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The approved equivalent for any engine oil, with the data sheet to prove it.

LubeSpec reads the technical data sheets of the major oil brands and turns them into one comparable dataset. Look up a specification and see which products carry the formal OEM approval and which only claim to meet it.

BMW Longlife-04 · 5W-307 of 16 results
BrandProductStatus
CastrolGTX 5W-30 C3Approved
MobilMobil 1 ESP 5W-30Approved
Motul8100 X-clean+ 5W-30Approved
ShellHelix HX8 ECT C3 5W-30Approved
ShellHelix HX8 ECT 5W-30Meets
TotalEnergiesQuartz Ineo Long Life 5W-30Approved
TotalEnergiesSporti 9 C3 5W-30Meets
Two Shell oils, one name apart, with a different status for the same BMW specification. Source: manufacturer technical data sheets.

1,700+products

3,300+formal OEM approvals

6major oil brands

Monthlydata sheet check

Approved and meets are not the same thing

Most equivalence lists put both under one tick. For a vehicle under warranty that is the difference between a covered claim and a rejected one, so LubeSpec stores the two separately for every product and every OEM specification.

Approved

The vehicle maker has listed it

The OEM tested the oil against its own specification and put it on its approval list. On the data sheet this shows as a formal approval, often with an approval number. This is what a workshop needs for warranty work.

Meets

The oil maker says it fulfils the spec

The lubricant brand states the oil performs to the specification, without the OEM's formal listing. Often fine for an older vehicle, but not something to put in a fleet contract where warranties are at stake.

In LubeSpec, 30 products list BMW Longlife-04. Six of them only meet it. Several of those carry nearly the same name as an approved product from the same brand, which is exactly where a wrong pick happens.

Three tools on one dataset

Compare, Fleet and Radar all read from the same structured data. A correction made once shows up everywhere, and every answer links back to the data sheet it came from.

Compare

What is the equivalent of this oil, and does it keep the approval?

Search any product or specification and see the matching products from every brand side by side: viscosity, ACEA, API, ILSAC, JASO and OEM approvals.

ForDistributors, workshops and the technical teams at oil brands

Fleet

How few oils can this fleet run on without losing a warranty?

Enter the vehicles and the oils in use. Fleet works out the smallest approved product set in one brand, flags every line where a switch would cost an approval, and prices the change.

ForFleet operators and the distributors who supply them

Radar

Where does our range cover the market, and where are we missing?

Radar reads a national vehicle parc as lubricant demand and lays your catalogue over it, so the specifications you do not cover show up by size of opportunity.

ForOil brands and larger distributors, prepared per market

LubeSpec Compare showing 430 passenger car oils filtered by viscosity grade, with properties and approvals per product

Compare: 430 passenger car oils in one list, filtered by viscosity grade, with the properties that decide an equivalence next to each product.

How a data sheet becomes an answer

LubeSpec does not copy marketing pages or reseller lists. It starts from the document the manufacturer is accountable for.

  1. Collect

    The current technical data sheet is taken from the manufacturer's own site.

  2. Structure

    Viscosity, properties, industry standards and OEM approvals go into one schema, so products from different brands line up.

  3. Check

    Outliers are flagged automatically. OEM approvals, the field where a mistake costs a warranty, are reviewed by hand.

  4. Trace

    Every equivalence and every fleet recommendation keeps a link to the data sheet behind it. Sheets are rechecked monthly.

Who uses it

Everyone who has to answer "which oil can I use instead" and stand behind the answer.

Lubricant distributors

Answer equivalence questions in seconds, prove them to the customer, and see where the catalogue wins or leaves sales on the table.

Fleet operators

Fewer oils in the store room, each one formally approved for the vehicles it goes into, with per-vehicle proof.

Oil brands

Technical teams answer competitor conversions faster, and sales show a customer the switch is safe before the order.

When the data has to live in your own systems

An oil brand showing equivalents on its own product pages, or a workshop network running consolidation on its own range, needs an integration rather than a login. We scope and price that per project.

API

Look up a product, return its approvals, ask for equivalents in a given brand or post a fleet list and get the consolidated range back.

Your branding

Compare and Fleet in your identity, limited to the products you sell, on your domain or internally.

Data licence

The structured dataset as a scheduled export or feed, mapped to your schema and refreshed as manufacturers publish.

Questions we get

What is LubeSpec?

LubeSpec is a lubricant specification database and web platform. It turns manufacturers' technical data sheets into structured data, so engine oils from Shell, Castrol, Mobil, TotalEnergies, Motul and Chevron Delo can be compared by viscosity, ACEA, API, ILSAC, JASO and OEM approval.

What is the difference between an OEM approval and meets?

Approved means the vehicle manufacturer has formally tested and listed the oil against its specification. Meets means the oil maker states the oil fulfils the specification without that formal listing. For warranty purposes the two are not the same, so LubeSpec keeps them apart for every product and every specification.

Where does the data come from?

From the technical data sheets published by the lubricant manufacturers themselves. Each value is captured from the data sheet, structured into one schema and checked, with OEM approvals reviewed by hand.

Which brands and how many products are covered?

More than 1,700 products from six brands: Shell, Castrol, Mobil, TotalEnergies, Motul and Chevron Delo, with over 3,300 formal OEM approvals. Passenger car, heavy duty, motorcycle, gear, transmission, grease and other segments are included. More brands are added on request.

How often is the data updated?

Data sheets are checked for changes every month. Changed values are updated and logged.

Can we use the data in our own website or ERP?

Yes. Enterprise customers get a REST API, the Compare and Fleet tools in their own branding, or the dataset as a scheduled export mapped to their schema.

Who is behind LubeSpec?

LubeSpec is a product of RS Consultancy and Trading in the Netherlands (KvK 80773516). The team has a background in lubricant data and in sales to oil brands, distributors and fleets.

See LubeSpec with your own products

Tell us what you sell or what you run. We prepare the walkthrough with your range or fleet loaded, so the first thing you see is your own situation.

Or email us directly at sales@lubespec.eu

We reply within one working day and only use these details to answer your request.