What is the difference between European motor oil vs US motor oil?
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It’s to do with the specification of the oil.
US cars are typically designed to use an API spec oil.
European cars are typically designed to use an ACEA spec oil, although some manufacturers find this too restrictive and have special specifications.
Japanese cars are typically designed to use an ILSAC spec oil.
The API and ILSAC specs only define 1 or 2 types of oil formulation each, and they are pretty similar so they can generally be interchanged.
ACEA has a much more complicated list of grades. Commonly used grades are A3, A4, C1, C2 and C3. These have different properties depending on what the car and emissions system need. For example C1 is designed for cars with very sophisticated emissions filters which are very sensitive to being clogged by Ash. C1 oils are designed not to produce much Ash when burned, so that the filters don’t clog up early. An A4 oil will produce a ton of Ash if it gets burned and will rapidly block the filters.
Different car manufacturers used different emissions technologies which have different sensitivities to Ash and other oil ingredients. So different cars need different formulas of oil.
The other issue in Europe is that people don’t want cars that need constant maintenance (often cars are leased for 2 or 3 years and the lease company includes servicing – so they put pressure on the manufacturers to design cars which don’t need servicing in the first 3 years). So, many cars are designed for 20k mile oil changes. The problem is that its not just the engine that has to be designed for 20k oil changes – the oil has to be too. So manufactures who design for ultra long oil change intervals specify specially formulated oils which can last that long.
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