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  #1  
Old 05-20-2001, 06:29 AM
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Has anyone heard anything bad about Castrol oils? My mechanic freaked out when I told him thats what I was using in my 420SEL. I had always thought Castrol was one of the best, in fact my previous mechanic used it and recommended it. The new guy says that Merecedes Benz even sued Castrol because something wasn't right with their oil. Is there something I don't know? He said to use Quaker State as well. Personally I think both are great companies. I used Castrol because that is what my previous mechanic (now 1300 miles away) had used in the car since new.

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  #2  
Old 05-20-2001, 07:33 AM
engatwork's Avatar
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Location: Soperton, Ga. USA
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Do a search on oil threads,

read all of everyone of them and form your own opinion.
It is my opinion that your mech is blowing smoke.
Jim
'85 300D
'95 E320
'97 CRV
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  #3  
Old 05-20-2001, 10:03 AM
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HMMmmmmmm... do I sense another oil debate. I agree with Jim, that mechanic is blowing smoke. Castrol is good oil, it's Quakermistake, I mean Quakerstate and Pennzoil that you want to stay away from. That mechanic may be telling you to use Quakerstate because that's what his dealership sells. A lot of dealerships will recommend what ever oil they can get the best deal on, providing it meets MB standards. Now there is a difference between just meeting a standard and exceeding it. I mean, we all could live on bread and water, but what is best? I used Castrol GTX for years. I don't used it now because it doesn't have a "C" rating for my diesel.
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  #4  
Old 05-20-2001, 10:51 AM
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I definitely agree with Jim and Rick, ..castrol is a good oil. I'd been using this for years, ....your mechanic is blowing something....
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  #5  
Old 05-20-2001, 11:09 AM
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castrol is a great oil.Another note,Castrol is the owner of Quakerstate.
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  #6  
Old 05-20-2001, 11:19 AM
WDurrance
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The best kind of oil to use, is the kind that gets changed frequently.
Regards,
Randy D.
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  #7  
Old 05-20-2001, 12:40 PM
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my $.02

Lot's of oil info. to be drilled around these parts...
Most of these guys have bought into Mobil 1, maybe I should have an alias CastrolDood.

I have driven air cooled(high heat), high compression, turbocharged, high revving engines most of my life. I've cared for them diligently using GTX with no engine problems whatsoever. I only varied the viscosity with the season.

What do you call the improvement to this finely formulated "dino" oil? Syntec!

You'll learn lots about oil here, I've learned about soot dispersing "C" oil. Since I always change regularly, hopefully my previous ignorance has not hurt my engine life.
I can tell you GTX will help extends yours!

I recommend Syntec simply now because it's synthetic advantages are becoming cost effective. It's like this, if I get an extra .5 mile per gallon. After a couple of tank fulls I gotten an extra gallon of gas. That's $2.25 in these parts. If take the 3000mile per oil change and divide the 230 mile per tank, I get roughly 12 fill ups or 12 extra gallons. That's roughly $27 I've saved using synthetic. Add to that the cost of the "dino" oil and you've got my cost on Syntec for the ML.

This "brain-working" is all assumed approximations, however, it is conservative and you can see that was once the least important characteristic of synthetic is now relevant. So enjoy all the other benefits of Syntec as well
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  #8  
Old 05-20-2001, 05:20 PM
public enemy
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I am not going to tell you wether to use it or not but I will tell you the following story that happen to me and you can make your own conclusions. I know I sure made mine!!

