What is the European definition of "full synthetic"?

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As we know, in Europe Group III oils cannot legally be labelled as "full synthetic", unlike the amibiguous conventions in North America. Does anyone know the maximum allowable percentages of carrier oils or other consitituents that may be present in a full synthetic oil as the concept is understood there?

The on-going speculation about how much GIII or other oil may be present in the Castrol 0w-30 continues to pique my interest. We speculate that it is heavily ester-based because of its low low pour point, but apart from that, we don't know of what it is made.
 
I can add the following, which I've come across while looking around for oil on some German sites.

Full synthetic oil is called "Vollsynthese" or "VS."
Hydrocracked oils are called "Hydrocracked" or "HC."
Blends are called "Teilsynthese" or "TS."
Dino oils are called "Mineralöl."

For example, Castrol Germany categorizes there oils as follows:

Voll - Synthese - Motorenöle (fully synth. PAO and ester)
HC - Synthese - Motorenöl (hydrocracked)
Mineralölbasisches Motorenöl (mineral oil)


PS: Came across an interesting bit of info on the German Castrol site:

They say FORMULA RS 0W-40 (fully synth) offers more than 3 times the wear protection of FORMULA RS 10W-60 (fully synth), even at extreme temperatures.

According to the site, their FORMULA RS 0W-40 is their best oil. I can't find their "green juice."

Does anybody know under what name the German Castrol is sold in Germany? Was it Castrol SLX 5W-30?

[ September 02, 2003, 01:33 AM: Message edited by: moribundman ]
 
quote:

Does anybody know under what name the German Castrol is sold in Germany? Was it Castrol SLX 5W-30?


It's sold there as Castrol Formula SLX 0w30. There is also an SLX Longlife II, but this is different.
 
Thanks Patman, it's of course 0W-30! My bad...

So I went to the German Castrol site to see what oils they have. Here's the list*:

RS 0W-40 (fully synth)
RS 10W-60 (fully synth)

GTX7 DYNATEC 5W-40 (hydrocracked)
Castrol GTX5 (hydrocracked)
GTX5 MAGNATEC 10W-40 (hydrocracked)

GTX3 PROFESSIONAL 15W-40 (mineral oil)

The ony Castrol 0W-30 oil (HTHS 3.0) I see listed is "Castrol LongLife 2 TOPUP" oil developed for VW. And then there is Castrol GTX A1 TOPUP 5W-30 (HTHS 3.0) developed for Ford.


Where's the green juice?
shocked.gif



*I skipped the oils they have for diesel engines
 
quote:

Originally posted by moribundman:
Where's the green juice?
shocked.gif


The entire SLX line used to be on its own page, which you could find by doing a search of the site. However, that page seems to have been removed.
dunno.gif


You can still find SLX featured prominantly on the global Castrol site (www.castrol.com) as well as Castrol of Switzerland (www.castrol.ch).
 
I checked the Castrol Germany website because I ran a search for SLX, and got a hit, probably within the last 7 days...as G-Man II says there was a page with the whole family of SLX oils on it. It is now gone! This whole thing just becomes more and more strange. I can certainly understand those of you who are skeptical about this particular oil and the way Castrol operates in general...quite mysterious. For those of you who are not put off by all this and still want to "screen the green," Autozone has just started a promotion where you buy 5 quarts of ANY type of Castrol motor oil and get the 6th quart free. It is good until October 4th.

[ September 02, 2003, 01:09 PM: Message edited by: pscholte ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by pscholte:
I checked the Castrol Germany website because I ran a search for SLX, and got a hit, probably within the last 7 days...as G-Man II says there was a page with the whole family of SLX oils on it. It is now gone! This whole thing just becomes more and more strange. I can certainly understand those of you who are skeptical about this particular oil and the way Castrol operates in general...quite mysterious. For those of you who are not put off by all this and still want to "screen the green," Autozone has just started a promotion where you buy 5 quarts of ANY type of Castrol motor oil and get the 6th quart free. It is good until October 4th.

