(G) How often do you change oil and what oil do you use?

Hi everybody

I want to know how often you change your oil, filter and what oil do you use?


I´m changing oil and filter, every 10,000kms and using Motul 5w40 X-Cess 8100 Synthetic Oil on 2003 1.8 16V.

I´m doing it right with the type of oil and the time of change?

If it's a fully synthetic then you shouldn't need to change so often - although wont do any harm if you do.

I'd have thought 20Km (12k miles) or 12 mths (whichever comes first) would be OK

thanks for the answer.

Here in Guatemala the Fiat dealer told me than I need to change the oil every 5K Kms (3125 miles) lol, I think they only want more money

Perhaps he's used to cheap mineral oil which should be changed more often

Far better to use the very best oil you can buy but only change it at the proper service interval

At the moment, I only get it changed by the dealership every 12 months as I struggle to do 6000 miles a year. I obvioulsly check the levels every now and again, but the 1.2 uses bugger all oil anyway

You'll find almost as many opinions on here about oil as there are members! Go for a good fully synthetic and change it and the filter every 6 to 10K and you won't go far wrong.

i'm changing oil every 6000 miles on my abarth

i've heard the opinion that fiat recommended service intervals of 10 to 12k for the abarth are not realistic - by this time even the best oil will be well broken up
thats the reason there are so many 2.4 engines with failed bottom ends

My Panda goes in for its second service some time this week and its only done about 3k since the first one ..never the less short trips and much stop start town driving necessitates the annual service..after this one I will be doing all the servicing myself using Selena oil from fiat ..and I will be doing them at 6k and not 12k as given in the service documents..gearbox oil change will come at 30k again using selena oils..just as I did with the stilo..

A top quality fully synthetic will easily outlast a lessor oil (say a semi).

If you want to change such an oil more often than the service interval specifies then that's your choice and obviously wont do any harm.

However, if you mean you intend to use a cheaper oil and then change it twice as often as the service internal specifies then that to me is madness

Far better to spend the extra money on a good oil to start with and only change as recommended

No this is not what i meant and i totally agree with you that this would be madness.
I'm using Mobil1 Super S semi synthetic whitch isn't cheap at all.

The other thing i've got to say is that my bottom end failed when i had Castrol Edge fully synthetic in and was servicing it every 10k.
As far as i remember Stu also used good oil - Castrol Magnatec and his engine failed - the man can speak for himself and say otherwise but my guess is that he serviced it every 10-12k aswell.

I would say that with changing oil should be like with changing cambelt - every one(well most of people) change it well before recommended interval becouse no one knows when it will fail.

Think the last time my oil was changed was at its service, regularly check the oil levels though. The Stilo doesn't loose much if any oil

That's interesting

Did anyone investigate the cause?

Bottom end failure would normally be associated with poor maintenance and neglect (running out of oil being the most common) and you certainly don't normally associate it with using a very high quality oil

No, at that time when facing a hefty bill for a rebuilt i didn't want to spend any more money for investigations. But i asked them to examine the engine for any more damage. They said that despite having 79k on the clock the engine was in brilliant state - no signs of oil strvation at all - no wonder as i was checking the oil level every week. It's was just one bearing that nearly vanished, all other were ok.
I'm not saying that it was v. high quality oil that caused it, i'm just saying that EVERY oil has got it's limited life - it will break up. It just depends on many conditions when.
You can't say that it will definately last for 12k miles, but it will more certainly last for 6k miles. Thats my point.

I hear what you're saying but I still don't follow how this relates to your engine failure? If there was no sign of poor lubrication in the engine then why do you seem to blame yourself for not changing the oil more frequently than the recommended interval. Do you really think it wouldn't have failed if you had

It's only conjecture I know, but there must be many reasons why the bearing shell failed. A tiny fragment of metal or other body could have lodged into the oil feed to the bearing and failure would still then occur no matter how recently the oil had been changed. In fact, you'd do better to point your finger at the oil filter rather than the oil if something like that had happened. Then you have considerations of metal fatigue etc.

You could even turn turn this whole discussion on it's head and argue that your engine was destined to fail and might well have failed a lot sooner had you not maintained regular servicing with a top oil brand etc

I'll certainly agree on one point though - changing the oil more frequently than recommended is never going to do any harm

I generally have the oil changed every 6k miles on my JTD, semi-synthetic goes in and the last oil that went in the car was Selenia Turbo Diesel which my local non-franchise garage sourced at 'the right price'.

No particular reason I have it changed at 6k-ish miles other than a strong desire to see the engine last...... so I take care of its servicing as though it were something more 'exotic'

As a sceptic of most modern servicing schedules (particularly timing belt replacement intervals) I suppose I spend an above average amount on keeping things 'sweet' but although nothing is certain it gives me some assurance things should be ok.......