At the price they charge for Castrol SAF-XO there can be no doubt they "recommend" its use. But to think that it has some special quality that makes it the only aceptable gear oil is to waste money. I wonder how many warranty claims BMW has tried to deny by claiming that Castrol SAF-XO was not used; none I would surmise. I know at least two dealers that do not use it as their standard shop gear oil for services.
[QUOTE=AKBeemer;829945]At the price they charge for Castrol SAF-XO there can be no doubt they "recommend" its use. But to think that it has some special quality that makes it the only aceptable gear oil is to waste money.[/QUOTE]
It has three special qualities
1. It's synthetic
2. It's designed for lifetime fill applications
3. It's the oil the designers of the final drive had in mind when they designed it.
It's simply outrageous to post that that it's specified only because it's expensive. A post from la la land for sure.
Kent, as is often the case with you, your last response contains a touch of gratuitous vitriol. It is not enough to disagree with me, and to perhaps provide some fact or logic to support your position; no, you must throw in a demeaning or belittling comment to fill the factual void. You appear to me to be the grumpiest, most irascible and churlish person on this forum. Fortunately for me I've read enough of your stuff to assign it the import it merits.
[QUOTE=lkchris;830046]It has three special qualities
1. It's synthetic
2. It's designed for lifetime fill applications
3. It's the oil the designers of the final drive had in mind when they designed it.
It's simply outrageous to post that that it's specified only because it's expensive. A post from la la land for sure.[/QUOTE]
Given the track record for final drive reliability, I'm not sure how much esteem I should hold for the designers of the final drives.
[QUOTE=PGlaves;830078]Given the track record for final drive reliability, I'm not sure how much esteem I should hold for the designers of the final drives.[/QUOTE]
That's valid, but it doesn't mean someone else knows of a better lube for this particular design.
[QUOTE=AKBeemer;830072]Kent, as is often the case with you, your last response contains a touch of gratuitous vitriol. It is not enough to disagree with me, and to perhaps provide some fact or logic to support your position; no, you must throw in a demeaning or belittling comment to fill the factual void. You appear to me to be the grumpiest, most irascible and churlish person on this forum. Fortunately for me I've read enough of your stuff to assign it the import it merits.[/QUOTE]
Sorry to harsh your mellow, but you'll get any kind of vitriol there is proposing "grassy knoll" conspiracy theories that are simply your way of bashing BMW and, I suspect, serving to support some fantasy that you could design and produce better motorcycles and specify better lubricants.
BMW's not perfect, but a BMW club forum IMHO isn't the place for unfounded bashing of the brand. Whether it is or isn't, you'll get a response from me when you do it.
You are a funny guy.
It was completely unreasonable of me to think that the heads of a corporation would ever make a decision to promote a product solely to improve their bottom line.
I think one of the problems we face with lubricant pricing is due to a lack of local availability of the European lubricants. WeÔÇÖre only one (albeit large) market for BMW, but the engineers and their lubricant resources for design and specification are in Europe. Those lubricants are readily available to the European market (and the UK), but have to be imported to us here in the US (or alternatively sourced - like Spectro for the engine oil). I donÔÇÖt think that the dealers have an option but to use the specified lubricants (and have to import them to meet their service and warrantee needs).
Perhaps itÔÇÖs financially wasteful, but I go to the dealer to purchase the BMW or MINI branded Castrol motor oil for our cars because itÔÇÖs a European product that I canÔÇÖt buy off of the shelf anywhere else that I know of. Similarly, I purchase the BMW branded (made by Spectro) non-synthetic motor oil for the motorcycle. I will also seek out the specified lubricants for the final drive, gearbox, splines, accordion boot seal, etc. ThatÔÇÖs my personal choice and I pay what I consider to be a relatively small premium to get the specified products. IÔÇÖm sure other products will work fine, but this is the path that IÔÇÖve chosen.
The Castrol SAF-XO is imported by my local BMW Motorcycle dealer and they resell it for about $50/L in 1L bottles. The BMW auto dealer sells the same stuff in bulk for about $23/L. I bought several liters in bulk to change the front and rear differential oil our ÔÇÖ06 BMW X3 (and to have on hand for the 09R1200RT gearbox and final drive). At $23/L, itÔÇÖs below cost for the motorcycle dealer. The BMW motorcycle/auto dealerships may work out a deal between themselves to jointly supply their service centers. HereÔÇÖs a picture of the BMW mechanic using the imported Castrol SAF-XO in a final drive during a customer training session last winter.
[IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/10/25/y3yvareb.jpg[/IMG]
Cheers!
I use Bel-Ray Assembly Lube for splines and Royal Purple High Performance Marine 80W-90 synthetic GL5 in the final and transmission. I chose them for performance and availability. So far, so good.