XSeries-forum

I just bought a Castrol edge 5W-30M (for my 2005 E53 3.0 Diesel) from Amazon which was they stated as:
Suitable for ACEA/VW/BMW/Porsche/Mercedes
List Specifications ACEA C3, BMW - Longlife-04, MB-Approval 229.31/ 229.51, Porsche C30, VW 504 00/ 507 00

Upon getting the actual Item, there is no mention of BMW on the rear label. My last oil service was with a 5W-30M which actually lists BMW on the rear label.

The Castrol website is also showing 5W-30M as recommended while the 5W-30 LL as alternative recommended to confuse things further

So I guess the question if both oils are actually fine for bmw or maybe I should stick to the M variant

The only real difference is if you are using 20k mile change intervals which is when you need Long-Life oil. BMW used to say that if you don’t use LL oil at any change then you drop to 12,000 miles or 12 month intervals and you can’t go back to long service from then on. What difference it makes in reality I have no idea and it may not matter on a car of that generation 17 years later.

I am averaging about 3.5K miles yearly now that I don't have to drive to work