Another oil tread!!! e85

J

Jimm-Y

New member
Hi all,

I need to fill the oil reservoir of my E85 2.2 2004 (200.000km +)
The requirements for the vehicle in 2004 where Longlife-01 or Acea a3

This oil is currently on sale and should be good: Castrol Edge 5W30, however the

Castrol Edge 5W30 C3 is a Longlife- 04 and says good for BMW,
Castrol Edge 5W30 LL funny does not indicate its ok for BMW but mentioned several other cars.

Which one is better and can you use LL-04 for LL-01 and Acea C3 for a3 as mentioned in the guide?
 
Castrol has only recently been classified as fully synthetic in Germany.

Like most of the big suppliers (Castrol, Mobil, Shell etc) their oils are not truly synthetic in that they are a blend of cheaper GIII/GIV base stocks. GIII is just hydrocracked natural oil while the GIV is Polyalphaolefin synthetic. Recently the cracking process has become so good that its performance is almost on par with GIV hence the re-classification.

However, niche suppliers like Fuchs, Motul, Millers use a proper fully synthetic GIV PAO / GV Polyol Ester blend. The ester synthetic has a number of important advantages like better lubricity and its polar so it attaches itself to metal surfaces. It's more expensive though which is why the big suppliers don't use it.

So while there's nothing wrong with using the Castrol or Shell BMW "approved", you are paying for the brand and are actually getting a cheaper oil than from the likes of Fuchs, Motul or Millers.
 
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