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Technical Twin Air Engine Oil

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Technical Twin Air Engine Oil

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dansdan

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Good evening all,

I have a query about engine oil for my Panda TwinAir 85. Took a reading from the dipstick this afternoon and it is half way between the min & max levels. So went to my local Halfords for the recommended Selenia engine oil, as per the book. They didn't have any and were not prepared to recommend an alternative, what with the car being a 12 plate etc. :bang:

What I'm wondering is, can I safely use an alternative to Selenia, providing it is to the same specification? I don't want to make an 80 mile round trip to my nearest Fiat dealer when I don't really need to !!

Many thanks in advance,
 
Yeah, well worth purchasing it online from somewhere like shop4parts.co.uk

I did that for our old 1.2 500 (still got a couple of litres left of the Selenia Pure K Energy oil I ordered last year).

Not quite sure if they have the TwinAir oil listed but am sure you can give them a call or send them an email. Will be worth buying through them even with the extra postage cost due to the round trip you'd otherwise have to make.
 
dansdan said:
Good evening all,

I have a query about engine oil for my Panda TwinAir 85. Took a reading from the dipstick this afternoon and it is half way between the min & max levels. So went to my local Halfords for the recommended Selenia engine oil, as per the book. They didn't have any and were not prepared to recommend an alternative, what with the car being a 12 plate etc. :bang:

What I'm wondering is, can I safely use an alternative to Selenia, providing it is to the same specification? I don't want to make an 80 mile round trip to my nearest Fiat dealer when I don't really need to !!

Many thanks in advance,
Click to expand...

My 500 TA was half way between min/max when I checked it with less than 100 miles on the clock. Got the dealer to top it up for free.
Checked the other day after about 2400 miles, and it's still at the max mark.

To be honest, I can see why Halfords would be reluctant to recommend an alternative.
 
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Why not just buy an oil which meets the correct specs?

You need something that meets Fiat's S2 spec I believe, for which there are at least 5 different oils to choose from (to my knowledge), including Castrol Edge and Magnatec. Otherwise, any 5w-40 oil with the ACEA C3 spec will be fine and will not void the warranty.

Fiat recommend Selenia because they used to own that brand. Now Petronas owns Selenia but Fiat still recommend the brand probably because they get paid to do so.
 
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There are many oils that meet the required ACEA C3 5W40 spec, some of them with Fiat 9.55535-S2 approval too.

Halfords will have "Castrol Edge 5W40" and "Castrol Edge Turbo Diesel 5W40" and possibly the new "Castrol Magnatec 5W-40 C3" too.

Just make sure it is a 5W40 Synthetic with ACEA C3 and it will be fine.
 
The Castrol oil referred to by David C that's available in Halfords can be got on ebay including post for £34.

In the manual it states that you should be using a Fiat approval spec of 955535-S2. Having just ACEA C3 5w40 should be good enough.

Building on the suggestions from the previous postings I'm attempted to list all the oils that can be used and where they can be got from. Have listed 10 oils of which 7 meet the Fiat approval spec of 955535-S2.

shop4parts - Selenia ‘K’ Pure Energy 5L
shop4parts - Selenia Star 5L – same as Selenia KPE
Fuchs was the recommended ‘value’ choice from opie oils
Castrol edge
Castrol Edge turbo diesel ignore the name same as the‘Edge’, normally cheaper
Motul 5L
Castrol Magnatec - Meets Fiat approval spec – not too sure about it :confused:

These oils do have NOT have Fiat approval 955535-S2 but meets 5w40 and ACEA C3...

Granville FS-PD 5W/40 from here (ack. to Frupi for finding this)
Comma Syner-D 5w40 Engine Oil from here – can be got in some motor factors…
Only PAO (Class IV) oil that I’ve come across is the Amsoil from here. Might be the best oil but they have not applied for Fiat approval spec. Classified as a boutique oil.
 
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Many thanks all,

I was just unsure as it is quite an unusual engine and didn't want to cause anything untoward!!

I've ordered some Selenia from shop4parts.co.uk for £8.50 plus postage so should be with me on Monday.
 
deeyup said:
My 500 TA was half way between min/max when I checked it with less than 100 miles on the clock. Got the dealer to top it up for free.
Checked the other day after about 2400 miles, and it's still at the max mark.

To be honest, I can see why Halfords would be reluctant to recommend an alternative.
Click to expand...
Checked my Panda TA and, like the others,the oil level is between min. and max. which is exactly where the handbook says it should be. Keeping it at max. is not strictly necessary but just a habit we get into.
Mike.
 
pilgrim42 said:
Checked my Panda TA and, like the others,the oil level is between min. and max. which is exactly where the handbook says it should be. Keeping it at max. is not strictly necessary but just a habit we get into.
Mike.
Click to expand...

It's not strictly necessary, anywhere in-between min and max is fine, just like your fuel level.
You are not going to gain oil between services, but you may very well use some oil. Personally, I prefer to have the oil at the max level because like many people I don't check anywhere near often enough.

I can't refer to the handbook, because my car was supplied without one, just a cd-rom and my pc doesn't have an optical drive. :doh:
Does it really say it should be exactly between the min and max? As in, in the middle?
 
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deeyup said:
It's not strictly necessary, anywhere in-between min and max is fine, just like your fuel level.
You are not going to gain oil between services, but you may very well use some oil. Personally, I prefer to have the oil at the max level because like many people I don't check anywhere near often enough.

I can't refer to the handbook, because my car was supplied without one, just a cd-rom and my pc doesn't have an optical drive. :doh:
Does it really say it should be exactly between the min and max? As in, in the middle?
Click to expand...
It simply says "check that the oil level is between the MIN and MAX marks on the dipstick."
You can download the handbook as a pdf from the Fiat UK site. ( Or you can for the Panda - I'm assuming the 500 is there also).
Mike
 
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millns84 said:
Why not just buy an oil which meets the correct specs?

You need something that meets Fiat's S2 spec I believe, for which there are at least 5 different oils to choose from (to my knowledge), including Castrol Edge and Magnatec. Otherwise, any 5w-40 oil with the ACEA C3 spec will be fine and will not void the warranty.

Fiat recommend Selenia because they used to own that brand. Now Petronas owns Selenia but Fiat still recommend the brand probably because they get paid to do so.
Click to expand...

Spot on advice. Im preparing a Panda Twin-Air to have a crack at the London to Cape Town record (got to get there in 11 days 14 hours to beat what was set by a Land Rover Discovery), and we have run-in the engine very carefully using running-in oil (Comma), for 500 miles, and then replaced with Castrol Edge, yes, there are several oils out there that match the specification. Independent Companies that ONLY make oil will make an oil for every popular car on the road (as well as performance oils for minorities).
 
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