# Done with Castrol



## cltjettav (Jun 14, 2008)

This post is for anyone from VW corporate who may be lurking:

You probably need to find at least one other lubricant supplier for US dealerships besides BP (Castrol). Given their ineptitude in stopping the leak in the Gulf and the fact that engineering policy violations apparently led to this debacle, I will no longer knowingly purchase any BP product. If they want to drill and extract at 5000ft, they better be prepared to handle worst case scenarios too. And apparently they are either unable or unwilling to. I'm not a hardcore environmentalist, but what's going on down there is inexcusable, and I vote with my wallet. So if the service depts don't want to lose their margin on bulk oil, they better begin offering other alternatives... as I'll be bringing in my own 502 00 approved until such time. And I encourage others to do the same... this goes for Amoco and BP gasoline too.


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## rickjaguar (Apr 23, 2009)

:laugh:
i agree completely.


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## Trench (Nov 20, 2008)

What this video about BP and be amazed.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVx6PWlgDZU


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## tagsvags (Nov 25, 2005)

cltjettav said:


> This post is for anyone from VW corporate who may be lurking:
> 
> You probably need to find at least one other lubricant supplier for US dealerships besides BP (Castrol). Given their ineptitude in stopping the leak in the Gulf and the fact that engineering policy violations apparently led to this debacle, I will no longer knowingly purchase any BP product. If they want to drill and extract at 5000ft, they better be prepared to handle worst case scenarios too. And apparently they are either unable or unwilling to. I'm not a hardcore environmentalist, but what's going on down there is inexcusable, and I vote with my wallet. So if the service depts don't want to lose their margin on bulk oil, they better begin offering other alternatives... as I'll be bringing in my own 502 00 approved until such time. And I encourage others to do the same... this goes for Amoco and BP gasoline too.


 I have also stoped using BP products, no more diesel or gas from BP:banghead:. There are superior VW approved oils compared to castrol IMO.


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## edyvw (May 1, 2009)

Well, I stopped getting gas from BP, although the little guy who owns gas station is really hurt by this, but maybe that will lead to switch to another company. 
I have 5qt of GC at my house, but that this happened before I bought those 5qt, i would go with Motul, Total or something else!


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## BsickPassat (May 10, 2010)

It's not that oil companies want to drill 1 mile below, but they are forced to by the US, as close shore oil-rigs are an considered to be an eye sore. 

Other companies have deep shore oil drilling rigs also... so you might as well sell your car and start walking. This could have happened to any other oil company with the same disastrous results. 

Maybe you should bring your own oil in, a Group IV or Group V oil, as they are not petroleum-based.


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## cltjettav (Jun 14, 2008)

This isn't about ignoring the need for oil or the fact that companies are prevented from drilling closer to shore at shallower depths. I'm not as concerned about potentials and "could haves" as I am actions and their consequences. This disaster was the result of poor decision making, and whether other companies are also cutting corners, who knows. If they have been I suspect they will be less likely to in the future (at least for 20-30 years or so while this event is still in the collective memory). BP could have drilled two wells simultaneously, but chose not to. BP (and/or their subcontractors) could have used a different approach and/or materials in the final phases of the project, but did not. There is already evidence that best practices were not followed and short cuts were implemented. Would this have prevented the problem? We'll never know. Would doing so have mitigated the impact of the unexpected? Arguably, yes. And they are certainly not "forced" to drill that deep... as long as it's profitable to do so, they will. If it's not profitable, they will not. Other firms have not had a failure of this magnitude, and I certainly don't believe it's sheer luck they haven't, so I reject outright the notion that this could have happened to any deep water rig/well in the Gulf. Some folks are making the right decisions, and others aren't. One can draw direct parallels to the banking crisis and US auto industry realignment. Some were doing it right, others were not. The current state of individual companies in both industries speaks for itself. If a boycott harms the individual station owners I hate that, so the sooner they switch suppliers the better... and it might only be a small dent in BP's bottom line if sales of US retail product decline, but corporations whose activities have the potential to affect people and places unrelated to them must understand they are accountable to everyone they impact, not just shareholders, customers and suppliers.


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## Anony00GT (Mar 6, 2002)

I'm certainly no environmentalist. I'm the kind of guy who would never consider a greenie-hybrid car, I love to drive around in a big-block muscle car with no cats or a lifted pickup truck getting 5mpg...but this is different. 

