What exactly is the A5/B5 and why is it dropping?

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What exactly is the A5/B5 and why is being discontinued or dropping out of all the future formulations?! I thought the higher the number the better the oil but I guess not.
 
The only oil I know offhand that meets A5/B5 is Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30.

I've decided it's probably easier and most likely better long term to just use an A3/B4.
 
The reason they no longer meet A5/B5 is because they can't pass a new test added to the ACEA 2016 sequence, but that new test is done on a diesel engine and really only relevant to diesels.

Castrol promised a revised formula that would meet the new A5/B5-16, but it doesn't seem to have been released.

Valvoline tries to use a disclaimer that their synthetic 5w30 meets A5/B5 for gasoline engines only, but ACEA does not allow this. If it doesn't meet the standards for both gas *and* diesel engines, it doesn't meet them at all!

Originally Posted By: bigjl
Also I don’t remember seeing an oil that was just A1/B1 for years they usually always meet A5/B5.


0w20 and 5w20 synthetics were A1/B1 but not A5/B5 because A5/B5 requires HTHS of at least 2.9,m whereas A1/B1 allowed an exception for __w20 where the HTHS could be 2.6

and as QP said, ACEA recently dropped A1/B1.
 
Originally Posted By: bigjl
Also I don’t remember seeing an oil that was just A1/B1 for years they usually always meet A5/B5.

There were/are some in North America, but both those are somewhat uncommon.
 
Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: bigjl
Also I don’t remember seeing an oil that was just A1/B1 for years they usually always meet A5/B5.

There were/are some in North America, but both those are somewhat uncommon.


The last A1/B1 only oil i saw was a Semi Synthetic and that was years ago now.

Its the spec that Fords used to specify in the UK before they introduced the Ford Specific spec
 
Originally Posted By: bigjl
The last A1/B1 only oil i saw was a Semi Synthetic and that was years ago now.

Our M1 products had just that for a while, not to mention any 20 grades that wouldn't normally get A5/B5 by reason of HTHS in the first place. Of course, as A5/B5-2016 was coming down the pipe, a M1 and Castrol got rid of A5/B5 and Valvoline was doing their A5/B5 but for gasoline engines only business.
wink.gif
 
Lots of euro 20 grades are A1/B1. They'll soon be C5 rated.

There are not many manufacturers that ask for A5/B5 in their gasoline enginess
 
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