Oil Classifications.

snavetrauts · Post by **snavetrauts** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 5:16 pm

Hi.. I do not intend to go through all the "oil debates" that have gone before in this place... BUT..

What are the clasifications... BMW say... HD oil with API SF, SG or SH as well as oils with suffix CD, or CE.

Well I have never seen these... What does HD mean.? All the oils over here, and I do not think they are any different to oils in the UK have SJ or CF.

Are these better? I am interested in 20/50 Super Multigrade and none of these carry the classifications mentioned in BMW's or any other manual for that matter.

??????

madman · Post by **madman** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:10 pm

API = American Petroleum Instittute
S* = Spark ignition (petrol)
C* = Compression ignition (diesel)

throttlemeister · Post by **throttlemeister** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:48 pm

Another little bit of info that is interesting to add to the above:

S classifications are not successive. As in SG is newer than SF, but not nessesarely better as it does not need to contain all specs from the previous.

C classifications are successive, so CI is better than CH as it is newer and includes all specifications from CH plus additions of the later standard.

snavetrauts · Post by **snavetrauts** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:33 pm

Madman.... cheers.

Gijs.... so you are saying its best to use the C series as these will be later and progressively better than the BMW recommended?

Or no??

stuart

madman · Post by **madman** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:19 pm

Don't use just C series oil as it is diesel oil. Any oil which can be used in both has the SAE classification showing the designed application first. Therefore a diesel oil that could be used in a petrol would read "SAE C*/S*" and a petrol specific will read "SAE S*/C*".

throttlemeister · Post by **throttlemeister** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:57 am

C or diesel oils are typically better for motorcycles with gearbox and clutch in the oil (like jap inline 4's) than S oils as C type oils have specific additives for diesel engines that so happen to be additives that also help longevity when the oil gets crushed and ripped apart by the gearbox and clutch. In this application, the best oil is a CI or CJ industrial big truck oil. Hard to get in EU, but in the US Shell Rotella T synthetic is very good.

For the BMW boxer, which works similar to normal cars, any decent oil will do in my opinion.