I agree that BP should be held completely liable for this disaster. They should also be forced to compensate everyone on the Gulf coast who makes their living from the water (ie fishermen) for their losses. This is clearly their fault, and they need to clean up the mess and then pay damages. I never liked Obama, but I think he's trying to come down hard on BP, and if he does I'll have a lot more respect for him than I did before this disaster. We may not know the final results for another decade though. 

It is important to note that boycotting your local BP gas station will hurt the station owner a bajillion times more than it will hurt BP, and that's horrible for the local economy...most gas station owners are under contract and can't just "find another supplier" without closing their business and starting anew. That being said, I'm still going to buy my gasoline from the cheapest station. If that happens to be a BP station, so be it. If it happens to be Billy-Bob's Gas-N-Go, that's fine too. Whoever is cheapest is going to get my business. I'm far from rich, and with gas at $2.80/gal or so, I'm certainly not in a position to spend more money than I have to just to make a political statement.


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## cltjettav (Jun 14, 2008)

You bring up a important point about contractual obligations between the station owners and fuel suppliers. This will definitely factor into stations rebranding should they decide to. Several years ago here in Charlotte a large regional gas station chain abruptly switched from Citgo to Texaco with no PR/advertising. It was due to sales falling off a cliff because Chavez (Citgo is state owned by the gov't of Venezuela) did something or threatened to do something, and the public here reacted by not buying Citgo product. Interestingly, it wasn't even an organized boycott... just a bunch of POed individuals that stopped buying. I cannot remember the exact issue that set everyone off, but it was only a few months (3-4 at most) from the incident to the time it took for rebranding to begin. I do know (through a coworker who's a friend of the family that owns the chain) they were not seeking to switch suppliers prior to this. What I don't know is if there was language in their contract that allowed them out if sales declined because of a brand image problem, or if they simply paid whatever penalty to break the contract, or if the contract was up for renewal anyway and the timing happened to work out (my suspicion). Individual station owners won't have the luxury of paying penalties to break deals, but if there's language letting them off the hook due to brand damage, that's without question invokable in BP's case. 

FWIW, VW/Audi doesn't even recommend BP/Amoco gasoline... they're absent from the list of recommended gas companies: 

http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html 

So, I've never used BP/Amoco gas unless I was about to be stranded and they were the only option (I'm a Shell fan). But, I used Castrol (through the dealership, and against my better judgement as there are superior oils) because that's what's stamped on my oil cap. I'm assuming that before VW ties itself to a brand, that product meets at least the minimum standards for the application, and there can be no questions whatsoever raised should an oil related warranty issue arise ("I used exactly what you told me to"). But, I'd really like VW to sanction (by adding to the service dept supply chain) another brand of oil... and until then, I'll simply bring in an alternative that carries OEM approval.


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## cltjettav (Jun 14, 2008)

Had the service dept do the 30K mile change on the Jetta yesterday (BPY engine) and had them use what I supplied, which was Valvoline SYNPower MST 5w-40 (part# VV966). Several factors led me to this particular oil over others, but the main factor was it having the highest viscosity @ both 40 and 100 degrees C of all the mass market 502 00 approved oils sold over here. One thing apparent right away is that the motor is NOTICABLY quieter at idle than it was prior. It sounds like it used to when it had factory fill in it, possibly better.  On the first oil change it acquired a metallic ticking noise - not alarming but definitely present - that it hadn't had before. I'm assuming this noise was being generated by more or different contact between the high pressure fuel pump actuator and its cam lobe, as there's a lot of pressure at that contact point apparently... and suspected it was a direct result of the oil change (use of something other than was in there originally). This ticking is now gone again, and I'd seen on some of the TDI posts where this particular oil seems to quiet down the engines a good bit, and I can vouch for that... it does.

I'll keep an eye on gas mileage and if that varies from the norm post an update. The noise improvement is so apparent I'm condisidering using it in the Passat (CCTA engine) even on the oil changes already covered under warranty. Certainly there are sure to be other oils that also cut down the noise... just check the specs and make sure you're using an oil with a 40C viscosity on the high side (at least 80, 84+ better).

