ASTM D4485-01 - 10.12.2001
 
1. Scope

1.1 This specification covers engine oils for light-duty and heavy-duty internal combustion engines used under a variety of operating conditions in automobiles, trucks, vans, buses, and off-highway farm, industrial, and construction equipment.

1.2 This specification is not intended to cover engine oil applications such as outboard motors, snowmobiles, lawn mowers, motorcycles, railroad locomotives, or ocean-going vessels.

1.3 This specification is based on engine test results that generally have been correlated with results obtained on reference oils in actual service engines operating with gasoline or diesel fuel. As it pertains to the API SL engine oil category, it is based on engine test results that generally have been correlated with results obtained on reference oils run in gasoline engine Sequence Tests that defined engine oil categories prior to 2000. It should be recognized that not all aspects of engine oil performance are evaluated by the engine tests in this specification. In addition, when assessing oil performance, it is desirable that the oil be evaluated under actual operating conditions.

1.4 This specification includes bench tests that help evaluate some aspects of engine oil performance not covered by the engine tests in this specification.

1.5 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the standard. The values in inch-pound units are provided for information only.

1.6 The test procedures referred to in this specification that are not yet standards are listed in Table 1.

 
2. Referenced Documents

D6795-26

Standard Test Method for Measuring the Effect on Filterability of Engine Oils After Treatment with Water and Dry Ice and a Short (30 min) Heating Time

D6837-13

Standard Test Method for Measurement of Effects of Automotive Engine Oils on Fuel Economy of Passenger Cars and Light-Duty Trucks in Sequence VIB Spark Ignition Engine (Withdrawn 2022)

D6838-04

Standard Test Method for Cummins M11 High Soot Test

D6975-04

Standard Test Method for Cummins M11 EGR Test

D6891-23

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Automotive Engine Oils in the Sequence IVA Spark-Ignition Engine

D6894-13

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Aeration Resistance of Engine Oils in Direct-Injected Turbocharged Automotive Diesel Engine (Withdrawn 2022)

D6984-18e1

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Automotive Engine Oils in the Sequence IIIF, Spark-Ignition Engine (Includes all amendments and changes 6/23/2022).

D6987-D6987M-13

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Diesel Engine Oils in T-10 Exhaust Gas Recirculation Diesel Engine

D6896-25

Standard Test Method for Determination of Yield Stress and Apparent Viscosity of Used Engine Oils at Low Temperature

D6922-13(2025)

Standard Test Method for Determination of Homogeneity and Miscibility in Automotive Engine Oils

D6923-23

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Engine Oils in a High Speed, Single-Cylinder Diesel Engine—Caterpillar 1R Test Procedure

D6483-04

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Diesel Engine Oils in T-9 Diesel Engine (Withdrawn 2009)

D6557-26

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Rust Preventive Characteristics of Automotive Engine Oils

D6593-18e1

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Automotive Engine Oils for Inhibition of Deposit Formation in a Spark-Ignition Internal Combustion Engine Fueled with Gasoline and Operated Under Low-Temperature, Light-Duty Conditions (Includes all amendments and changes 6/22/2022).

D6594-26

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Corrosiveness of Diesel Engine Oil at 135 °C

D6681-23

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Engine Oils in a High Speed, Single-Cylinder Diesel Engine—Caterpillar 1P Test Procedure

D6709-25

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Automotive Engine Oils in the Sequence VIII Spark-Ignition Engine (CLR Oil Test Engine)

D6417-25

Standard Test Method for Estimation of Engine Oil Volatility by Capillary Gas Chromatography

D7468-22

Standard Test Method for Cummins ISM Test

D7484-25a

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Automotive Engine Oils for Valve-Train Wear Performance in Cummins ISB Medium-Duty Diesel Engine (Includes all amendments and changes 12/16/2025).

D7528-22

Standard Test Method for Bench Oxidation of Engine Oils by ROBO Apparatus

D7549-24

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Heavy-Duty Engine Oils under High Output Conditions—Caterpillar C13 Test Procedure

D7422-25

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Diesel Engine Oils in T-12 Exhaust Gas Recirculation Diesel Engine

D7589-16

Standard Test Method for Measurement of Effects of Automotive Engine Oils on Fuel Economy of Passenger Cars and Light-Duty Trucks in Sequence VID Spark Ignition Engine

E29-22

Standard Practice for Using Significant Digits in Test Data to Determine Conformance with Specifications

E178-21

Standard Practice for Dealing With Outlying Observations

D7563-23

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of the Ability of Engine Oil to Emulsify Water and Simulated Ed85 Fuel

D92-24

Standard Test Method for Flash and Fire Points by Cleveland Open Cup Tester

D93-26

Standard Test Methods for Flash Point by Pensky-Martens Closed Cup Tester

D130-26

Standard Test Method for Corrosiveness to Copper from Petroleum Products by Copper Strip Test

D412-16(2021)

Standard Test Methods for Vulcanized Rubber and Thermoplastic Elastomers—Tension

D471-16a(2021)

Standard Test Method for Rubber Property—Effect of Liquids (Includes all amendments and changes 6/25/2021).

