local autozone full of german castrol (elixir of life)

[eldawg4100]

there it was. A full shelf, 25 bottles deep, red label german castrol. no yellow 0w-30 in sight! in schaumburg, (45 min from chicago) so, how thick is this stuff compared to mobil 1 10w-30 and 0w-40? would it be wise for me to stock up, do you think it will be obsolete soon? price is 4.99. I need pros and cons of buying the oil and stocking up.

 

[quadrun1]

As for viscosity, it's somewhere between Mobil 1 xW-30 and 0W-40. IIRC it's close to 12 cSt at 100 deg C. Currently running GC in a 2000 BMW 528i and it's awesome! Car runs so smooth now, better than ever. About 2K on GC right now, and so far no brownish buildup under the oil cap unlike BMW's 5W-30 syn.

 

[Patman]

Judging by the fact that more and more people are seeing this oil, I would say it won't be obsolete soon. I honestly don't see the point of Castrol printing up the labels for this oil if they only planned on making a short limited run of it. Trust me, if people keep snapping it up as soon as the stores stock it, they won't want to stop selling it.

 

[VeeDubb]

Finally, I found it! Just as I was searching for a lower spread ACEA A3 oil (relative to 5w-40 or 0w-40), I drove by an Autozone I've never been by before and decided, what the heck, I'll stop and see. And there it was, but it was only 12 bottles. The rest were yellow label. Got'em for the price of 10. Apparently Autozone is selling six for five right now on Syntec. I didn't complain.

 

[GSV]

I've never seen it in Utah or Wyoming. I do run across a red labled Castrol 0w-30 but it does not say made in Germany anywhere on the back so I've been passing it up. I'd like to try it.

 

[VeeDubb]

quote:

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Originally posted by GSV: I've never seen it in Utah or Wyoming. I do run across a red labled Castrol 0w-30 but it does not say made in Germany anywhere on the back so I've been passing it up. I'd like to try it.

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GSV, You got me thinking so I looked through every bottle that I bought today and found one RED LABEL bottle that was only ACEA A1 and not made in Germany! The part that really stunk was that they had both yellow and red bottles on the shelf so it's easy to think that red means German. Now I find out that it's possible for some of the red bottles to be U.S. Castrol too. Those sneaky ba$tards! Castrol really tries to sucker the customer sometimes. I'm going to return this one lone bottle tommorrow. Word to the wise, check EVERY bottle you pick up, red label or not. ANOTHER UPDATE: I noticed on the bottle, there is a disclaimer: "As the technology leader, Castrol continually improves performance through product innovation. This may result in color/odor variations from time to time." Technology induced variation, my as$. My guess is that this basically lets them off the hook for selling the crappier U.S. version, while advertising the good stuff on the web site. [ September 27, 2003, 11:28 PM: Message edited by: VeeDubb ]

 

[Roger]

Without paging thru a zillion postings about GC, has anyone a listing of the key technical specs on the 0W30 oil?

 

[pscholte]

Roger, Patman can probably oblige you; if not, I'll sniff around the threads for you. Relative to comments on availability, here in the Springs only one store, out of the four I check, consistently has it; of the rest only one has ever had it and the other two never. I'm not confident about the supply yet unless Castrol has plenty but no logical distribution strategy to make it widely available. I'm kind of thinking they will only send it (intitially) where they have had 0W30 sales before and (ongoing) where they continue to sell the import.

 

[rockerc]

i too have looked at the autozone in big rapids, MI for sh*ts and giggles, and only found yellow and red label bottles. Looked on the back of the red label containers only to find that they were US spec oil. doh. atleast I didnt buy anything that day.

 

[pscholte]

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Originally posted by rockerc: i too have looked at the autozone in big rapids, MI for sh*ts and giggles, and only found yellow and red label bottles. Looked on the back of the red label containers only to find that they were US spec oil. doh. atleast I didnt buy anything that day.

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You did the right thing, 'cause you only want the German--UNLESS--you want to take a chance that you could "prime the pump" by buying one change of the existing stock and creating demand (hoping it will be replaced by GC). I will tell you, though, the existence of the Red Label non-German, though we on this board think we have figured it out why it exists, still bothers me. PS I cannot figure out why it has not showed up in MI, where a ZeeDub would be a logical choice, unless the existing 0W30 has NEVER or SELDOM EVER moved off the shelf. [ September 28, 2003, 01:04 AM: Message edited by: pscholte ]

 

[VeeDubb]

quote:

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though we on this board think we have figured it out why it exists, still bothers me. [/QB]

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I missed that discussion. What's the general consensus on why it exists?