Between oil changes #2 and #3 on the Jetta (5K intervals) I sent off a sample for analysis just before the change was due. It failed the viscosity test for 5w-40 (too low) and was borderline on nitration (too high). The latter is a result of high oil temps (turbo bearings from high EGTs and piston crown temps under prolonged boost conditions). Curiously, high nitration tends to thicken oil and hence over-report viscosity... I cannot explain the paradox. I provided the lab result to the service manager and politely asked them to confirm the exact oil they're using and they swear it's Castrol Syntec 5w-40, but given the viscosity results I suspect they're actually using Castrol SLX Professional OE 5w-30. With it meeting 502 00/505 00/505 01, they can use a single oil in most (if not all) the cars they service. Either that or Syntec is a borderline 40 weight to begin with and after usage shears down into 30 weight territory. The nitration result is something to take note of for folks running mods or who just run their cars hard... only high oil temps usually cause this (which is why CNG powered cars need special oil formulations that prevent nitration/oxidation), or sometimes exhaust blow-by into the crankcase is a factor (leaky EGR valves and/or worn piston rings), and it's harmful to the chemistry of the oil and causes it to break down. When I did the analysis my intent was to sanity check the 10K recommended change intervals, and based on my results I'm sticking with 5K on both cars to be on the safe side. For the EU spec cars to be running 15-20K intervals all I can say is they must be dealing with significantly different oil formulations than what's available over here which combat these effects better, given they run their cars harder over there.


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## cryption (Mar 28, 2006)

You will like the MST 5w-40. I switched from Castrol a few changes ago and have never looked back. Plus, the Valvoline is on Amazon and arrives in a couple days.


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## animaniac (May 26, 2005)

In my opnion they ALL need boycoting, the oil price is too high, and they make up lame excuses like oil wells are running dry and climate change etc etc, all in their favor to charge stupid amounts for oil.

Surely over 50 years of drilling for oil they can do it properly aswell as cheaper, once again they make up excuses about hard to drill places they are FULL OF S***.

They are just pure greedy f**** who want to charge a fortune because of an increased demand!

Isn't the price ment to drop if they sell more? not their way of thinking, increased demand reduced supply increased price!

Here in the uk when the doller rate was double to the pound the oil price was high, now the pounds worth F*** all it's still high.

*This is taken from the thesun.co.uk published 28 april 2010**Yesterday, BP revealed it raked in £3.6billion between January and March. It came as figures revealed unleaded now averages 121.17p a litre - up nearly 27 per cent on this time last year*.

The fines which obama has set on bp doesnt bother them, not when there making billions out of the uk motorist!

And in the end we're all going to pay when the oil prices keep going high and remain there indefinetly.

Bp are the ones with the barrels are were all being forced to bend over them, everytime we drive and have to buy petrol, or oil for heating for you country folk.

It's all f***** up.


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## treczech (Mar 24, 2006)

*BP*

BP don't even own these gas stations. BP had their safety issues turned off when the explosion occured. Halyburton (Dickie-fart Cheney owns) did the repair work on the drill platform. The culprit
was a "dead" battery and crappy repair job.


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## slowbluVW (Oct 15, 2002)

I've never used Castol oil....but I have stopped using BP's gas since they have destroyed our Gulf. I will never use BP gas ever again.


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## slowbluVW (Oct 15, 2002)

treczech said:


> BP don't even own these gas stations. BP had their safety issues turned off when the explosion occured. Halyburton (Dickie-fart Cheney owns) did the repair work on the drill platform. The culprit
> was a "dead" battery and crappy repair job.


BP may not "own" the gas stations, but they sure as hell have a financial stake in them. If you are an American that cares about their country, specifically the Gulf of Mexico, you will cease to use BP products.


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## PassatCC75 (Mar 22, 2009)

I have to disagree...if you care about this country you will not boycott BP. Why? Because many city, county and state retirement funds are invested with BP. And, as previously pointed out, local BP stations are not owned by BP. Also, there are thousands of Americans working for BP whose jobs would be in question should the company suffer serious financial problems. And, last but not least, where do you think the money will come from to pay all of those folks in the Gulf states for their monetary loss, as well as the enoumous amount of money that will be needed for years to bring back the wetlands, and other areas destroyed by the oil.

If BP doesn't pay because they declare bankruptcy, we the taxpayers will be stuck with it. And, don't forget BP isn't balking at spending the money.


