Quote:
Originally Posted by JCL
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I differ on the quality of Castrol oils. They have worked well for me, as has the BMW OE oil. I found it stands up well to 24,000 km oil change intervals.
Mobil lost their case about what constitutes a synthetic, so Castrol is a synthetic according to that decision. I don't see why it matters which synthetic process is used to create the product, it only matters what standards it meets and how it works at the end of the day.
A full synthetic means that the oil is produced with a specific process, whatever the base stock was, PAO or otherwise. A synthetic blend means that the above oil is then blended with a traditional oil to produce a blend. There appears to be confusion over the two separate issue of what constitutes a blend, and which base stock was used to create the synthetic oil.
Not sure where you are based as you don't give your location, but for North American readers, don't use an LL04 oil in a gasoline BMW. BMW recommended that back in 09 or so, due to early breakdown of the LL04 oils with typical US fuels. LL01 if you like, but I don't see the benefit of looking for an oil that meets a 14 year old spec.
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Never ever had a problem as long as the Castrol is original (this is not a problem in North America). Never drained oil that looks well over it's usefull life or had an excessive engine wear in any of my cars. As a matter of fact, the first generation 24 valve engines from the 90s always had a noisy lifters with almost any oil, but once you put 10w40 Castrol semi-synthetic (blend) the engine was purring regardless of the mileage.
In a modern engine first symptoms of an oil losing it's qualities is when you start to hear a valve tick. N52 engine is very sensitive in this area. At the end of the summer I went to the track with my wife's Z4 and it as more than flawless with 5W30 in between changes and oil temps up to 260F. Couldnt hear even a slightest abnormal noise. My 06 530xit with 181 k miles was as silent as new. I consider Castrol very well suited to the modern BMW engines, buy as mentioned already everyone has it's opinion.