Wanting to carry out my own oil & filter change, I decided to check prices on the Halfords website. Conveniently, you only have to enter your vehicle registration number to get their recommendation, and in my case along with Halfords own brand they suggest Castrol Magnatec 10W40 A3 B4 Oil.
Good, I thought, as I strolled across to the Castrol website to read up a little. Here too you can enter your reg, but this time the recommendation is for Castrol Edge 5W40. Oh!
And then reading further on their product range, Castrol recommend Castrol GTX for cars with over 70,000 miles on the clock,(mine has 90). Three differing results. Both sites would have known the age (and a rough guess of the mileage) of my 12 yr old Honda Civic with 90K with the vehicle registration, yet didn't opt for the GTX.

And I dare not further muddy the waters by sifting through Mobil's offerings, and then wondering about the unused quantity of Wilkinson supermarket oil in my garage!!

And, on own brand supermarket oil, would this be likely to be like supermarket petrol which apparantly is refined by the big petrochemical names, thus meaning Wilkinson supermarket oil could be Castrol GTX by another name!!
Aspirin please.

what rating of oil does the car's handbook recommend?
Honda's manual is more likely to be correct than anything else

And can I suggest you'll do better to get your oil from a motor factor such as Unipart? the have several locations in Kent
The garage who did your services in the past would have got their oil there - or somewhere like it (unless they bought in buk from an oil factor)

Search Unipart Car Care Centres (http://www.uccc.co.uk/search/index.aspx?search=awBlAG4AdAA=)

Simply use the car owners manual to identify your oil spec.

You wont usually get a recommended brand but you can choose one with your spec that suits your budget.

You know you can do it! :ok:

50 years ago (!) the universal engine oil of choice was Duckham's Q20/50.

Of course nowadays they have special oils for diesel engines and also synthetic oils.

Simply use the car owners manual to identify your oil spec.

You wont usually get a recommended brand but you can choose one with your spec that suits your budget.



Absolutley correct.

I found a good oil (Carlube) to the right Ford spec for my Galaxy at B&Q recently at £15 for 5 litres.

Another thing they now sting you with - many use 4 litre containers, quite alot of cars are over 4 litres oil capacity, so you have to buy a 1 litre bottle at high cost. Buggers.

Use good oil, change the oil & filter at mileage specified / at least once per year. As my father used to say, "Oil is cheaper than bearings"

Drain it via the sump plug too, don't suck it up the dipstick tube like most garages do - leaving all the shit in the sump.

Lid

mr milo
that unipart oil is crap, if your car just has an oil warn lamp all will seem ok (all the time the oil lights out everythings fine and dandy- yes) but if you have a oil px gauge after around 1k the px drops off quite markedly, that scares me - what sort of wear is happening now?
i have seen this on my triumph trident and mentioned it to a friend with a late 2.9 granny - he changed to halfords oil for older cars ( which looks like duckams) and the prob has gone away, be carefull cheap is not allways best.

In the days when I could do my own oil changes I always kept a pot magnet attached to the sump near the drain plug. Remove it as you undo the plug and all the swarf it has collected comes out with the oil. Always drain it hot.

As others have said, be guided by the owner's manual.

vulcanised
be guided by the owners manual

er wont that say take it your local friendly dealer?

"that unipart oil is crap"

Utter bollox
I took a Vollswagen Golf through 120,000 miles in three years using Unipart oil. When I crashed it the odometer was showing around 190,000

I've used it since in other cars and never had a problem. The point is making sure you have the correct grade of oil for the engine. If you use something thats the wrong grade, then you will get pressure problems

mr milo
my trumpet has clocked up 82k on silkolene, thats pretty damm good for an air cooled 40 yr old bike and the buddys granny is around 110k but i am sure it will now do a lot more now he`s using some decent oil
lets face it unipart are a cheap car part factor, not an oil company- the crap they produce is on a par with cheap supermarkets
if you really want some rubbish from them try the aftermarket brake discs!!! ha ha.

How About Morris Lubricants? A late friend of mine who ran his own agricultural engineering garage swore it was the only stuff to put into Mini pick ups (proper farm jobs, not those pouffy things they flog these days) He reckoned it was the only oil that would stand the shearing from the gearbox.

Mr Good Spark is that a new Triumph or an Original one? The reason I ask is that old British bikes tended not to be too fussy about oil pressure.
I remember a mate of my brothers buying a Norton Atlas. A major selling point was the oil pressure gauge mounted in the top of the petrol tank. After a month or so the reading fell to almost zero so he took the bike back to the dealers and complained. Long story short after exhaustive testing Norton came up with a solution. they swapped the pressure gauge for a clock! :};)

Cross post it's an original Triumph.

I've been doing my own oil changes for almost forty years and I've rebuilt and tuned a good few engines, too. From what I've read (and seen on my oil pressure gauges), there's no such thing as "cheap" oil. Supermarket oil is often recycled stock and it won't stay in grade for long If your engine is worn, you might find it burns cheap oil, too.

Good oil, changed regularly, is the best insurance for your engine. The owners' manual gives the best advice.

mr windy
yes morris are a good outfit their 20/50 is spot on for older engines, and yes the trumpet is a t150 1972, mine since 1981 on the road ever since
mr torque
if your engine is worn? it wont stay in grade

hmmm not sure about that - if it wont stay in grade its for one of two reasons
the engine is overheating taking the oil beyond its operating temp
the oils a load of shit


gs

Good spark

I'd never trust Silkolene. Many years ago I had a 2-stroke (a heavily tweaked MS TS250/5) seize at 90mph on a dual carriageway (the A30 east of Yeovil) as I overtook a petrol tanker. The engine seized because the oil failed to mix properly - I'd just filled up with oil/fuel
I was lucky to survive that - I managed to get the clutch in while my nose was over the front wheel, while the tanker driver did a crash stop.
if you think Silkolene in reliable then thats your problem. You're entitled to your opinion, but if you really believe it then you're a bluddy fule
At the time I wasn't the only one suffering - I knew many others whose engines had seized after using the stuff

Point remains though that you can buy BRANDED oils in Unipart a lot cheaper than you will in Halfords

As for the brake discs, they've always supplied me with APLockheed or Girling as far as I can remember. You suggesting they're a problem?

edit
A PS
"my trumpet has clocked up 82k on silkolene"
Considering most of those had porous crankcases which were impossible to stop leaking, the chances of any oil actually remaining inside a Bonneville or Trident engine long enough to degrade is pretty small
Besides which a 40-year old pushrod engine with oversized bearings, the basic design of which dates back another 20 years or so is hardly going to put anywhere near the stress on the oil as a more modern japanese engine, even one 12 years old
You could run that triple on tar and it would probably still run. Probably better actually as it would stop leaking....

Unipart are a cheap car part factor


Way back in 1974, they were the spare-parts department of British Leyland.

Most Vehicle Manufacturers Parts Departments supplied only original parts from the same sources as the production parts, but Unipart moved into the Pattern Parts business (where non-original suppliers copy the design of the original manufacturer).

Some of the Pattern Parts suppliers match the original specification and the product is as good as the original production part, but some 'overseas' sources are inferior and inadequate . . .

12 yr old Honda Civic with 90K

It's not a high performance car, you're not using it in extreme conditions, pretty much any motor oil will do. At that mileage the engine is likely to be showing signs of wear, so you'd be better off at the higher end of the viscosity range. I'd go for a cheap 20W/50 from a reputable supermarket/garage/accessory shop, unless it has starting problems in winter in which case you might need something a little thinner.

Also, good advice about draining the crap out of the sump via the plug, not sucking it out through the dipstick. Do it when the engine has cooled down a bit after a run and is warm, not hot, in case you get any on you.

Also you should change the filter - I know you said you will but a lot of people don't and it's like bathing and putting on your same dirty clothes!

Finally, have you thought about disposing of the old oil. Most service stations will take it for you but some people put it down the drains, which is a real no-no!

Drain it via the sump plug too, don't suck it up the dipstick tube like most garages do - leaving all the shit in the sump.

Except that some modern cars no longer have oil drain plugs!

As far as oil disposal is concerned my local council recycling centre takes oil.

Reference the discussion on 'pattern' parts. There are pattern parts and pattern parts. If it is dirt cheap there is often a reason.

There is one well known company who, in their early and less reputable days, would sell you brake pads which were made of something similar to cardboard. Like tyres I will only buy branded pads and discs.

On the subject in question cheap oil is like cheap petrol. Petrol is delivered from the same mass storage depots whichever the branded outlet but what differs is the additives put in at the time of loading of the delivery tanker. I never use cheap supermarket petrol. Personally I believe the same goes for oil and, as was so aptly put, oil is cheaper than bearings!

Use the oil specced by the manufacturer.

Be aware that there is a difference in a can of oil claiming to meet XX spec, and a can of oil approved by XXspec.

A '92 Honda is probably not too fussy, but modern stuff is, and the results of shortcuts can be horrendus.

I once ran a BMW 525i, the proper oil for a service cost me £85 trade....

google o.p.i.e. oils [without the .'s]

check by manu spec, car type or even brand.

sell you a complete filter/oil service kit if you want.