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## slowbluVW (Oct 15, 2002)

Seeing as you are in South Dakota and I'm on the Gulf coast, our opinions are obviously going to be night and day from each other. You can sit out on your porch and not see your beaches (if you had any) starting to turn brown and black from oil. You can't smell the stench of oil in the air. Anyways, you have the right to disagree, but you DO NOT have the right to complain about our Gulf if you choose to continue to use BP products. You in turn are feeding the morons at BP that cannot stop the gushing well that is destroying the Gulf and an entire way of life. Not to mention what is happening to the sea life out there-total devastation. It's going to take decades for the Gulf to come around...even then that timeframe is being generous. It may never recover in my lifetime and I'm 34. If you can, in good faith, feel good about yourself pumping BP's gas into your car and pouring Castrol Oil into your engine and chewing on a hot dog you bought at a AMPM store, more power to you. Ignorance is bliss. I have a little sympathy for the Americans that work for BP, but when the chips are down, they just become collateral damage....just how BP is treating this gusher and its effects, collateral damage. If the people that work for BP want to be mad at somebody, they need to be mad at their employer, not the people boycotting their company. They need to step back and see that the company that they work for thumbed their noses at rules, regulations, safe work practices and proper engineering...and look at what they have done because of that work ethic. Yeah, I'm quite pissed off because this gusher could've been avoided as the warning signs that this well was not right were there long before it let go. As for the retirement accounts, well, anybody that invests/plays the stock market knows that nothing is guaranteed when you play with Wall St. Anybody remember Enron? Anybody remember the tech stock bust? Anybody remember the dot.com bust? And don't believe for one second that BP has no stake in any of the BP gas stations. That was public relations BS and the naive sheep fell for it. I guess people have forgotten about the franchise fees paid to corporate? LMFAO!


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## PassatCC75 (Mar 22, 2009)

Whoa...slow down *slowbluVW*, first I do not use BP products, with that said, my point was, if BP is insolvent who will help all the people in the Gulf States that are out of work, and who have lost their ability to work, possibly for years. The wetlands could take generations to rebuild, and that will take a lot of money. That money wll not be there if BP goes under. And, you and I both know they will not disolve the company, they will simply declare bankruptcy, reorganize, rename themselves (again) and walk off leaving the U.S. tax payer to foot the bill. BP has said they will pay, and we should insure they do just that, every last dollar.

Frankly, I thought the government should have seized the company and nationalized all of their assets, immediately after the incident when it was found the "leak" could not be stopped. They have destroyed a way of life due to negligence and greed, and they need to held accountable.

I was not condoning anything BP did, and in fact based on their history with this rig, they need to be investigated and action needs to be taken, not just against BP, but also the government employees, at the federal agency, who let them walk on violations. 

Eleven people died and someone needs to answer for those deaths as well, and not just at BP, but at the federal agency responsible for inspecting the rigs.


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## piston (Oct 17, 2008)

You do know that BP supplies other oil companies with raw oil right?
So even if you don't buy BP gas/products, you still buy BP indirectly.
Supply & demand.

Oil companies need it, BP supplies it.


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## piston (Oct 17, 2008)

Hey, when are we going to start lynching those with VTA catch cans?
They are willingly polluting the streets, air and our water.

Let's get them !!!!!


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## Veedub_junky (Aug 13, 2005)

edyvw said:


> Well, I stopped getting gas from BP, although the little guy who owns gas station is really hurt by this, *but maybe that will lead to switch to another company.*
> I have 5qt of GC at my house, but that this happened before I bought those 5qt, i would go with Motul, Total or something else!


That is almost never an option, actually. They are usually bound to a long-term agreement to only sell x-branded gas (whether it is Shell, Chevron, BP, etc... - they all do it). It's usually attached to the property deed (and the condition transfers if sold to another party) - I see it all the time. Very few gas stations are still owned by the big oil companies, and those are generally only properties that they haven't managed to sell due to ongoing leak cleanups, etc... Even after they sell, they are still responsible for leak cleanups that occurred on their watch (in most cases, anyway - I'm sure there are exceptions). 

You are correct though - the only guys really hurt by boycotting BP-branded stations are the owners. BP may still own a few, but most if not all are now independently owned/operated.



Anony00GT said:


> It is important to note that boycotting your local BP gas station will hurt the station owner a bajillion times more than it will hurt BP, and that's horrible for the local economy...most gas station owners are under contract and can't just "find another supplier" without closing their business and starting anew.


^ Correct, and closing the business and starting anew would mean at another location as well (see my previous comment above). Most of these guys hardly have two nickles to rub together, and day-day operations is a struggle as it is...



slowbluVW said:


> BP may not "own" the gas stations, *but they sure as hell have a financial stake in them*. If you are an American that cares about their country, specifically the Gulf of Mexico, you will cease to use BP products.


Not really, as explained in my other responses above. BP's only "interest" is that the owners have no choice but to sell under the BP logo. Equipment repairs, replacements, leak cleanups, etc... is all on the little independent owner to deal with - no big-oil support at all.