D874-23

Standard Test Method for Sulfated Ash from Lubricating Oils and Additives

D5133-20a

Standard Test Method for Low Temperature, Low Shear Rate, Viscosity/Temperature Dependence of Lubricating Oils Using a Temperature-Scanning Technique (Includes all amendments and changes 6/12/2020).

D5185-26

Standard Test Method for Multielement Determination of Used and Unused Lubricating Oils and Base Oils by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES)

D5293-25

Standard Test Method for Apparent Viscosity of Engine Oils and Base Stocks Between –10 °C and –35 °C Using Cold-Cranking Simulator

D5302-01a

Test Method for Evaluation of Automotive Engine Oils for Inhibition of Deposit Formation and Wear in a Spark-Ignition Internal Combustion Engine Fueled with Gasoline and Operated Under Low-Temperature, Light-Duty Conditions (Withdrawn 2003)

D5480-95(1999)e1

Standard Test Method for Engine Oil Volatility by Gas Chromatography (Withdrawn 2003)

D5481-21

Standard Test Method for Measuring Apparent Viscosity at High-Temperature and High-Shear Rate by Multicell Capillary Viscometer

D5533-98e1

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Automotive Engine Oils in the Sequence IIIE, Spark-Ignition Engine (Withdrawn 2003)

D5800-21(2026)

Standard Test Method for Evaporation Loss of Lubricating Oils by the Noack Method

D892-25

Standard Test Method for Foaming Characteristics of Lubricating Oils

D2240-15(2021)

Standard Test Method for Rubber Property—Durometer Hardness

D7097-25

Standard Test Method for Determination of Moderately High Temperature Piston Deposits by Thermo-Oxidation Engine Oil Simulation Test—TEOST MHT

D7109-25

Standard Test Method for Shear Stability of Polymer-Containing Fluids Using a European Diesel Injector Apparatus at 30 Cycles and 90 Cycles

D7156-24

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Diesel Engine Oils in the T-11 Exhaust Gas Recirculation Diesel Engine

D7216-25

Standard Test Method for Determining Automotive Engine Oil Compatibility with Typical Seal Elastomers

D7320-18e1

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Automotive Engine Oils in the Sequence IIIG, Spark-Ignition Engine (Includes all amendments and changes 6/23/2022).

D2887-24

Standard Test Method for Boiling Range Distribution of Petroleum Fractions by Gas Chromatography

D3244-24

Standard Practice for Utilization of Test Data to Determine Conformance with Specifications

D4171-22

Standard Specification for Fuel System Icing Inhibitors

D4683-25

Standard Test Method for Measuring Viscosity of New and Used Engine Oils at High Shear Rate and High Temperature by Tapered Bearing Simulator Viscometer at 150 ?C

D4684-20a

Standard Test Method for Determination of Yield Stress and Apparent Viscosity of Engine Oils at Low Temperature (Includes all amendments and changes 11/17/2020).

D5967-21

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Diesel Engine Oils in T-8 Diesel Engine

D5844-98

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Automotive Engine Oils for Inhibition of Rusting (Sequence IID) (Withdrawn 2003)

D5966-22

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Engine Oils for Roller Follower Wear in Light-Duty Diesel Engine

D6082-23

Standard Test Method for High Temperature Foaming Characteristics of Lubricating Oils

D6202-02

Standard Test Method for Automotive Engine Oils on the Fuel Economy of Passenger Cars and Light-Duty Trucks in the Sequence VIA Spark Ignition Engine (Withdrawn 2009)

D2622-26

Standard Test Method for Sulfur in Petroleum Products by Wavelength Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry

D4741-21

Standard Test Method for Measuring Viscosity at High Temperature and High Shear Rate by Tapered-Plug Viscometer

D4951-14(2019)

Standard Test Method for Determination of Additive Elements in Lubricating Oils by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry

D5119-02

Standard Test Method for Evaluation of Automotive Engine Oils in the CRC L-38 Spark-Ignition Engine (Withdrawn 2003)

D6335-25

Standard Test Method for Determination of High Temperature Deposits by Thermo-Oxidation Engine Oil Simulation Test

D6278-20a

Standard Test Method for Shear Stability of Polymer Containing Fluids Using a European Diesel Injector Apparatus (Includes all amendments and changes 6/16/2020).

D6750-23

Standard Test Methods for Evaluation of Engine Oils in a High-Speed, Single-Cylinder Diesel Engine—1K Procedure (0.4 % Fuel Sulfur) and 1N Procedure (0.04 % Fuel Sulfur)

D6794-26

Standard Test Method for Measuring the Effect on Filterability of Engine Oils After Treatment with Various Amounts of Water and a Long (6 h) Heating Time