Comma oil vs Castrol Edge

[E65Ross]

Hi there,

My E65 745i is due an oil change soon and since owning the car it's been running 0W-30 Castrol Edge which costs around £8/litre if you buy 4L containers from Amazon. I have a friend who runs a garage who use Comma oils and can get me there 5W-30 fully synthetic oil for £5/litre and it does meet BMW LL04 spec.

It takes around 9L of oil plus I'd need some for topping up so I'd be spending 3x4L for castrol edge which is around £100 vs about £50-60 for the comma stuff.

Which would you choose?

Cheers

[Collectingbrass]

I'd see what GSF or Eurocar parts can do on a discount weekend - GSF seem to be offering 35% off every other weekend at the moment, or they have a thread in General Gassing with a standard 20% discount code.

[arcticfire]

Costco does the Castrol at less than £30 for 4l which includes the vat.

[anonymous-user]

Comma is approved by several manufacturers, and doesn't have a bad reputation. Would probably be fine, but are you saving that much?

Not sure that castrol edge is anything that special, is it?

[arcticfire]

What annoys me about Castrol is the stupid 4L containers. Makes it that little more expensive. I'm a big Mobil 1 fan. Have you checked out Opie oils etc?

[E65Ross]

I thought Castrol Edge was one of the better oils out there?

Hadn't thought of Opie, oddly, as I've bought from there before! Will take a looksy! I think Mobil 1 is really expensive though?

I'll have a look and see what's what!

Edit - Opie have 2x5L Mobil 1 ESP fomula 5W-30 for £70 plus P&P which isn't too bad!

May go for that as it's only another £20 for 10L of the Comma stuff, which isn't a huge amount in the grand scheme of things

Edited by E65Ross on Tuesday 22 September 14:48

[tgr]

Surely the whole point of a spec e.g. LL04 is that all oils meeting that spec are the same for all intents and purposes? Just get the cheapest LL04

[E65Ross]

tgr said:

Surely the whole point of a spec e.g. LL04 is that all oils meeting that spec are the same for all intents and purposes? Just get the cheapest LL04

Not quite as simple as that. Some oils may meet and exceed the spec, others just meet it.

Using fuel as an example, a high performance engine specs RON 95-99 for example, it will run absolutely fine on RON 95, yet it'll be better on RON 99.

[Dannbodge]

Sod doing the oil change yourself

Get a genuine filter and get down national tyres

They do an oil change using Fuchs oil (LL04 approved)

I have them do my 335i oil changes every 6 months. With a genuine filter and their 10% voucher I pay £55. Cheaper than I could buy the 6.5l of oil myself.

[E65Ross]

Dannbodge said:

Sod doing the oil change yourself

Get a genuine filter and get down national tyres

They do an oil change using Fuchs oil (LL04 approved)

I have them do my 335i oil changes every 6 months. With a genuine filter and their 10% voucher I pay £55. Cheaper than I could buy the 6.5l of oil myself.

Not doing the change myself, I was just contemplating supplying my own oil or not. I'll probably buy an official bmw filter.

[E65Ross]

Just ordered an official BMW oil filter from the BMW eBay store. I'll probably order the oil as well. As has been said, for the sake of £20 I may as well.

I always thought castrol edge was one of the better oils out there though? Is the mobil 1 esp formula 5w30 good stuff? It's roughly the same price for 5L of that as it is to get 4L of Castrol Edge. 2x5L of mobil would be enough for a change and leave probably 1-2L for topping up as and when. Whereas I'd need to get 3x4L bottles of Edge and have loads left over.

[8Tech]

You are not actually comparing like for like comparing a 0W30 to a 5W30.

I would have no hesitation using Comma oil in a cruiser like an E65 as long as it meets the required LL04 spec. However, meeting the spec and exceeding it are very different with friction enhancers etc in the better oils. In an engine that works (or plays) hard, then I would go Castrol Edge every time. In my opinion, Mobil 1 are still trading on a name they achieved a few years ago and is overpriced.

[8Tech]

arcticfire said:

What annoys me about Castrol is the stupid 4L containers. Makes it that little more expensive. I'm a big Mobil 1 fan. Have you checked out Opie oils etc?

I don't think that is quite fair to Castrol (or Mobil). It is VERY common now to have a sump capacity of between 7 and 8 litres, especially with the extended service intervals, so the 4 litre bottle is perfect. Fortunately my car uses NO oil as consumption, so I just keep any left over to make up the sump capacity next time.

[E65Ross]

8Tech said:

You are not actually comparing like for like comparing a 0W30 to a 5W30.

I would have no hesitation using Comma oil in a cruiser like an E65 as long as it meets the required LL04 spec. However, meeting the spec and exceeding it are very different with friction enhancers etc in the better oils. In an engine that works (or plays) hard, then I would go Castrol Edge every time. In my opinion, Mobil 1 are still trading on a name they achieved a few years ago and is overpriced.

I think I'll go for a 5w-30 oil this time....

So, in your opinion, is Castrol Edge worth the premium over the Mobil 1?

Many thanks

[Locknut]

So far no one has mentioned the most important thing which oil specification, such as ACEA C3 for engines with particulate filters. First, you need to check your handbook to find what spec is required. then you need to select the weight or grade such as 5w30 to suit local conditions and driving style.

Brand does not matter if you are choosing between established names because engines can not read labels. In particular I would not be conned into paying extra for Castrol because Castrol Oil has not existed for many years. Castrol is now just a marketing brand of BP Oil, so you are buying BP in a different bottle.

I would have no hesitation using Comma providing it is the correct specification and grade.

[helix402]

It needs to be LL04, available in various grades.

[8Tech]

E65Ross said:

8Tech said:

You are not actually comparing like for like comparing a 0W30 to a 5W30.

I would have no hesitation using Comma oil in a cruiser like an E65 as long as it meets the required LL04 spec. However, meeting the spec and exceeding it are very different with friction enhancers etc in the better oils. In an engine that works (or plays) hard, then I would go Castrol Edge every time. In my opinion, Mobil 1 are still trading on a name they achieved a few years ago and is overpriced.

I think I'll go for a 5w-30 oil this time....

So, in your opinion, is Castrol Edge worth the premium over the Mobil 1?

Many thanks

Yes, and I would also mention that in your case, the particulate filter mentioned above will not be fitted.

5W30 will be fine too because we do not get the very low outside temperatures here in the UK to require the marginally thinner 0W30. If you suffer from oil consumption issues, you could also try a 5W40 that I use in my X5 4.8iS, an engine from the same family as your 745i.

[E65Ross]

Particulate filter? Do you mean the microfilters? If so, according to my obc they aren't due for quite some time as I think I had them done at the last oil change.

Many thanks

[8Tech]

No, the microfilters are the air filtration elements that clean the air entering the cabin, the particulate filters are fitted in the exhaust on diesels.

[arcticfire]

I'm not convinced that if an oil simply has the relevant spec then that makes it as good as any other brand. Some break down faster than others, the spec may only be applicable to regular driving but the sheer and tear strength may not be good enough under more aggressive driving some may produce more crap than others and mess with you engine or turbo if it's an oil cooled one etc

Maybe I'm wrong, but then I still wouldn't shove ASDA own brand 5W30 in my car just because it has a C3 spec approval.