Oil explained

fmorelli

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Aug 11, 2017
3,748
3,592
0
57
Virginia
Ride
E89 Z4 35i, F10 535d
Pretty good video in 20 minute of time. It caught my attention as I do annual oil changes on my daily drivers (not the high HP N54). Just a word of warning, though, the development chart that shows development stages is pure waterfall ... and if they actually do it this way, their oil would be complete crap. I think the young author made this up to explain something he doesn't have experience with - engineers think like that flow chart, but people with serious product development chops never build stuff like this guy shows. That said, I hope he didn't make up the rest of the video ...

Filippo

 

Bnks334

Lieutenant
Dec 1, 2016
529
341
0
New York
20k mile intervals with 20wt oil in a Chevy Silverado. 0 issues at 500k on the motor.

Everyone loves to blame oil (and oil being too thin) on motor issues but that doesn't seem to have any basis in fact. This is why I think ll-01 is so important. It's testing done by BMW for all of the aforementioned attributes in a BMW motor with BMW spec tolerances. It's one of the toghest oil standards out there and yet everyone seems to think they are ebeter off running thicker non ll-01 oils.
 

9krpmrx8

Lieutenant
Nov 5, 2016
508
290
0
San Antonio, Texas
The LL01 spec means nothing if you are changing your oil often. If you are following manufacturer specs then yes the LL01 spec is probably recommended but there are lot's of variables.
 

Bnks334

Lieutenant
Dec 1, 2016
529
341
0
New York
The LL01 spec means nothing if you are changing your oil often. If you are following manufacturer specs then yes the LL01 spec is probably recommended but there are lot's of variables.

I can see how you could try to argue that because of the whole "long life" thing, but I can't agree with that argumarg. Ll-01 takes more into consideration then sludge, soot, and deposits across long intervals.

Performance and flow attributes are just as robust. Ll-01 means the oil passed wear and flow tests in BMW specific load, temps, bearing tolerances, and engine hot spots. To which, it excels beyond many other oil certs. A generic oil attribute like "SN" doesn't mean as much when it's based on generic testing and not specific to use in a BMW motor.

I meant more that you don't need a boutique race oil in a street car though.
 
Last edited: