Hi,
It's time to give the car a service and I'm going to it myself this time.

In terms of oil I've done a bit of research and as I understand it either a 5W-30 or a 5W-40 fully synthetic (such as Castrol Edge Titanium) should be fine - is that correct?

I live in Lisbon so the weather doesn't really get below 5 degrees c in the winter. I also drive it pretty hard at times so I need an oil to cope with that!

Thanks in advance.

The book should give the correct spec, if you can get one, use a Fiat filter, Iridium plugs are a good upgrade as you can leave them alone for 5 years.

Cheers

Question to all members, could I use 10w40w semi synthetic instead of fully synthetic in our 90+k miles 09 1.2, just its so much cheaper, Shell Helix and Mann filter for £25 being used on very short trips or is it best to stick to fully synthetic ?

John202020 said:

Question to all members, could I use 10w40w semi synthetic instead of fully synthetic in our 90+k miles 09 1.2, just its so much cheaper, Shell Helix and Mann filter for £25 being used on very short trips or is it best to stick to fully synthetic ?

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Ultimately the risk of using an oil that's different from the manufacturer's recommended spec must be yours and yours alone.

That said, the core 1.2 engine was originally specified (though not in the 500) to run with a 10W40 semi synthetic oil, with a change interval of (I think) 12000 miles.

Thinking about Fiat's reasoning for the spec change, moving to a 5W40 full synthetic reduces engine friction a little, crucially by enough to get the car into what was then the £30RFL band; it also enabled the oil change service interval to be extended to 18k without risking a shedload of warranty claims.

So on a reasonably driven 1.2, personally I wouldn't be too worried about using a decent 10W40 semi unless you're planning on redlining it, though I certainly wouldn't push it past 12k/12 months, whichever comes first. If you're a really gentle driver, then in the UK climate, I'd seriously consider using a 5W30 instead.

The TA & Mjet are totally different propositions; for these, stick to the recommended oil specs if you don't want problems with the uniair module (TA) or camchain (1.3).

Thank you it's driven with engineering respect and never goes over a year between changes 5w30 fully is what our Mazda uses so it would be much easier to use the same for both.