Originally Posted By: d00df00d
The fact that it's rare doesn't necessarily mean it's difficult. It could just mean the oil wasn't submitted for testing to that spec, or that the company simply didn't feel like trying to meet it.
I believe the ACEA Sequences are self certified. You don't submit your oil to some official lab in Europe for a stamp of approval. The standard test and pass required are published, so any big company can self test their own oils. All the big companies in Australia do it: Castrol, Shell, Valvoline, etc
Most oils in Australia have both an American API spec and a European ACEA spec. The few oils that don't have a ACEA spec are the ones with an ILSAC GF-5 spec instead (with API SN of course).
So it's API + ACEA or API + ILSAC on almost all Australian oils. Plus OEM specs like Dexos or MB 229.x, etc
There are a few cheap oils that only have API specs, but these are our "rubbish" oils. We don't have true rubbish oils like Dollar General here. But some cheap 20W-50 may be API SG, but I'm heading off track here.
The point is, if the oil companies know their oil meets a particular ACEA spec ( and they would know this) then they can claim it.