Hi,
sorry I have been off line doing a 1200km (740 miles) trip from the Tropics to Brisbane! Ambient range 26C (at 2am) to 38C. Average speed 105km/h (65mph) - 11.5 hours. No motorways used at all!
The original GC SLX 0w-30 was German import with this (Made in Germany) being written on the label
The next version of SJ/CF was blended in Australia where at that stage all locally available Castrol oils were blended
The SLX range was actually taken from retailer's shelves - but you can still see the odd 5ltr container (5lts = $A105) in those retailers no longer selling Castrol
Yes, they obviously had a technical problem initially for the recall to have occurred and then they obviously decided to forget SLX ever existed here! I am aware of the range of the problem from a personal viewpoint and one could say it was a good product that was wrongly applied and marketed. Engine failures did occur
I believe the latest version - Castrol "R" - as mentioned earlier is a great range and I would use it without a second thought! The "R" 5w-30, 5w-40 and 10w-60 are all excellent products
(Elves please note - I love you all)
Nothing replaced the 0w-30 viscosity Castrol synthetic in Australia - that viscosity is dead here! No serious Oil Company sell it as Shannow posted earlier
Audi - like you I think it is the market - we simply have no need at this stage for such a viscosity. And no Euro, OZ, Japanese or Korean Manufacturer mandates it! I posted rough details of my trip to give some idea of our climate and fairly typical operation
I think FUCHS retail an advanced 0w-20 (maybe 0w-30) (called GT1?) and this is used in the Porsche Cup GT3 series cars. If I recall correctly it is rated ACEA A1 but does not have many if any Manufacturer Approvals
10w-30 and 5w-30 synthetics are about all that is needed here in the light viscosity range mainly due to our climate
It should also be noted that Castrol also rebranded (around 2001) an excellent semi-synthetic HDEO that I helped develop. I knew it as "XYZ" for three years until it was called Enduro LD 15w-40 and retailed. It is now sold as Enduron 15w-40!
I think the alignment of Castrol within its master's camp to BP-Castrol has been a sad time but at least their Transmax Z ATF and Syntans, Syntrax gear lubricant range are still sold here
These are wonderful products
Regards
Doug
[ March 12, 2005, 06:11 PM: Message edited by: Doug Hillary ]