Quote:
Originally Posted by ayao
Yes.
I've run BMW 5W-30, Motul 5W-40, Castrol 0W-30, Mobil 1 0W-40 (when it was LL01) and every UOA has come up fine (other an the Motul which has a tendenct to shear down to a 30 grade viscosity for some reason.). I have some Castrol 0W-40 that will go in next and im sure it will be fine as well.
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I agree, they are all pretty good!
Of course those that know me on here also know that I obsess about little things and I shy away from 0W oils because I am in a warm-hot climate environment and my car sits in a garage all its life.
Here are my thoughts for warm weather cars.
It is my humble opinion from my reading and experience that the primary driver for 0W oil is:
1. To increase fleet mile per gallon standards. The thinner oil can increase mileage which is paramount to manufacturers so they strive for the lowest weight oil possible that will still keep their engines running for some reasonable number of years. Durability is important but balanced against the top priority to increase fuel efficiency.
2. In the old days when people would change their oils every 3K miles, it was common for enthusiast to put thicker summer oil and thinner winter oil. Now with long-life oil you need one oil that can work year round all over the world. So it is simpler and more cost effective for manufacturers and dealers to carry the same oil all over the world that can work year round. Again, cost effectiveness and simplicity edges is balanced against durability. Yes it is very cool to just have one oil for everyone in the world that does it all.
3. Emissions systems. Modern emission systems use a high rpm cold start to bring emmisions systems up to temperature as quickly as possible. We all love the high RPM cold starts, myself included, but as you can imagine the engine is cold, the oil is cold and here is one benefit of 0W oil in that it flows well during the high RPM cold start.
So these 0W-30 and 0W-40 are convenient and more than good enough.
However, if you are car geek that prefers engine protection to be paramount over a 5% fuel mileage increase on a car you only drive 3K miles a year and you live in a desert and your car sits in a cozy garage all it's life, then you have the luxury of taking it to the next level. So I have been using Pennzoil Euro Platinum 5W-40 for the last few years.
Pennzoil is not just LL-01 which is important but it also made by Shell which makes the BMW oils also. In the US it is branded as Pennzoil. It is difficult to find lately as few places stock it but that is the same with Motul, etc. My car was originally designed to run on 5W cold start and this is especially true in my case where the garage rarely get truly cold even in Winter. Then some days it gets pretty warm out here so I appreciate the extra viscocity. Finally in a lot of tests Pennzoil Euro has done very well on its evaporative tests which is one of the concerns with our direct injected engines. Lower evaporation means less stuff to get coked up on intakes and loss of oil.
Finally our motors are direct injected which means fuel can make contact with cylinder walls and mix with oil usually more than port fuel injection. That is why a good long life synthetic oil is critical in DI engines. It has to be able to not break down if fuel mixes with oil. Therein lies the last point as to why I prefer a little extra viscocity protection. If you start out at 0W-30, that is with fresh oil. As fuel mixes with it, its performance drops so you could end up with 0W-20 oil. If you start out with a 40W, even degraded, you still get similar protection to the OE 30...I hope. : )
So in summary, the benefit to 0W during cold start especially if you live in cooler to average climates is worth it since it can help your engine last longer since it is accepted that most of the wear happens then. In warmer to hot climates, 5W is more than good enough for cold start plus it can give you extra protection against normal oil breakdown and high heat and hopefully less evaporative loss.
So that is how I arrived at using Pennzoil Euro Platinum 5W-40 in sunny and garaged San Diego, CA.
A final note, Pennzoil recently changed their formula on Euro Platinum 5W-40 and it no longer says Ferrari and Masserati approved on it. I am not sure if this is a temporary thing since Ferrari uses Shell oils also and I was disappointed by that however, when I read the new documentation, they explicitly mention protection for Direct Injection engines and it is still BMW LL-01, VW 501, 502, Mercedes etc.
I hope that helps someone out there.
Thank you for your time.