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## Standbackimapro (Mar 8, 2010)

No one likes what happend with BP, Obviously there are other choices of gas and oil, but if your cruising, and you need Gas BAD, and the only gas station within 50 mile radius is a BP, your gonna stop there, because i certainly would


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## theman53 (Nov 20, 2007)

accidents happen. In every job. If a farmer gets a leak and nitrogen is dumped in one spot in a feild it will have a worse impact on the environment than if it were crude oil in the same proportions. Crude will not hurt the environment as bad as a refined oil. I understand the sentiment. BP could have done things differently, and in the end the only people who will be put to blame is the real tragedy- those men who died. Dead men don't talk. That is the sad part. BP sub contracted the same people that everyone else did and since this is new to the US they were pushing the boundries. I don't blame them it is how to make $. I personally have no issue with them now. BUT if this would happen again under the same circumstances with BP or any company then they didnt learn a thing and need to be put out. 
Just my opinion...


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## TechMeister (Jan 7, 2008)

I buy my oil based on performance, not politics.


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## Deadzero2005 (Apr 13, 2006)

TechMeister said:


> I buy my oil based on performance, not politics.


Probably the smartest statement I heard so far from this thread :thumbup:


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## marcohh8 (Jul 12, 2010)

i would like to offer this whole thread a :beer: for having intelligent people constructing polite opinions about an important issue. i dont like BP and while i think that it "could" happen to anyone, it DID NOT, it happened to BP and they dropped the ball and should forgoe the same consequences as if they had dropped the prison soap (F'ed in the A):laugh:. anyways i dont knowingly buy BP stuff and i encourage everyone to do the same. BP should have to pay everyone who was even minutely affected by the disaster. I also think that the much overlooked deaths should be compensated by whatever money BP has left after the cleanup.


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## bpfoley (Nov 30, 2000)

beaches are opening back up, fishing has re-opened, whats the problem here?


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## gehr (Jan 28, 2004)

bpfoley said:


> beaches are opening back up, fishing has re-opened, whats the problem here?


:what:




Deadzero2005 said:


> Probably the _*dumbest*_ statement I heard so far from this thread :thumbup:


He said it well for Tech's statement, so I changed it so it says it well for you! The biggest oil disaster in histroy and this guys says this...........and Americans wonder why the rest of the world think they're idiots!


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## marcohh8 (Jul 12, 2010)

yeah the problem is that bp f***ed the whole gulf and people like you think that a news clip of a single beach "getting" cleaned means that the problem is solved. does anyone have a list of products that use BP oil?


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## Deadzero2005 (Apr 13, 2006)

gehr said:


> He said it well for Tech's statement, so I changed it so it says it well for you! The biggest oil disaster in histroy and this guys says this...........and Americans wonder why the rest of the world think they're idiots!


Here is how I feel on the situation with BP and the Oil Spill

Do I believe BP is fully responsible for the oil spill, deaths of innocent people, the failure of coastal fisheries and the downfall of the way of life in the Gulf? ABSOLUTELY

Is it going to change the oil that I have been using for over 10 years? NEGATIVE

Why would I change oil when clearly this happens



Piston said:


> You do know that BP supplies other oil companies with raw oil right?
> So even if you don't buy BP gas/products, you still buy BP indirectly.
> Supply & demand
> 
> Oil companies need it, BP supplies it.


To be on the save side gehr, you better start investing in an electric car and pray that your local electric company doesn't blow up :thumbup:


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## pturner67 (Dec 27, 2002)

BP has some responsibility for the spill...but the initial failure came from cement failure (done by Haliburton). Let's also not forget the fed moving in slowly. Bottom line is there is plenty of blame to go around.

http://media.nola.com/news_impact/other/oil-cause-050710.pdf


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## AudiSportA4 (Mar 3, 2002)

Seems like the whole thing was overblown.


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## Kanoa9321 (Jun 20, 2002)

why don't you just sell your car and go live in a hole, because the gas in your car and the gas that brought your groceries to the store and the computer you are reading this on probably all came from the Middle East which has cost the world millions of lives over the years.


What about all the chinese made items that are made by people working for $0.25 an hour. Isn't that just as inhumane as killing fish and wildlife?


You burning non BP oil in your car is still indirectly killing animals too by pollution. 

Its a sad and sick world we live in today, we are all killing each other slowly.

If you really what to try and make a difference, I would go on vacation to Florida and only eat and sleep at Mom and Pop type restaurants and hotels that have been effected by the decline in tourism.


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