Technical Cheap oil?

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Technical Cheap oil?

loserscar

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Not had my twinair long, and I'm planning on twice yearly oil changes.

Asda do a fully synth 5W-40, C3 rated oil for twenty one quid.

B&M do Carlube 4L for 16.99.

I've got a feeling that both oils would be fine, and that Fiat approved ones may have been tested for their ridiculously long two year advice.

Anyone think that four 17 quid oil changes over a two year period is better than one 60 quid one?

Cheers.
 
Asda do a fully synth 5W-40, C3 rated oil for twenty one quid.

B&M do Carlube 4L for 16.99.

Not all oil labelled as fully synth is created equal. The cheaper ones may be formulated from a group 3 hydrocracked mineral base oil, which can legally be sold as fully synth in the UK (though not in Germany IIRC). The more expensive brands will be formulated using a truly synthetic group 4 polyalphaolefin oil.

Also when considering the relative costs, don't forget the price of the filter - on a TA, that's not insignificant. The difference in price won't be as great as your figures suggest.

Personally I'd shop around for a good quality PAO C3, and change it every 9000 miles, or annually, whichever comes first.

I'd agree Fiat's 18k oil change recommendation is too long.
 
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I've used "cheap" oil for the past 10 years, never had a issue though I do use a flushing agent (some like/hate these) change the oil (now) every year rather than 6 months, so if you're going to do it every 6 months or even every year I do t see an issue.
You may wish to use a genuine oil filter, 30 years of oil changes, and only once had an issue with pattern part filters,, a tiny shard of metal from the non genuine filter bust the balancer shaft oil seal, my wife almost ran the engine dry of oil due to it pouring out, thankfully all good but at £300 all to save £5 vs the genuine part.
 
6 monthtly oil chsnges are a waste of money and ecologically unsound.
I'd raather hsve quality oil and 2 yearly changes, unless ther car was only doing very short journeys with time to cool betwen them.
A lot of wear occours on start-up and this is one area were better oils can help. Unfortunatly the latest oil standards reduce the amount of sulphur and phosphorus. This makes them poorer lubricants particularly at start. Al ot of wear can happen at the first start after an oil change as it takes longer for the oil pressure to build. Priming the tnew filter with clean oil helps here.
Compromise, quality oil ( I like Morris Lubricants) once a year.

Robert G8RPI.
 
I never knew that. Thanks for the info.

Is the likes of ASDA's 'own brand' fully synthetics as good as the more expensive 'magnatec' synthetic oil which shares the same shelf?

Magnatec is a budget cracked hydrocarbon oil. Castrol's premium product is Edge FST, which in the recommended 0W30grade, is a true fully synthetic oil.

Personally I wouln't use Magnatec in a TA, and Castrol don't recommend it, either.
 
Not all oil labelled as fully synth is created equal. The cheaper ones may be formulated from a group 3 hydrocracked mineral base oil, which can legally be sold as fully synth in the UK (though not in Germany IIRC). The more expensive brands will be formulated using a truly synthetic group 4 polyalphaolefin oil.

Excellent info, I might contact Carlube.

The car I've got is five years old, with ridiculously low mileage, and has probably only had two oil changes. One at 18k, and one when I bought it, at 20k.

I'm not sure that the plastic dipstick is white when new, but it's now tan, getting darker towards the top.

I'm not sure if this indicates that the oil has been working a bit hard.
 
Well the 4Ltr size Carlube Triple R Fully Synth 5w40 in B&M at £16.99 is sold in other nameless motoring outlets at £29.99

I used it last week doing oil change on sisters Astra H an d could not believe it was so cheap. Other motor products in B&M at very competitive prices and is not cheap crap but genuine items/quality brands (e.g. redex Fuel additives, T-Cut all a lot cheaper than most outlets)

I'd rather use that twice per year (running at £32 pa) than just one change, especially for stop/start motoring and short runs
 
If you really want to know, get your oil lab tested.

Our Prius, you know that does a million stop/ start cycles every time you drive it, and only does our short shopping trips (2-4km return), running on mineral oil only requires a change every 9 months - that's with a safety margin, you could stretch it out to 12 months. I can't imagine the torture scenario that requires a non-hybrid car on synthetic oil to be changed every six months, you'd probably have to sit in the driveway and start your engine on the hour for a couple of minutes 24/7.

With a fleet of cars and up to $150 per oil change, a few bucks spent on establishing oil degradation patterns was well spent.
 
I always used Petronus Syntium 3000 AV in mine. It was the correct spec, and probably the same as the recommended Selenia oil as they are the same company. Euro Car Parts used to sell it for around £20 for 4l but I was shocked when I checked just now that it was over £40!

Costco often have offers on Castrol Edge.

I'd be wary of using cheap oil in a TA as the MultiAir unit relies on the oil to work properly. The cam chain will also benefit from good oil. Each to their own choice, though.
 
Ah oil paranoia syndrome setting in. If you are using the correct spec oil for your vehicle you'll be fine. A much talked about topic in all car forums. Owners will have their own chosen engine oil which will make them feel safe about their engines health. I'm with the......changing oil & filter regularly. I certainly would not want to change what certain individuals oil habits are, but I would just like to add after forty odd years driving/working on cars I've never came across engine failure due to using what's deemed as inferior oil. Lack of maintenance is by far the biggest culprit here.
 
Ok, so I no longer own a Fiat 500 and when I did, both of them, they were only ever serviced by Fiat for the 3 years each we owned them, so I never changed the oil once in either of them,

My Saab 1.9 Tid on the other hand, it's only ever me that changes the oil and filter, every 5000 miles and I do use cheap 5w30 acea C3 supermarket branded fully synthetic. Indeed, only last week, I bought 4 litres of the stuff from Tesco for £12. (y)
 
Download the spec sheet of the oil you use and see the differences.

I agree with Jrkitcing, Castrol Magnatec is awful, and it had high oil consumption!
I switched to Aral 5w-40 and it hardly uses any, I only needed 6 liters of oil for 30,000 kilometers over 2 years and that includes the oil change itself. So 2.5 lt oil consumption in that time with my hard driving, absolutely nothing!

So instead of worrying about changing your oil all the time, I would better change it once a year and put good stuff in, and if driving a lot/hardly, check the oil and make sure its fully topped up!


Ahmet 'revlimiter' Douas, exceeding 6,000 rpm's in the Fiat 500 1.4 on a daily basis over 140,000 kms!
 
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