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Industry Impact VLS has played a vital role in providing clarity in an evolving industry. Over the past 10 years, OEM and industry bodies have introduced many new specifications as well as upgrading or sunset established ones.
Since 2013, four different ACEA engine oil sequences have been released for Passenger Car Motor Oil, or light duty, and Heavy Duty Motor Oil applications: • ACEA 2010 • ACEA 2012
• ACEA 2016 • ACEA 2021/22
Each new set of ACEA engine oil sequences creates a significant workload for lubricant marketers and manufacturers to test existing products against the new market standards and/or develop new products to meet new categories. Upon the publication of a new set of ACEA engine oil sequences, lubricant marketers and manufacturers have a maximum two-year transition window to upgrade to the new sequence. New Technical Data Sheets must be produced to reflect the new sequences. All this interpretation of new market standards leads to the likelihood of confusion, misuse of claims as well as inadequate removal of obsolete and misleading communications.
Vehicle manufacturers and lubricant organisations are committed to delivering improved performance, engine durability and reduced emissions. But this results in significant change. VLS has hosted events to help manufacturers and marketers understand the new sequences, as well as produced other materials to communicate the changes with the industry.
OEM changes have also had an impact. For example, some manufacturers have withdrawn support for different specifications being claimed on the same oil. New specifications have been introduced that are not backwards compatible to achieve greater fuel economy. Specifications can be updated with the same reference, meaning that they change over time.
Passenger Vehicle Example: VW Polo A 2021 VW Polo 1.0 mpi requires an SAE 0W-20 engine oil complying with the latest VW 508.00 specification, part of which mandates very low high temperature, high shear properties (HTHS) to improve fuel efficiency. HTHS measures the viscosity or resistance to flow of an engine lubricant at elevated temperatures under constant shear.
48 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.177 OCTOBER 2023
This oil would be unsuitable for a 2017 VW Polo 1.0, which requires an SAE 5W-30 oil conforming to the older VW 504.00 specification, with higher and exclusively different HTHS properties.
Use of a VW 508.00 compliant engine oil in place of VW 504.00 would potentially result in accelerated wear of engine components. In contrast, a VW 504.00 compliant engine oil instead of VW 508.00 would affect emissions and fuel economy.
Commercial Vehicle Example: Volvo VDS-5 Volvo VDS-5 is a new heavy duty fuel-efficient diesel engine oil specification with an SAE viscosity of 5W-30. Designed for the latest 13L engines (Euro VI Step D), it is not backward compatible with previous Volvo Long Drain Specification fluids such as a Volvo VDS 4.5 SAE 10W-30 grade.
The lower viscosity can result in lower oil pressure, which could lead to multiple dashboard warning triggers. It is, however, expected to deliver over 0.5% fuel economy improvements versus 10W-30 oils.
VLS has worked hard to help manufacturers and marketers understand and adjust to these changes, including highlighting where claims can and cannot be made or removing retired or obsolete ACEA engine oil sequence claims that may be misleading end users and are no longer relevant.
It is interesting to note that following the formation of VLS 10 years ago, additive companies have reported an increase in lubricant blenders requesting and verifying candidate data packs to ensure that the appropriate test data is available to support product performance claims.
The scope of investigation for VLS goes beyond the European SAIL programme In 2017, ATIEL, the Technical Association of the European Lubricants Industry, announced a new Compliance Policy to support lubricants marketers who were seeking to make valid performance claims based on the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) Oil Sequences.
In order to make the claims, lubricants manufacturers had to comply with the European Engine Lubricant Quality Management System (EELQMS) - an overall system which incorporated a range of standards, test
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