Not so long ago you we were able to find different oils sold by Castrol in Germany like SLX, TWS Motorsport or TXT Softec Plus by doing a search (suchen) on their site but now you need to register to view these pages. Maybe the were getting too many hits from folks in N.A.!
shocked.gif
grin.gif


RS 0W-40 is their new and very intensely promoted oil but SLX 0W-30 is still sold everywhere.
If you're still interested in what else Castrol sells in Europe check out their other sites like castrol.ch, castrol.cz or castrol.pl.

Thanks for the info on promotion! I think I'm going to give 0W-30 Syntec a try, I'm in AutoZone city so I bet German stuff will be easy to find.
 
Are you guys sure that the SLX 0W-30 hasn't been replaced by RS 0W-40?
That PDF file that shows the specs for SLX 0W-30 is from '99. When did the RS 0W-40 come out?
 
quote:

Originally posted by moribundman:
Are you guys sure that the SLX 0W-30 hasn't been replaced by RS 0W-40?
That PDF file that shows the specs for SLX 0W-30 is from '99. When did the RS 0W-40 come out?


SLX has been replaced by RS 0W-40 as their "flagship" oil but it is still sold and it was updated. Take a look at this link to Castrol Poland site and you'll see slightly different numbers and specs. It is updated version as evidenced by API SL and BMW LongLife 01 specs.
 
quote:

SLX has been replaced by RS 0W-40 as their "flagship" oil but it is still sold and it was updated. Take a look at this link to Castrol Poland site and you'll see slightly different numbers and specs. It is updated version as evidenced by API SL and BMW LongLife 01 specs.

What does this mean for the SLX that is being sold as the "German Castrol" in the NA market? I'm sure there are others who want to know that more than I do.
wink.gif
 
Maybe us in North America will get lucky and they'll offer the Castrol 0w40 here sometime soon too? That would be sweet!
smile.gif
 
quote:

Originally posted by Patman:
Maybe us in North America will get lucky and they'll offer the Castrol 0w40 here sometime soon too? That would be sweet!
smile.gif


I think your projection is possible IF: (1) Castrol REALLY is looking to compete with M1 European Formula not 0W30 and (2)if SLX was a trial balloon to see how sales would go and they are pleased with what they are seeing.
 
I think it is entirely possible that this new to North America 0w-30 German made oil is an updated oil to the SLX formula. It could be based on their newer higher tech oils, only mixed for 0w-30 viscosity for the North American market only. Its possible that the old SLX formula might be on its way out as per our reports from Australia. I think they are producing small batches of this newer spec. oil just for N.A., rather than sending over old stock SLX.

I'm still stumped as to why they can't or wont produce it over here but rather ship it all the way from Germany. Must be an economies of scale thing I guess, or they can't find a producer over here to make the oil to their spec since they dont produce oil in N.A. . The whole thing is still mysterious IMO.

I'm sure Castrol is hearing all of the negative publicity their group 3 vs. real synthetic oil debacle has caused on the internet. Maybe some "high-up" executive at Castrol woke up one day and discovered he actually had a conscience and had the balls to do something about it ?. I think that may be most plausible description of how this German version oil came about over here.
wink.gif


Joey
 
Any chance the German Castrol with the North American label could be a relabeled BP product?...BP is the parent company of Castrol.


Ken
 
quote:

Any chance the German Castrol with the North American label could be a relabeled BP product?...BP is the parent company of Castrol.

That "could" be a possibility, last night as I was digging into the bowels of the BP intranet, I read where the newly introduced(to north America) 5w-40 Castrol Elixion synthetic diesel oil is really a rebadged Vanellus product.

Les

edit spelling

[ September 03, 2003, 01:51 PM: Message edited by: Les ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by Idrinkmotoroil:
I think it is entirely possible that this new to North America 0w-30 German made oil is an updated oil to the SLX formula. It could be based on their newer higher tech oils, only mixed for 0w-30 viscosity for the North American market only...I think they are producing small batches of this newer spec. oil just for N.A., rather than sending over old stock SLX.

Joey


Joey,

I think the 9ppm Fe in one (two?) of the samples supports your theory. It would seem it had flowed through different pipes or had been held in different tanks for it to pick up the iron.

Paul
 
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