What's the best oil / oil change interval?
#76
Oil flavor preferences are an emotional response and are useless until you get an oil analysis performed. An oil analysis, such as you would get from Blackstone labs, will tell you everything you would want to know about the oil in your engine. If you think 5000 mile oil changes are good enough, or if you drive so little you wonder if once a year is good, get a sample tested from your next two oil changes. Blackstone will tell you if you can go longer or not, AND they can tell you if your engine is wearing between changes.
Also, any oil company will tell you that their product is best...
Also, any oil company will tell you that their product is best...
The following 2 users liked this post by njaremka:
930 Engineering (04-13-2021),
scotty_r56s (04-16-2021)
#77
This guy will not put one more drop of castrol edge in his mini. I burn more castrol than I do liqui moly. No blackstone analysis here, just real world experience. I’m under the hood enough, especially when heading to the Dragon, to know on these 2. I have finally got rid of the burnt oil smell from my last dragon run at the beginning of March, yes it was castrol edge.
#78
I would certainly have used RL at least once if I wouldn't live in Europe, where RL uses to be much more costly compared to the US. RL is almost double the price of Ravenol REP over here, which comes with similar quality base oils and some fancy Vanderbilt W-324 add pack plus LL-04 approval. With this approval I can even take it to the dealer and have them perform the oil change. Keep in mind EU fuel is low sulphur, which translates to being fine with C3 (mid-SAPS) oils. LL-04 2018 is the more demanding spec compared to L-01 (which has been updated in 2018 also).
As stated earlier RL's new line of approved oils isn't the same quality as their traditional fully synthetic (PAO & POE based) oils. These oils are based on HC, similar to the vast majority of 'fake synthetic' stuff you can buy. I don't doubt they still perform sufficiently and most won't notice much if any of a difference. This begs the question, why paying more for RL over say Mobil 1 ESP?
As stated earlier RL's new line of approved oils isn't the same quality as their traditional fully synthetic (PAO & POE based) oils. These oils are based on HC, similar to the vast majority of 'fake synthetic' stuff you can buy. I don't doubt they still perform sufficiently and most won't notice much if any of a difference. This begs the question, why paying more for RL over say Mobil 1 ESP?
Last edited by 930 Engineering; 04-13-2021 at 09:37 AM. Reason: s
#79
OVERDRIVE
iTrader: (1)
I would certainly have used RL at least once if I wouldn't live in Europe, where RL uses to be much more costly compared to the US. RL is almost double the price of Ravenol REP over here, which comes with similar quality base oils and some fancy Vanderbilt W-324 add pack plus LL-04 approval. With this approval I can even take it to the dealer and have them perform the oil change. Keep in mind EU fuel is low sulphur, which translates to being fine with C3 (mid-SAPS) oils. LL-04 2018 is the more demanding spec compared to L-01 (which has been updated in 2018 also).
As stated earlier RL's new line of approved oils isn't the same quality as their traditional fully synthetic (PAO & POE based) oils. These oils are based on HC, similar to the vast majority of 'fake synthetic' stuff you can buy. I don't doubt they still perform sufficiently and most won't notice much if any of a difference. This begs the question, why paying more for RL over say Mobil 1 ESP?
As stated earlier RL's new line of approved oils isn't the same quality as their traditional fully synthetic (PAO & POE based) oils. These oils are based on HC, similar to the vast majority of 'fake synthetic' stuff you can buy. I don't doubt they still perform sufficiently and most won't notice much if any of a difference. This begs the question, why paying more for RL over say Mobil 1 ESP?
As for the LL oils that BMW requires, when I looked at the LL spec in comparison to an otherwise comparable non-LL spec, I found no difference. Maybe I missed something, but if that is the case, then I would think that there no reason to use a LL spec oil if oil changes are going to be made every 5000 miles.
#80
The following 2 users liked this post by Eddie07S:
930 Engineering (04-30-2021),
spikeyadrian (04-24-2021)
#82
Originally Posted by bimmerworld.com
BMW never certified LL-04 for the US market because a) there weren't many Diesels for sale here, b) it was incompatible with the high amounts of sulfur and Ethanol in US gasoline. However, since 2014 our gasoline more closely matches European sulfur levels. US sulfur remains higher so if you're using a LL-04 oil you should change it more often as sulfur will dilute the oil (5,000 oil change interval should be sufficient). Oil analysis can give you more insight how your local fuel is interacting with the oil. LL-04 and LL-01 are interchangeable/compatible but LL-04 is preferred for BMW turbo engines for its higher ZDDP and low SAPS. Food for thought: the official BMW Motorsport oil recommendation for the M4 GT4 race car is a LL-04 spec oil. Our race team uses Red Line Euro Series 5W40.
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