The car manuals I have read so far do not state that one's car must use a specific brand or make of engine oil except that there is a temperature range for which particular oil specifications are more suited to or recommended.

So long as the API rating and oil specifications meet those stipulated by the car manual, that should suffice for normal motoring requirements.

Perhaps for the information and education of all, the MB and BMW model or any other car model and their car manual specifications should be revealed...to see if the API and oil specification of TESCO brand of engine oil can meet or exceed.

If the TESCO specifications are below those specified, then like any other engine oil - they should not be used....unless there are extreme circumstances or emergencies...where any oil is better than NIL.

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Added on July 9, 2012, 5:17 pm

To date, I don't think anyone has shown the goods sold in TESCO to be fakes or recycled stuff.

Anyway why would TESCO invite legal action from authorities, brand owners or consumers for selling fakes or non-genuine stuff ? Is TESCO desperate for profits from the sales of engine oil segment ?

Overall, I am not taken in by the suggestion that the oils are fakes. One can believe otherwise - its up to you.

However, the formulation or the additive package may be different - TESCO ones may sport EU formulation.

To what extent EU formulation is applicable or useful in the tropics may be a subject of some discussion.

Other than differing engine requirements and stresses - EU weather will be different.

Some workshops say that EU formulation is not suitable for M'sian environment.

One wonders about the truth of that statement - when an engine is optimally heated up to normal operating levels - one wonders if the internal heat of the engine components in the EU would be any different to the internal heat of the same engine here in M'sia.

The cars in the EU still require radiators and coolants to "cool" the engine and maintain optimal temperatures inside notwithstanding the cold weather outside.

The temperature meters of the cars in the EU - would it be calibrated differently from those here of the same model car and engine capacity ?

Perhaps the difference would be the start up temperatures of an idle engine in the EU as compared with the start-up of the same engine here in M'sia.