
So in an open letter to the Attorney Generals in Wisconsin, and Michigan, and Illinois, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the movers and shakers in consumer affairs, the big wigs at the Chicago Sun Times, the Journal Sentinel, the ABC 7 i-team, WMTV, 620 WTMJ, Newsradio 950, WKOW, and other media outlets, and politicians and all other people who care, we ask you to help.
Speak out!
Contact PQIA, your government officials, consumer affairs, local newspapers and radio stations. Make them aware of the problem and ask them to help STOP the SLOP from being sold to you and other hard working Americans in your state.
The Petroleum Quality Institute of America can be reached at tglenn@pqia.org
