the dealership i work at sells BMW high performance synthetic oil 5w-30 to customers... anyone familiar? is it a true synthetic, and who makes it?
quote:Castrol makes the factory fill oils and fluids for all BMWs. I'd be willing to bet, however, that the synthetic they make for BMW is not the Syntec sold in the North American market.
Originally posted by eldawg4100: the dealership i work at sells BMW high performance synthetic oil 5w-30 to customers... anyone familiar? is it a true synthetic, and who makes it?
quote:Baseline samples have indicated that BMW's version of the 5W-30 is not just Syntec in a different bottle. The BMW blend shows a different amount of additives. I do believe that the BMW 5W-30 is a Group III, but haven't been able to verify it. I also suspect that the 10W-60 TWS is a Group IV/V base.
Originally posted by XHVI:quote:Castrol makes the factory fill oils and fluids for all BMWs. I'd be willing to bet, however, that the synthetic they make for BMW is not the Syntec sold in the North American market.
Originally posted by eldawg4100: the dealership i work at sells BMW high performance synthetic oil 5w-30 to customers... anyone familiar? is it a true synthetic, and who makes it?
quote:Last I knew, Spectro was formulating BMW motorcycle oils. 2100 ppm phosphorus and 1740 Zinc. WOW!! Holy Bat Man that's a bunch of ZDDP That kicks poop on Castrol, Euro or otherwise.
Originally posted by XHVI:quote:Castrol makes the factory fill oils and fluids for all BMWs. I'd be willing to bet, however, that the synthetic they make for BMW is not the Syntec sold in the North American market.
Originally posted by eldawg4100: the dealership i work at sells BMW high performance synthetic oil 5w-30 to customers... anyone familiar? is it a true synthetic, and who makes it?
quote:If you check the Castrol web site they state rather explictly that they are the makers of all the oils and fluids for BMW factory fill as well as service fill. Therefore, the BMW branded oil at the dealer is made by Castrol. (Whether or not this applies to BMW motorcycle oil is not discernable from the Castrol web page, though it could be inferred.) Since Syntec is a product unique to the North American market, it's highly unlikely that Syntec is put in at the factory. It's reasonable to believe that the BMW branded synthetic is the same formula put in at the factory and not Castrol's Syntec. And since Castrol synthetic 5w40 is supposedly available at BMW (and MB) dealers, this probably isn't Syntec either, since Syntec is not sold anywhere else in that weight.
Originally posted by eldawg4100: it would be interesting to see who really makes it and if its better than syntec? I can get it for pretty cheap like 2 dollars-3 dollars a quart, and if it is as good, or very near the performance of mobil 1 oil, i would use it....
quote:If you can get it cheap and you want to use a synthetic, I'd use it. It meets BMW's "Long Life" spec, which is comparable to MB's 229.3, so it's good oil no matter who makes it.
Originally posted by eldawg4100: darn i guess nobody knows what the 5-30 synthetic they sell really is
quote:I don't think there is any question that the current BMW 5W-30 is made by Castrol, or that it is different than Syntec. The only question is whether or not it's a Group III.
Originally posted by eldawg4100: darn i guess nobody knows what the 5-30 synthetic they sell really is
quote:Really? Here is the text from an e-mail from Mercedes-Benz dated Nov 10. I e-mailed them to find out what synthetic oils they recommend for the FSS in North America. I've edited out my name and e-mail address; everything else is cut and pasted directly from the e-mail.
Originally posted by Dr. T: First off...to XHVI, there is NO BMW synth. 5-40. We covered this in a previous post.
quote:This Castrol 5w40 is the only 229.3 approved Castrol oil available in North America and it is only available at BMW and MB dealers who choose to stock it.
Sender:From: To: Subject: Re: SN 564055, Re: Other Comments & Questions (OCAQ) Message-ID: <0057440040537894000002L442*@MHS> Reply-To: Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 16:44:10 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Dear Mr. _______: Thank you for your recent internet query. For vehicles with Flexible Service System, Mercedes-Benz recommends the following approved Synthetic Engine Oils: Mobil 1 OW-40 229.3 Castrol Syntec 5W-40 229.3 Quaker State Full Synthetic European Formula 5W-40 229.3 Pennzoil Synthetic European Formula 5W-40 229.3 76 Pure Synthetic Motor Oil 5W-40 229.3 Kendall GT-1 Full Synthetic Motor Oil 5W-40 229.3 Shell Helix Ultra 5W-30 229.3 Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40 229.3