Just got back from Europe.....

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
May 28, 2002
Messages
2,480
I was in Croatia for 2 wks. OK, it wasn't Germany, but I got a chance to look at the oils on the shelf at a local large shopping outlet.

The synth oils grades ranged from 5-40, 15-50 and 10-60. All the oils were A3 rated except for GTX 15-40 (the only conventional grade on the shelf) which was A2. The brands included Shell Helix, Castrol GTX and SLX, and Fuchs-Titan. There was no 0w-anything. And no Mobil on the shelves. The synth's were priced at about $20/L.

On a side note, our `97 M-Benz C280 went in for a 60k km. service there and got M-1 0-40 as an added-cost option. $140 for the oil alone. The sticker inside the engine showed the last oil service to have been performed at 46k km with an illegible german branded 5w-40 oil (car purchased in Germany). That would put it at a 15k km interval. The inside of the engine looked spotless relative to our previous M-B with the same 60k km using M-1 5-30 convincing me again that 15k km. intervals are possible with a 40-weight A3 rated synthetic.
 
Nothing new here. Again, I know tons of people here in the US that have put 200K + miles on their engines using cheap dino 5w-30 changed every 3k miles. Engines look spotless inside. Viscosity is just one little aspect of the whole picture. We all know that the A3 rating requires the oil to be on the thicker side of the 30wt scale in order to acheive the HT/HS of 3.5>. And most 40wts will be A3 rated anyway.
 
There's a lot of 'nothing new' things on this board. However, the point of my post is:

1. 3k OCI's are completely a waste of time, money and resources. They're retarded regardless of oil weight used. But, if you must do 3k OCI's because you're using a 5-30 dino, that's waste as well.

2. If Europe is going to light-weight oils and Audi is recommending 0-30, then why isn't it on the shelf?

3. I saw cars that were s**t boxes eg. 1L 1991 Ford Festiva's with 300k km with absolutely no body rust and in perfect running mechanical condition. Cars like this are for sale there. Most cars I see here are completely shot after this many mi.'s and are ready for the crusher.

4. A1 rated M-1 5-30 does not hold up as well as the A3 rated 0-40 both with respect to longevity and engine cleanliness.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Dr. T:
The brands included Shell Helix, Castrol GTX and SLX, and Fuchs-Titan. There was no 0w-anything.

SLX is 0w-30.
wink.gif
 
Do you remember any 15W50 synthetic brand?
The only only ones i see here are mobil and BP and since you didn't see any mobil i am curious to know what other makers keep making this grade.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Dr. T:
2. If Europe is going to light-weight oils and Audi is recommending 0-30, then why isn't it on the shelf?

You were in Croatia, for Pete's sake. Spend some time in Munich, or any larger metro German city and see what oil selections you find there.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Dr. T:
There's a lot of 'nothing new' things on this board. However, the point of my post is:

1. 3k OCI's are completely a waste of time, money and resources. They're retarded regardless of oil weight used. But, if you must do 3k OCI's because you're using a 5-30 dino, that's waste as well.


3K OCI's are not always retarded. If your environment included off-road driving, high dust conditions, extended idling and tons of short trips, they might be justified. I've seen short-trip soccer-mom Minivan applications where the oil really did get beat up in 3,000 miles.
If I had a vehicle that went off-road a great deal, I might worry about how much grit made it past my air filter.
 
quote:

You just said you saw Castrol SLX on the shelves !

Yeah, but who knows what was in the bottle!
tongue.gif


Reminds me of the time I bought a bottle of Coke in the Austrian alps on an alm. I tasted sort of funny, and when I had finished I noticed a bunch of tiny snails at the bottom of the bottle. Auf Wiedersehen!
shocked.gif


[ July 11, 2004, 11:22 PM: Message edited by: moribundman ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by moribundman:
Reminds me of the time I bought a bottle of Coke in the Austrian alps on an alm. I tasted sort of funny, and when I had finished I noticed a bunch of tiny snails at the bottom of the bottle. Auf Wiedersehen!
shocked.gif


You're lucky it wasn't an opaque bottle of Ginger Beer !
grin.gif
(People who have studied some law will know what I'm talking about
wink.gif
)
 
I'm sorry, it was the GTX 5-40 (Dynatec) I confused with SLX as well as the GTX 10-40 (Magnatec). There were no 0 weights.

