AI001

It may seem a very frequently asked question but my situation is slightly different.

Without realizing I have ordered 10 litres of Mobil 1 "Turbo Diesel" 0w-40 for my 535d which meets BMW LL01 specs, ideally I should have ordered Mobil 1 "ESP" which is LL04 spec instead of "Turbo Diesel" but that was a mistake.

Now the tricky bit is I am going to take off my DPF (for more power) and obviously it will be tuned to produce more bhp. Now from my understanding difference between LL01 and LL04 specs oil is for DPF, as my DPF will be off would it matter which one I use?

I am not bothered to get a replacement if not really needed. Please advise what shall I do in this situation!

JasonH

Well when my 535d (with DPF) was first sold the manual said LL01 (because LL04 wasn't available when it was new) so the Engineers that designed the car were OK with LL01.

The LL04 is low ash for the DPF but as I understand it LL01 could potentially be a better lubricant because it doesn't have to be modified to be low ash.

So if your DPF is coming off I'd stick with the oil you've bought.

BimmerFan52

This is an excerpt from another forum:

LL-1 oils are for high sulfur content fuels - as in USA fuels.

LL-4 oil is for low sulfur content fuels - as in Germany/Europe fuels

Back in the early to mid nineties BMW had a huge problem with the high sulfur fuels in the USA with their V8 engines. The high sulfur caused many BMW V8 engines to loose compression and rough running. It had to do with the special cylinder coatings - that the high sulfur would damage the way the pistons rings would seal against the cylinder wall.

It became so bad that BMW increased the guaranty to 10year/100K miles (only for these effected v8 engines) - and had an open "service campaign" (NOT a recall!) for any 530i, 540i, 730i or 740i owner to have their BMW dealer REPLACE their engine with a different engine block design - as to not have future problems with high sulfur in the fuels.

This is what caused BMW to develop special oils for each market.

Another excerpt from another forum:

Longlife-04 oils must not be used in BMW spark-ignition engines in countries outside Europe (EU plus Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein).


How relevant high sulfur fuels are today in 2013, I have no idea. I am just passing along what I have seen.

Hope this helps.

AI001

Gives a bit of relief. Need more feedback.

BimmerFan52

This is from BMW. Second sentence tells it all.

AI001

It is quite confusing, it is contradictory. Says LL04 should only be used on "spark ignition" in the EU but on the handbook it says all the cars with DPF (means all diesels hence non-spark ignition) MUST use LL04! LL01 only in emergency only for top-up.

BimmerFan52

I haven't seen the earlier sections of the TIS. There may have been a section specific to diesel engines.

IMHO I think what they meant to say was "if used on spark ignition engines" it should only be in EU where gas quality is a known entity.

AI001

gotcha.

paran

This graph is taken fromthe Lubrizol web site.

The LL04 100% overlaps the LL01 spec and then adds additional protection.

LL01: Sulphated Ash is=< than 1.6%
LL04: Sulphated Ash is=< than 0.8%

I use Walmart bought Mobil 1 0w-40 Euro formula;

but I've also used:

Pentosin; Pento High Performance 5W-30

Total Quartz 5W-40 9000

BimmerFan52

This graph seems to cover some of the important characteristics of engine oil resistance to breakdown.

However, it doesn't specifically address the content of ethanol and/or higher sulfur in gasoline, both of which according to a number of tribology websites is the reason LL-04 is not to be used in gasoline engines outside of EU.

According to one site, the presence of high sulfur quickly cannibalizes some of the sacrificial additives and in turn rapidly depletes the already lower TBN in LL-04 oils.

It is possible that if the drain interval were relatively low (say 5K miles) and the number of engine hours were low (reflecting mostly highway driving) the LL-04 could be acceptable, still having enough additives left to be doing its job. But I wouldn't want to be the guinea pig with my BMW engine.

I also use M1 0W-40 Euro with Hengst filter.