I am not trying to bash any brand here, but from what i have observed in the past there was somewhat of a negative view on castrol oils with not delivering super clean engines and for dropping their in the usa popular 0w40 syntetic oil.
Could it be you have a Dutch/European kind of perspective? Alright, let's get more into
detail:
This is an American forum and things are much different in the US compared to Europe.
Castrol has never been that dominant in NA as it has or still is in Western Europe. In NA
there are Pennzoil, Quaker State (both Shell owned), Valvoline and some more you never
or rarely see in Europe, not to mention boutique stuff like Redline, Amsoil or Royal Purple.
Basically it's just Mobil and Castrol what we have in common.
While fuel quality has been worse in the US (sulphur) for a long time, as a consequence oil
change intervals are commonly shorter. You won't see extended drain intervals above 10k
mls even for VW, Audi, BMW or Mercedes in NA. This is important because:
Many issues you might have heard of or even have experienced in the Netherlands are in
fact (over-extended) interval related, but because they don't know better people blame the
manufacturer of the oil instead and that's quite often (in Western Europe) Castrol/BP as the
market leader.
Could I have hit the nail?
After that it seems i dont see many threads or users with castrol which is remarkable because i assume they are in the top 5 biggest brands.
I could be wrong in this.
America <> Europe
Another point is pricing. PCMOs are more expensive in Europe. Less so on internet
shops, more so in hardware stores, filling stations and garages. Castrol is paricularly
expensive in Europe, often way overpriced. In Europe BP spends millions and millions
for marketing.
Is it just coincidence that i dont read about them a lot or are not many bitogers using it (anymore)?
In the US Castrol is/has been popular in particular for Euro applications, however
Castrol hasn't the market share in NA you're probably used to in the Netherlands.
I work at one of the largest wind turbine manufacturers and most of the fluids/greases come from castrol so it would seem they are doing something good.
BP/Castrol are certainly doing something good. They make excellent gear oils.
Also VAG group as one of the biggest car manufactures still uses them.
Not sure on that. Any evidence for it? As far as I know VW didn't use Castrol's
engine oils in recent years, though VW might still buy transmission oils from BP.
Ten years ago VW actually used Castrol. Via UOA both Shell and Castrol are easily
distinguishable (e.g. ~500 ppm B vs ~50-70 ppm Ti).
Don't get fooled by marketing contracts. Recommendations in owners manuals,
on '710' caps and on Volkswagen's website don't mean a thing. I strongly believe
Volkswagen purchased a huge amount of engine oil from Shell and perhaps also
some from Lukoil last couple of years. I don't think Castrol produced oil that looks
like Shell . . . .
BMW dropped them at around 2012 and went to shell which is pretty remarkable because bmw castrol was almost famous in the car world.
I would be remarkable if BMW would be willing to pay more for Castrol than they'd
have for Shell. This is still a business.
Now planning to rebuild my bmw diff and the oem prescribed oil is/was castrol. I am not sure yet if i will go to castrol or different brand but probably will order the oem spec castrol again.
BMW still sell OE BMW/Castrol gear oils (SAF-X?). I also bet the BMW MTF LT-4
I currently run in my Mini is still made by BP/Castrol. I do know for certain it came
from Castrol at start of production of the Mini R56 back in 2006.
I am curious on what your view/experience is on castrol.
A very good one when it comes to transmission oils. I used Syntrans V-FE in my
GTI for almost four years and I only went back to OE VW fluid just because I had
two liters in my stash (which I mixed with .5 l of V-FE) .
.
