brief history of european motor oil

Joined
Jun 9, 2018
Messages
77
Location
Austria
Hi everybody!

I just wanted to give you guys a Brief overview of the history of engien oil for european cars, which diffred quite a bit from US engien oils! Beginning in the 1970s we had mostly 10w50 and 20w50 oils apart from straight grades the multigrades had so much viscosity improvers that they broke down after a few thousand Kilometers to 10w30 and didn´t lubricate very well! Castrol offered the first 15w50 with GTX2 in 1975 and all other companies like MOBIL Shell Total ... followed! Mobil offered the first full synthetic named SHC in 1973. More syntzetics of the 70s were AGIP SINT 2000 10w50, ELAN ester Super GTE 10w50, CASTROL RS 15w50 and MOBIL 1 5w20 the first fuel economy oil in 1977! The Goal of more fuel economy were the 10w30 so called "Light Running oils" in the 1980s which were also available in 10w40! Typically Brands were Shell TMO, BP STRATO; Fina EKOFINA, CASTROL TXT and many others in 10w30 and 10w40 grades! The typically premium oil of the 80s was in 15w40 grade the first was mMOBIL super FORMULA and CASTROL GTX2 TURBO approved! 15w40 was the grade for all cars in the 80s and early 90s! One of the most poular oils in europe was CASTROL GTX3 15w40! Beginning in the 90s was the synthetic oil wave with the super oils and grades like MOBIL 1 5w50, Castrol RS 10w60, Agip Sint 2000 10w40, Castrol TXT 5w40! The viscosity was lowered to 5w30 for Synthetics in 1995 and CAstrol SLX was the first 0w30 grade for best fuel economy! A year later Mobil offred the first 0w40 Motor oil, ARAL;SHELL,Agip, BP Esso and all other Brands offered 0w30 and 0w40 full Synthetics as their premium oils! Until today we still have 10w40 in use but the most recommended oils are 5w30s in different shapes like high peerformance cars or especially for Diesel particulate Filters! The CCMC specification which was introduced in the late 70s for european engines and was much thougher than tthe API Rating was dropped in favour of the ACEA SPecs in 1996! The 10w30 viscosity which is still popular in the USA I guess was dropped here in europe beginning in 1990 in favour of 10w40! If you have any comments or Information I would appreciate your Messages, I hope this was a Little interesting Information!
 
Very interesting !
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Nice! I would say that 3/4 of EU oils (roughly) nowadays are in 5w30 grade....and are somehow "green" oriented (fuel economy or DPF oriented)....

I find it funny when Iam reading BITOG and they are using 10w30 oils...since this grade here in EU is somehow reserved for agricultural use
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Welcome on board, and thank you for the interesting insight into motor oil in Europe!
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Personally, I stick with ACEA specifications with an HTHS of 3.5+ cP in everything that I own - A3/B4 as a bare minimum, but slowly making the switch to C3. Even better if it comes with manufacturer approvals, such as the likes of MB Sheet 229.51 and VAG 507.00.
 
Hi Mate, Welcome !!

Thanks for the write up. I'm glad someone else remembers the CCMC spec Castrol TXT 10W40, I remember when it first came out in Australia and I gave it a run in my motorcycles. It was great !! Compared to GTX 20W50 it sheared less and gave much better gear changes, it allowed me to extend my OCI to almost double compared to mineral GTX.

I used nothing but TXT 10W40 until they stopped selling it and then Castrol replaced it with FormulaRS or R in two flavours 0W40 & 10W60 and then replaced it again with Castrol Edge this time in four flavours 5W30, 0W40, 10W60 and 25W50.
 
I also personally use oils in my gasolines which cover the high rated MB 229.5 and now upcoming 229.6 which are for high Performance gasolines but not for diesels with particulate filters! You can use C3 oils for gasolines as well as they cover A3B4! As Long as I don´t drive a diesel I´ll stick to a3b4 or a5b5!
 
If you ever find some of the old TXT R or RS bottles please let me know I am buying them if you would ship them, I would pay good Price!
 
Here 10W40 lost favor in the 80 because of some famous brands of Pennsylvania crude that, in my opinion , broke down. Then stuck the rings to the pistons, followed by high oil consumption and low power. I was good for me, lots of wrecking yard cores to rebuild with low bore wear. You should have seen the lawn mower engines, I rebuilt many iron block Kohlers that the pistons were coked and rings stuck and overheated from blowby. Quick hone, new piston, new rings, good cleaning, and ready to go.

Those same companies learned and now offer very high quality oils. But not then.

10W40 was ruined forever due to corporate greed.

In the USA
 
You´re Right the 10w40 in the USA needed much VI improvers and they made rings stick, therefor 10w30 was preferd over 10w40!
 
All I know is that what they pay for their oil is downright insane . No wonder they don’t want to change it often. I’ll see if I can find a pic or two I snapped in a German supermarket last summer. IIRC something on the order of $40 for a 4L jug!
 
Hi! Must have been a cheap one 40 Euro here for 4 Liter jug is not that bad, the Company I work for (we sell and repair citroen Nissan and hyundai) sells ONE Liter oil TOTAL 5w30 ACEA SPEC C3 for 38 Euro (About 40 Dollar) and the 0w30 Version sells over 42 Euro, note that´s the Price for ONE Liter!
 
Originally Posted By: nap
But all those 10W40 were meeting API specs, weren’t they?

Yes, and the situation got so bad the car manufacturers stepped up their participation in oil ratings.

GM would void a warranty if 10W40 was used, and yes, they did test.

The late 70's and 80's were a dark time for MFG

Rod
 
Originally Posted By: Franz
I also personally use oils in my gasolines which cover the high rated MB 229.5 and now upcoming 229.6 which are for high Performance gasolines but not for diesels with particulate filters! You can use C3 oils for gasolines as well as they cover A3B4! As Long as I don´t drive a diesel I´ll stick to a3b4 or a5b5!


Any details/specs on 239.6? First I’ve heard of it!
 
I ain´t got any Details of Mercedes Benz 229.6, the first manufacturer of this oil spec. was Fuchs oil Company in manheim Germany it is a 5w30 weight, I found 2 more oils with MB 229.6, surprisingly the oil I use for my Nissan Micra covers thsi spec, it is the SHELL HELIX ULTRA 5w40 which has to be the same as the Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w40 in the USA, they both are also approved by Ferrari on the labels so this has to be great stuff! Another one is the TOTAL QUARTZ 9000 0w40 which is 229.6 approved! This Shows that oils with 3 different viscosities are approved aaginst These specification!
 
That´s Right I have read About that circumstance! Good to have a good conversation to oil buffs!
 
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