:yeahthat:
One way to assess the quality of an oil is to look at the TBN. This is a measure of how good an oil is at neutralising acids. The attached chart came from
here.
Since the 500 requires a C3 spec (low ash) this has caused the TBN to drop - this can be seen in this
spec list on Valvoline (highly regarded oil does well for a Class III in Sheer tests) where the ACEA C3 spec was 7.5 and the standard 5W40 for older engines is 10.3
TBN figures for the following...
Selenia is stated as
> 7
Castrol Edge is
7.6, Amsoil European spec is 8.0
M1 has a high TBN but did poorly in a Sheer test and does not do an ACEA C3.
So IMHO one can do better than the Selenia particularly given the price. Once the oil has the Fiat Spec Approval 9.55535.S2 you're fully covered.
With the requirement of ACEA C3 for the new range of 'Fiat' engines it would appear that the oil needs changing more regularly given the drop in TBN.
Lastly, Mobil 1 only guarantee their oils for
10K and for 12 months. Any more requires a long life filter. If the TA filter costs £20 odd it would be wishful thinking that it was one.
This is all getting silly and we're getting deep into the murky depths of an oil thread which is amazingly tedious, utterly boring and a waste of everyones bandwidth because not one person on here actually knows what all that much about oil. Even when you see Opie oils posting on various forums, there's usually at least a faint whiff of finely atomised turd in the air.
Fiat spec a fully synth ACEA C3 grade 5w40 oil for all petrol engined 500's (Abarth aside) so if you use that you'll be fine.
As for Mobil guaranteeing their oil for a certain length of time and mileage, what does that even mean? Oil companies offer no warranty with their oil and if you threw a piston through the block because the oil wasn't doing its job then they won't be paying for it anyway, you will. Whilst I wouldn't leave oil in for 18k miles, if Fiat say that you can then you will be able to do so without any devastating consequences. Of course an oil company is going to try and say that you should change your oil more often, that way they'll sell more oil! Most cars don't die because of oil related engine issues anyway, in fact how often do you hear of people having to have engines on everyday cars rebuilt? Modified cars yes, cars which are thrashed yes..... but not your average car which potters to the shops or goes up and down the motorway.
Please step away from google and stop reading up about oils from random sources like people on forums, that person probably doesn't know what they're talking about and just googled it the same as you did, except they think they know enough to make a sticky on the subject..
The C3 rating isn't low SAPS (
Sulfated Ash, Phosphorus, Sulfur), it's actually mid SAPS and the C3 rating actually encapsulates a few other ratings like A1,A3 (fuel economy and long life for petrol engines) and B1,B3 and B4 (Fuel economy, extended drain and being for direct injection diesels)
We're kidding ourselves if any of us think that by looking at TBN, HTHS and other spec numbers that we can tell what is a good oil or what is a bad oil, for that you'd have to have a number of identical engines and run them in lab for millions of miles and then check the wear on the engine and also on catalysts and o2 sensors and the like. The best you can do is buy the right oil from a decent company. Personally I like Castrol Edge as it's a well known brand and readily available, if you want to use Fuchs, Comma, Mobil, Shell or whatever then that's fine, if you want to use Asda oil which meets the grade then that's fine also, but personally I'd stick with a better known name.
To summarise......
Use an oil which meets the ACEA C3 specs, is fully synth and is 5w40.
Change the oil and filter at or before 18k miles or 2 years, if you do less than the low mileage service interval, you'll have to change the oil and filter every year. This is what Fiat Powertrain Technologies (the people who develop the engines and decide what the service intervals should be) have decided. Do you trust FPT or do you trust some random guy who read up on a few oil sites, thinks he knows what he's doing and made a sticky? You can guess which camp I'm in.
Don't use an engine flush, if a garage does this to your car, feel free to punch both the service receptionist and the technician in the face, say Daniel from Fiatforum said it's OK and you'll be fine.
Do feel free to change your oil and filters more often than Fiat state that you MUST change them, this is a good thing but it is not absolutely necessary.
Please please please let's not get into yet another boring, tedious, monotonous and ultimately pointless oil thread based on supposition and misunderstanding. It serves no purpose when the only things you need to know are in the handbook
(oil grade and interval) and common sense
(changing the oil more often if you want to and buying a decent brand of oil).
.
