So I was at Advance Auto Parts just browsing and look what I came across! Castrol Edge with Syntec Power Technology 5W-40. On the back, I saw the BMW LL-01 spec listed.





I was in disbelief since I only thought German Castrol (Castrol Syntec 0W-30) had the BMW LL-01 spec. It was on sale too!
When I got home, I called Castrol USA customer service to double check this. The lady gave me a vague answer saying it should only have the LL-98 rating and only the 0W-30 has the LL-01.
Any thoughts. Its cheaper than getting the oil from the dealer and my Clubman needs an oil change this week.
Do I go for it? I mean its got the rating on the bottle...

 

I would- what was the price? Here in Seattle I pay $8.40 a quart for MINI oil (after our club discount) so I can make sure I have the LL type oil. (Side note: not all synthetic oils are BMW-LL-01 rated!)

Save your receipt and you've got a picture of the bottle- I think you're covered!

The above should not be construed as legal advice.

Val

 

Wow, nice find! I haven't ever been able to find anything in the stores around here that's even ACEA-3 rated, much less BMW LL! I'll have to check out the local Advance Auto now.

 

Your price looks like it would be $8.79 a quart. Too bad Action Auto is an East Coast chain for the most part.

Val

 

Thanks for the price check - I'll have to look at my last dealer receipt to see what I'm paying them for the MINI-branded oil.

EDIT - Ended up calling my dealer, and the MINI-branded 5W-30 I've been buying from them is $6.75/quart, so I'll probably stick with that unless I want to start experimenting with extending my drain intervals at some point in the future.

 

Oreilly's Auto Parts out here in the west has the new Castrol Edge formula for the same price. They also have a new 5w-30 brand called Pentosin which is also LL-01 certified and goes for $9.99 a quart. I haven't actually been in a store to confirm this.

Val

 

I never seen the one with SPT but I did an oil change with that Castrol Black bottle. What a pain in the ****ing ***. You can not see how much you poured with thos black bottles. I ended up having to use an old gold color bottle pour a quart into and go from there. Castrol really did not think of real world with that.

 

Advance Auto has a sale on the oil. 5 qts for $30.99. You get a K&N Filter for a friend! But it gets better. There is a $7 mail-in rebate reducing the price to $23.99. I asked the gentleman at the desk if I could return the filter after the purchase. He said I could. So this makes the 5 qts. of oil roughly $17.00.
All I can say is that this is a steal!

Also, the SPT bottle for the 5W-40 was different from the other bottles. The label was different. This said for European makes, and also said "Syntec Power Technology" instead of just SPT.
Question though, what would the HTHS be for this oil. Since it is A3/B3 would that make it the HTHS greater than 3?