Management Board

Unconfirmed Minutes from the last Management Board meeting, held on 18th September 2008, are now available to CEC Group members on the CEC Web Site.

TDG-L-100 – Turbo Deposits Test

The Group’s Information Day has taken place and members have confirmed the conclusions reported in the July edition of this Newsletter.

A proposal for the supply of suitable reference oils to complete this test development is being considered by ACEA. No further test development can take place until suitable reference oils are found, when a test plan can then be organized with the assistance of the Group statistician.

SG-L-101 – OM501 Bore Polishing and Piston Cleanliness Test

Data is needed from Reference tests using the High Reference Oil, before analysis can take place to prove suitability of the test.

In the meantime, a large number of candidate tests have been run at individual company’s own risk, pending official acceptance of the test into CEC.  However, it is understood that correlation of products has been obtained by running some of them in both this test and the OM441LA (CEC L-52-97).  
The Group is being requested to run High Reference tests and provide data to the SDG Liaison Officer as soon as possible.  
Whilst ACEA has indicated its interest in a sludge parameter for this test, this does not currently have the support of all CEC members.  For now, the Group members are being asked to collect and retain sludge data.

SG-L-099 – OM646 Wear Test

A piston cleanliness parameter is not being considered at this time.

SG-L-078 – VW TDi

The Group feels the measurement uncertainty is too large to allow used oil TBN to be included as a parameter in the CEC test.

A Round Robin will look in more detail at the reproducibility of the used oil measurement.  As to whether the TBN is a meaningful performance parameter, data was presented by ATC claiming that the used oil TBN was influenced only by the fresh oil TBN.  Oil formulation and oil quality had no impact on the amount of TBN reduction and used oil has no value in assessing the oil performance.  The data will be looked at further in Industry meetings.

SG-L-046 – VW IC-TD

This Group closes with immediate effect, as hardware and reference oils are no longer available. 

The ERC database will still contain data already submitted and allow for any further tests to be registered up to 31st October 2008.  The Test Method this Group was responsible for was CEC L-46-T-93 Piston Cleanliness & Ring Sticking Test (VW SB 1.6 litre intercooled turbo diesel engine) and will now be considered as ‘Unsupported’.

Presentations About CEC Test Developments

It is important to remember that whilst CEC likes to promote its work, presentations outside CEC must be made only with the approval of the appropriate Group membership, as well as the CEC Management Board.

Permission should not be unreasonably withheld, but issues of confidentiality of sponsor-developed tests must be protected.  Any concerns should be directed to the CEC Management Board, via the CEC Secretariat.

Test Monitoring

Important information about the new Test Monitoring System.

If your company is a registered member of one of the Groups listed below AND you are responsible for running the test AND you don’t already have access to the Test Monitoring Web Site at www.cec-tma.net, please contact us.  All reference data must now be loaded onto this Site on an ongoing basis.
Fuels Groups - SG-F-006, SG-F-023
Lubricants Groups - SG-L-014, SG-L-039, SG-L-040, SG-L-085
Transmissions Groups – SG-T-007, SG-T-045, SG-T-066, SG-T-084
SG-F-098 Group will be added soon!

New Biodiesel Lubricant Test Proposal

A Template and Terms of Reference are being discussed within Industry Groups for a new biodiesel lubricant test using the OM646 LA engine, with support from Daimler.

Current discussion is about the choice of appropriate reference fuel types, applicable to Europe.

Proposal to Replace Obsolete L-33 Biodegradability Test

CEC Board Members are allowing this old obsolete method to be updated in a new CEC Voluntary Working Group TDG-L-103.  Its use is for the testing industrial, outboard motor and hydraulic oils and falls outside CEC’s core business interests.

If you are interested in joining this Group, you must commit to attending regular meetings, running the test and /or contributing reference data on an ongoing basis.  Please contact the CEC Secretariat as soon as possible.

CEC Help Desk

Help is available from Lyn, Barry and Monique.  See the CEC Web Site for details:  www.cectests.org