I thought this would be the PERFECT test car for the Castrol Edge as being an old car, this will really test out its protective properties. Also, it’s a heavy car with a 2.8cc engine so fuel consumption is generally on the high side. Since owning the car in December 2009, it’s been running on an average 6.3 – 6.4km per litre of fuel. It’s on a strict diet of RON95, being my daily drive and the ever rising cost of RON97.
My Castrol Edge Experience
To be honest, I never thought I’d get this far. It all started when I was browsing around paultan.org (blatant plug not amounting to a bribe) after a late night session of NFS Shift - coincidentally, after an abysmal attempt at the Nordschleife track. As an avid reader of paultan.org (again… not amounting to a bribe or anything…), I’ve seen the posting on the Castrol Edge Experience Contest before, but never really paid any attention. Firstly, as evident from my NFS career, I suck at racing. Secondly, I’m not really into contests and such. Somehow that night, fate (or boredom) led me to click on the link.
The Online Contest
Round 1… hmmm… looks simple enough. Any car/racing fan worth his salt knows about the ‘Ring. After a few clicks, round one DONE! Ok, confession… I google’ed.
Round 2… slogan. Ok, not so simple…. Not at some ungodly hour in the morning its not. Nevermind, I’ll do it later (read: totally forgot about it until I nearly missed the deadline). To cut it short, I quickly wrote something and submitted it just in the nick of time. “Well, that’s it I suppose” I quietly thought to myself, and went on with life.
A couple of weeks later, I got a call from a Harvinder telling me I’ve made it to Round 3!! Wohoo!! I later realised the call was from THE Harvinder of Driven – love the show man! Anyways, thus begin the next step, FREE OIL!!
The Castrol Edge Review
First, let me introduce you to the test subject of this review, my trusty old 97’ BMW E38 with a M52B28 heart. To a noob, it’s a 14 year old BMW 728i.
I thought this would be the PERFECT test car for the Castrol Edge as being an old car, this will really test out its protective properties. Also, it’s a heavy car with a 2.8cc engine so fuel consumption is generally on the high side. Since owning the car in December 2009, it’s been running on an average 6.3 – 6.4km per litre of fuel. It’s on a strict diet of RON95, being my daily drive and the ever rising cost of RON97.
So, anything that can save me on maintenance and fuel, whilst giving me more power is a definite winner my books. Apart from that, I’m pretty particular as to what I use in the BMW. It’s currently running on a top end German fully synthetic engine oil, so any improvements will be a good testament to Castrol.
Finally got round to the appointed Castrol Auto Service centre on the LAST day of the oil change deadline. The CAS was quite impressive. Clean workshop and professional mechanics all the way. They quickly got my oil and filter changed and even cleaned my engine bay.
Alpha Car Sunway Damansara...
Open up baby!
Fill em up, liquid gold....
Kudos to Alpha Car in Sunway Damansara.
Ok, before I start telling you what happen next, here’s some of the tests that Castrol asked me to do as part of the experience:-
1. Listen to the engine during acceleration and city driving to see if it’s QUIETER.
2. Feel how the car performs to see if it’s LIGHTER or any overall improvement in PERFORMANCE slightly.
3. Finish a tank of Fuel and see if it’s more ECONOMICAL.
So, simple, it has gotta be quieter, lighter, performs better and more economical. Goddit!
Here’s where my first problem came about. You know the “PERFECT” test car I was telling you about. Well, it’s not exactly perfect as I later found out. You see, being the flagship model for BMW in its heydays, it was targeted at the captains of industry, leaders of economies and well, generally people with lots of money. They are also people who live in big villas on top of hills or on private islands and have memberships to private country clubs. People who pay to be shielded from the real world you and I live in. BMW knows this. So, they built a car with enough sound insulation, you could drive pass a KISS concert and not hear a thing.
Ok. May be not... but it’s a quiet place to be in.
Its soooooo quiet in here....
So, with the radio off, I went and took it for a spin round the Sunway Damansara area to simulate city driving. Then, I stretched the legs of the beemer on some straight stretches nearby. On both occasions, to be honest, I really could not hear much difference. Inside the car, it was as quiet as before and on acceleration, I heard the sweet sound of the inline six, as expected. Not any softer, nor louder. Testing it with the windows down didn’t really help either. Wind noise covered everything.
So, first test was inconclusive, more the fault of the car rather than the oil. However, the difference I felt was when the engine was idling. The slight vibration from the engine was no longer there and it seems to be idling a little smoother.
Next was to see if there is any difference in performance. Here comes problem number #2. Now, the E38 7 series is a heavy car. Wiki tells me it is somewhere between 1.7 to slightly over 2 tonnes. The M52B28 puts out roughly 190hp on crank. Sounds decent, but if you put things into perspective, its power to weight ratio is close to a 1.3cc Myvi.
The heart of the beemer....
So, the car naturally feels relatively ‘heavy’. The Edge didn’t really do much for it. I could not feel any changes to the throttle response and the car was just as ‘heavy’ as before. Even when I shifted the steptronic box to manual mode, I could not feel any difference in the performance.
So, did it improve performance or feel lighter? Again, honestly, it wasn’t noticeable even if it did. However, just like the first test, the car on hard acceleration in manual mode, seems to run smoother and again, with less vibration, especially above 5k RPM.
Finally, the fuel economy test. My regular driving route takes me through roughly 50% highway and 50% city road. As mentioned earlier, the E38 does around 6.3 – 6.4km per litre of fuel. Since the test was done across the Chinese New Year holidays, the route pattern was slightly off the regular one with more driving on suburban roads ferrying a full load. And the final problem - I nearly couldn’t finish off the tank in time for the submission. So it was with great relief that the fuel warning light turned on the morning of the submission dateline!
Full tank in.....
Refill @ 75 litres....
475.8km.... btw, it was a hot day....
Phew..... A trip to the petrol station and a few clicks of the calculator, 75 litres brought me 476km, or roughly 6.35km per litre. Conclusion – no major change in fuel economy. However, I have to say that this is not yet conclusive as one tank over a different use doesn’t really prove anything. I’ll be monitoring this over the next couple of tanks and see if there is any real savings. Nevertheless, I’m glad that it didn’t make fuel consumption worse.
Overall Conclusion
Not bad for a 14 year old hunk of metal....
Did the Castrol Edge revolutionised my driving experience? Truth be told, not really. Was I disappointed with the product? Again, truth be told, not really too. In fact, I was quite impressed that my engine vibration has been reduced noticeably, which hopefully means that wear and tear is reduced as well. The noise test was a non issue for me anyway since the car is inherently quiet inside, but on other cars, the difference may be more noticeable. Performance was also not really important for me for this car and I am happy at how the engine feels at higher revs. Finally, although fuel consumption did not improve, that was based on the first tank and on a different route and load than normal, so some slight upside possibilities. All in all, seeing that it was up against a top end engine oil to began with, the Castrol Edge 5W-40 more than held up well. And if my fuel consumption eventually drops, that'll be the icing on the cake.
Review DONE! Thanks for reading and if you all please excuse me, I got lots of practice to do. Now, where did I put my NFS Shift CD........