There were a lot of new Audi's there both local and from abroad. Guess they're going to the dealer for their 0-30.

And yes, if you're using a 99 cent dino 5-30, you better be changing it out by 3k. That was my point. This type of oil was not found on the shelf there.
 
quote:

I saw cars that were s**t boxes eg. 1L 1991 Ford Festiva's with 300k km with absolutely no body rust and in perfect running mechanical condition. Cars like this are for sale there. Most cars I see here are completely shot after this many mi.'s and are ready for the crusher.

This might have something to do with the substantial VAT Tax one has to pay on an automobile there. Some parts of the World it is 100% duty.
dunno.gif
It is quite an incentive to buy a reasonable car and/or to keep your old car functional. In fact, quite fine examples exist there of cars whose vintage would dictate the crusher here.

http://www.acgn.nl/

ps Just because you see heavy oils there and in Austrailia, does not mean thin oils are bad. Old habits of theirs are hard to break too, and they don't have a whole generation of CAFE 5w-30-somethings who accept the thin stuff without question. Could the average American be ahead of the average European in this regard??? (ghasp)

[ July 12, 2004, 01:37 AM: Message edited by: Audi Junkie ]
 
Most of low HT/HS viscosity 0W-30 are filled mainly at service stations. As for A3/B3 0W-X oils, naturally they are offered, but sales are quite limited for number of reasons: average speeds, prices and mild climate.

It is not Germany with its highways where after 500-700 km of high speed driving you may need to top up. Prices are too high like in nearly all Europe, but an average salary is hardly exceed 800-1000 Euros/month. They don't simply need 0W-X everywhere.
 
3,000 mile oil changes are not retarded. I was unfortunate enough to be using quaker state 10w-30 synthetic blend ( changed it earlier today as a matter of fact ) and beat it to death in a little under 3K miles. I must also point out, I am not burning a drop of oil nor do I have any other engine problems. Just plain old HARD driving.
 
quote:

Germany with its highways where after 500-700 km of high speed driving you may need to top up. Prices are too high like in nearly all Europe

Yeah, who the heck wants to pay $20 a litre of oil for top-up? If I paid that, I'd probally reach for heavy stuff too.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Dr. T:

3. I saw cars that were s**t boxes eg. 1L 1991 Ford Festiva's with 300k km with absolutely no body rust and in perfect running mechanical condition. Cars like this are for sale there. Most cars I see here are completely shot after this many mi.'s and are ready for the crusher.


Sort of off topic, but you said that these cars had no rust. I wonder what their techniques are for snow and ice control in the winter? If they aren't blanketing the roads with rock salt like we do here, I bet this contributes to the cars lasting as long as they do.

If corrision was halted or slowed down considerably, I beleive our vehicles here would last much longer. There is much more incentive to keep up the mechanical maintenance on an old car that looks good, than one with rust holes in the body and a questionable structure.
 
quote:

Originally posted by crashz:


If corrision was halted or slowed down considerably, I beleive our vehicles here would last much longer. There is much more incentive to keep up the mechanical maintenance on an old car that looks good, than one with rust holes in the body and a questionable structure.


There must be some statistics around that show the differences in car life between high rust areas and places in this country where cars virtually never rust.
 
quote:

Originally posted by XS650:

quote:

Originally posted by crashz:


If corrision was halted or slowed down considerably, I beleive our vehicles here would last much longer. There is much more incentive to keep up the mechanical maintenance on an old car that looks good, than one with rust holes in the body and a questionable structure.


There must be some statistics around that show the differences in car life between high rust areas and places in this country where cars virtually never rust.


I hate salt! In Colorado they use Magnesium Chloride on the roads and it wrecks havoc on the vehicles.

We have to wash the undersides of the vehicles after every storm.

It also plates out on the headlights and winshields while driving...and requires pulling over to scrape of with a plastic scaper.

I'd much rather see no salt used and have people use snow tires and carry cable chains...and learn to drive in the winter.

Every storm we see flatlanders with behemoth SUV's rolled over.

They all seem to believe that "4WD and 4 Season Tires" can change the laws of physics, and overcome the need for proper tires and driving skills.

Rant over!~
cheers.gif
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top