On February 1989 I was the owner of a Yamaha 600 Maxim motorcycle. The time was approaching to change the oil and I happened to have a case of Castrol GTX lying around in my garage. I was debating for some time wether to use it or not and eventually came to the conclusion that it should be OK to use it since in my opinion the bike's engine was a regular mini version of a 4 stroke engine like the one used in most cars. True, I was contemplating the fact that the bike's engine runs at higher RPMs but first of all being a very conservative rider I was rarely revving it at more that 5.000 rpm and secondly I was planning to change it again after about only 1,500 miles to make up for the high RPM use. Anyway, I did the oil change and started up the engine, everything seemed fine. Next morning I woke up and prepared to ride my bike to school. It was very cold outside approximately 35 degrees (which in Southern California is really cold). I took the bike out to the freeway and took it up to 65 mph. About one minute later I felt a serious loss of power kicking in as if I was running out of gas. I pulled aside checked the tank, it was full of gas. Got on the freeway again took it up to 65 again and I felt the same loss of power kicking in. It seemed as if the engine was getting ceased for some reason, but I kept going. The loss of power became stronger and stronger, and a few seconds later the engine slowed down and came to a complete stop. It was pretty obvious that the engine was ceased for some reason. This was verified by the fact that the starter could not turn the engine either. I waited about five minutes for the engine to cool down and the bike started up normally. Again I took it up to 65 and the engine ceased again. Pulled aside, let it cool and took off again but this time I did not take the bike above 40 mph.
Later when I returned home I passed by the local Yamaha dealer and picked up the Yamaha 10W-40 oil. Went home and drained the Castrol out completely, changed the oil filter and filled it up with the Yamaha oil. The bike has been running perfectly ever since.

A second fact happened to me 4 years ago when I changed the oil in my uncle's 1984 American Chevy 350 V8 engine to Castrol Syntec and started having serious oil leaks all over it a week after the oil change. The engine had been leak free (actually it had the very common slight oil leaks mandatory for every American engine...), for more than 10 years.

Again I am not going to tell you wether to use Castrol oil in your engine but I am describing to you what in fact happened to me. I know that everybody can interpret the above the way they want to, but as far as my engines are concerned, I have made my conclusions.
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  #9  
Old 05-20-2001, 09:31 PM
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I always use Castrol GTX in every car I own. It to me is like the difference between the ice cream in the big plastic tubs, and the ice cream in the little tiny containers that say's Godiva, or Ben and Jerry's, etc.

I have used Castrol GTX in my small engine Karmann Ghia, air cooled for 15 years, never had an engine problem yet. My '79 diesel has had Castrol since I got it, and the engine runs and sounds better than when I first started driving it. The reason I use Castrol in my diesel is because my friend has a '79 diesel 300SD, and an '80 450 SEL both purchase new and owned and run on Castrol for these 20 years. The diesel is way over 400,000 miles and still going strong.

I have switched to other brands out of necessity before, and I found I wanted to change the oil back to Castrol after only a few hundred miles. The valves sound louder, the oil seems less "oily", and more watery, especially Pennzoil. Their color, and weight seems like water to me. It makes me very uneasy.

'79 300SD 345,000 miles
'77 FJ40 Land Cruiser 130,000 miles
'71 Karmann Ghia convertible 3-4-or 500,000 miles, I've lost track of how many times it's gone around.
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  #10  
Old 05-21-2001, 09:40 AM
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Patsy, which weight are you using?
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  #11  
Old 05-28-2001, 09:06 AM
ulli
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Hi I just have some observations regarding oil, on my 1976
450sel I have been using castrol for the last 12 years with no problems.
Last December I bought a 1989 300ce where previous owner used Mobil 1, and its still in the engine.
My concerns are that after 3000 km the oil still looks new, while the Castro oil is black after 2000 km.
As I understand it the oil has following main purposes:
1. lube the engine
2. transport dirt to the filter
3. cooling


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  #12  
Old 06-03-2001, 06:14 PM
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Ulli, Being it that both of your cars have gasoline engines, I don't know why your oil would be "black" that quick. If it were diesel that would be normal due to the carbon. How is you sel running? Maybe your engine is running too rich, how is your fuel economy?
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  #13  
Old 06-03-2001, 08:25 PM
Johnson Chan
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Shortly after I joined RROC, I learned that R/R and Bently recomend Castrol for these cars, I was kind of shocked and in disbelief.

I would think they would recomend synthetic oils like Mobil 1 for these $250,000.00-$350,000.00 dollar cars, but if the guys at Crewe recomend Castrol it must be good.
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  #14  
Old 06-03-2001, 10:40 PM
Primo
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Castrol GTX or Syntec have been my choice for many years. No complaints here.
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  #15  
Old 06-05-2001, 04:36 PM
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It doesn't matter much which high quality convential oil you use. Many of their sources are shared; many of their processing plants repackage for other companies. Sears oil has to come from one of a handfull of refineries, right?

It doesn't matter which high quality synthetic oil you use.

It does matter that you choose synthetic rather than conventional oil.

George

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