 

[pscholte]

...that Castrol had the new front (red) label on hand before the SLX actually became available, so some red labels went out the door with the mixed component blend inside (if you want to engage in the Castrol is sneaky and underhanded discussion, you might even think it was to create a familiar label before they made the switch so no one but fanatics like us would know it was anything but good ole "Murican" Castrol [e.g. the non-fanatics wouldn't even read what was on the back]; the point being, Castrol would not have to explain why importing the German was necessary or desirable or that it was different or BETTER) [ September 28, 2003, 01:17 AM: Message edited by: pscholte ]

 

[VeeDubb]

quote:

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Originally posted by pscholte: ...that Castrol had the new front (red) label on hand before the SLX actually became available, so some red labels went out the door with the mixed component blend inside (if you want to engage in the Castrol is sneaky and underhanded discussion, you might even think it was to create a familiar label before they made the switch so no one but fanatics like us would know it was anything but good ole "Murican" Castrol [e.g. the non-fanatics wouldn't even read what was on the back]; the point being, Castrol would not have to explain why importing the German was necessary or desirable or that it was different or BETTER)

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That's an interesting point and one that makes sense. I was very surprised to find only one bottle among 12 that is red label and from North America. All my other bottles were from Germany so it seems that there is some "contamination" in the system. However, that Castrol disclaimer about how their products may change due to "technological advances" seems suspicious to me.

 

[Patman]

Here are the specs on this oil: Color: Green Pour Point: -61*C Flash Point: 238*C Viscosity @ 40*C: 68.5 Viscosity @ 100*C: 12.1 Viscosity @ 150*C: 5.7 HTHS: 3.6 Cold Cranking Vis @ -30*C: 3200 TBN: 10.6 VI: 179 FWIW, I have never spotted a red label 0w30 up here which said made in USA yet. I always do check every bottle for the made in Germany on the back though. When it comes time to pour this oil in your engine, if it does not come out of the bottle in the color green, STOP POURING IT IN YOUR ENGINE, as it's the wrong stuff.

 

[VeeDubb]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman: Here are the specs on this oil: Color: Green Pour Point: -61*C Flash Point: 238*C Viscosity @ 40*C: 68.5 Viscosity @ 100*C: 12.1 Viscosity @ 150*C: 5.7 HTHS: 3.6 Cold Cranking Vis @ -30*C: 3200 TBN: 10.6 VI: 179 FWIW, I have never spotted a red label 0w30 up here which said made in USA yet. I always do check every bottle for the made in Germany on the back though. When it comes time to pour this oil in your engine, if it does not come out of the bottle in the color green, STOP POURING IT IN YOUR ENGINE, as it's the wrong stuff.

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Patman, Do you have the NOACK info for this stuff too? Thanks

 

[harbor]

After hearing you guys rave about this oil, I'm going to try some in the wifey's Jeep (currently running M1 10W-30). But I need to make sure I get the right stuff. So far I'm looking for Castrol Syntec with: > Red label (not yellow) > says "Made in Germany" > Pours green > 0W-30 or 40 What else should I be looking for to make sure I don't get the U.S. stuff?

 

[Patman]

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Patman, Do you have the NOACK info for this stuff too?

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Sorry, unfortunately I do not.

quote:

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So far I'm looking for Castrol Syntec with: > Red label (not yellow) > says "Made in Germany" > Pours green > 0W-30 or 40 What else should I be looking for to make sure I don't get the U.S. stuff?

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As long as it says made in Germany, you're safe. It only comes in 0w30 though, not 0w40. It would be nice if eventually Castrol brought over their European 0w40 Formula too! If Castrol was smart they'd scrap all of their group 3 US Syntec lineup and replace it with their PAO/Ester stuff from Europe. Only then could they truly claim their full Syntec lineup was top notch stuff.

 

[pscholte]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman: It would be nice if eventually Castrol brought over their European 0w40 Formula too! If Castrol was smart they'd scrap all of their group 3 US Syntec lineup and replace it with their PAO/Ester stuff from Europe. Only then could they truly claim their full Syntec lineup was top notch stuff.

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Pat, you're killing me...quit teasing my mind with the possibilities!!