VERY good VFM as you can compare spec's brands and select.

or even ask them for a reccommendation!!

ps shell ultra helix was a particularly good buy in VW507.00 spec last month!!:ok:

Warranty required Mobile 1 for that stupid Mercedes I had.

HOW MUCH????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU MUST BE AVIN' A LARF.

(that does not translate into Texan, so they didn't know what was the matter with me.)


IT TAKES HOW MUCH??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


They have a special room in MB places for traumatized customers to recover.

My Toyota Landcruiser Troop Carrier has 720,000Km on it and has been fed a constant diet of Valvoline Super Diesel for the entire time, changed every 5,000Km (it has a turbocharger fitted and turbos work the oil fairly hard).

I hope to get a million kilometres out of the old girl before I take it back to Toyota for a warranty claim! ;)

Any thoughts on using diesel oil in a petrol engine? I'm thinking of using it in a VW aircooled engine for an aircraft.

Any thoughts on using diesel oil in a petrol engine?
Friend of my father's used to put diesel into the tank of his 1920's Cerano for a bit of upper cylinder lubricant.

Can anyone explain why engine oil of diesel engines is so black? Is it just blowby? (he asks with trepidation)

My old diesel Peugeot 106 used to bung in Wilkinson own brand oil £3 for 5 litres, changed every 6k, did that for 100,000 miles.
Be careful changing to synthetic, did that on a MR2 and the crank seals started leaking.

Can anyone explain why engine oil of diesel engines is so black? Is it just blowby? (he asks with trepidation)

Diesels leave a lot more unburnt particulates than petrol engines. The correct oil contains a lot of detergent additives to keep the particulates in suspension, rather than dropping out and clogging up the engine oilways.

Top quality oil is expensive stuff these days, especially for extended oil change intervals. It's just cost me over £65 to put new oil in my Volvo. Not including the filter, that was extra. But it will be in there for 18,000 miles.

I'll go with Tableview's sage words about my Civic probably not being overly fussy within reason about it's oil, and with Milo's suggestion about using Unipart (theres an outlet a couple of miles down the road in Chatham) I've priced up a DIY service including oil, oil filter. air filter and plugs at £65.38.

By the way, there's another can of worms regarding the plugs you know. If you have a moment have a look at THIS (http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_175021_langId_-1_categoryId_165736) which is the recommended plug according to Halfords.
Rubbish said the chap at Unipart 10 minutes ago who will sell NGK plugs at £3.60 each. Who to believe?

PS. Checked my service booklet earlier this morning. To my surprise the last service was Feb 09 when I has the cambelt & water pump done at 60,000 miles, athough did a DIY oil & filter change last year.

Go forth fellow Ppruners... go forth and check your service booklets. Do it now. If you've left your service longer then I have then you must 'fess up and reveal the naked truth. I'ts all in the strictest confidence you know!

There was a time when the most important thing was to make sure you added STP http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/evil.gif

Solid Rust Twotter,

I'd ask a LAME before substituting diesel oil in a petrol-engine, especially a VW conversion for an aircraft. Diesel oil and petrol-engine oil are very different products. Diesel oil must resist far higher pressures at the oil-rings for the seal needed to obtain the high compression typical of diesel engines.

Take your owners manual down to a local motor factors (I use Camberley Autofactors but German Sweedish French are also good). They're all on-line as well. Buy the oil the guys there reecommend - they spend all day every day talking with mechanics. The oil filters / air filters etc are all usually OEM quality as well.

You may need a special socket to remove the oil filter (BMW's have an insert type filter) so pick one up at the same time.

It's a piece of cake to change oil and filters - you'll find the oil from motor factors is about half of what you'll pay at a retail outlet - fully synthetic for my old BMW ( 6 litres!) came in at £30. BMW price for the same oil circa £120:\

You may need a special socket to remove the oil filter (BMW's have an insert type filter) so pick one up at the same time.

I used to just belt a screwdriver through disposable oil filters (in one side out the other) and use it to turn the filter - after draining the oil of course.

You can add Bon Ami to a fill of cheap oil to run in an engine - but that's another chapter in RJM's book of 'mechanical maintenance with finesse'.

I used to just belt a screwdriver through disposable oil filters (in one side out the other) and use it to turn the filter after draining the oil of course.

I had a mate do that and buggered up the relief valve which protruded into the filter. :ugh:
I also spent a pleasant afternoon removing the base of a filter from another mates car after the thing stayed stuck to the engine after the canister tore apart. :ugh::ugh:

And of course the pillock who batted a screw driver through a non canister filter housing. :ugh::ugh::ugh:

remember what the Haynes manual says and never use undue force. ;)

If you can get in there, a pair of gardening gloves usually gives enough grip. If not, the strap ones are good and really fit all.

Best to buy a good filter if only for the stronger steel.

Good point.

A large jubilee clip (hose clamp) in lieu of a fancy piston ring compressor - that was another refinement.

How much force is 'undue'?

Using a piece of wood and a sledgehammer to bash the wet liners of an Alfa 1600 engine back flush with the block face after turning over the engine with the head off to see the pistons move and being very surprised to see the liners pop up.

Adjusting the tappet clearance of a new exhaust valve for a Ford Ten engine by putting the valve in a vice and grinding the end of the stem with a file.

'Unsticking' a Sprite engine from its engine mounts by lifting the front of the car and wheels off the ground by the rings on the rocker cover then jumping on the bumper bar.

Heating a new ring gear in mum's oven before dropping it onto the flywheel.

Cereal packet gaskets for a Matchless...

De-coking dad's lawnmower to improve its performance...

Apologies for thread drift...

Ant
those Bosch plugs are just a marketing gimmick and a way of getting extra cash from you. Go with the NGKs
Whatever you do, don't get Champions

There was a time when the most important thing was to make sure you added STP


Reminds me of one of the first Minis I had - it had been breathed on by a Brighlingsea company and had 13.something to one compression. Mentioned this before, but it would only run on 5 star.

I purchased a tiny bottle of LUBISILL - something like that. Clear liquid. 7/6d which was a lot considering Duckams green oil was not a huge amount more.


Car went like stink, got driven hard a lot of the time, but when I had the head off to do the valves - routine at 10 k with that C-R - there was no sign of wear. Big ends and mains sounded fine. Almost astonishing absence of any indication it had been used. Never understood that. Maybe oil companies bought them out and hid the formula from the world.

The only LUBYSIL I've come across was a cutting fluid for machining, reaming and tapping. Lubysil - John Clayden Lubricants, Norwich, East Anglia (http://www.lubysil.co.uk/Public/Default.aspx)

If you have a Hydra pac, a ten foot scaffold pole and a Gas Axe there's no such thing as undue force.

Prefer to use controlled force myself as hammering things usually ends up breaking stuff.
Amazing what you can do with screw threads, heat and a bit of thought especially if accompanied by a brew*. ;)


*For our colonial cousins that's tea not beer!

Shell used to sell small bottles of methyl benzine. At least our machines smelled like racing cars, or so we imagined.

Sounds a bit like Molyslip, Mr Loose, remember that one?

There is quite a lot of support for the notion that Acetone boosts performance/improves consumption in petrol engines.

Used to be able to buy a gallon of recycled stuff for a quid. (At Tesco's believe it or not.)

Kept me' Mark II Ford Escort going for ages.

Had to stop off from a recent surfin' trip for a litre of the stufff.....cost 20 quid.:*

Is it that essential that we top up the oil companies coffer's? or is any oil, better than no oil?

is any oil, better than no oil?

Our old sump oil would sometimes go into the pre-mix of our mowers and chainsaws. The bar and chain of the old Mobilco Neverstart saw nothing else.

5W-30 is essential for Zetec-engined Fords or tears and gnashing will follow. The C*mma range of everything wet for cars is well-recommended by several garage mechanics I've spoken too and seems a lot cheaper than other similar products.
Ms stevef uses her Clio for two three-kilometre commuting trips a day and it's quite alarming to see the oil filler cap mayonnaise forming in less than a week. Gawd knows what the water and acid content is like inside the sump.:eek:

a litre of the stuff.....cost 20 quid.
:confused:

[quote] Solid Rust Twotter
Any thoughts on using diesel oil in a petrol engine? I'm thinking of using it in a VW aircooled engine for an aircraft. [quote]

Early 911's were recommended to be run on Series 3 ( straight 40 ) turbo diesel oil. That info came from a factory supported driver who used it his 911T that had some incredible mileage number ( in California heat ) on the original engine . We also used same in air cooled racing motorcycles ( Triumphs, Nortons, Kawasaki Z1 ) with no problems. Be aware that many of the current crop of modern oils have reduced quantities of anti wear additives which can be a problem with cam lobe/lifter wear in older or high performance engines.

And an engine in an airplane is several magnitudes of importance higher than one going round in circles on the ground. This site has some interesting info on oils applicable to all.

Joe Gibbs Driven - Racing Oil and High Performance Products (http://joegibbsdriven.com/)

In that old aircooled VW engine you'd be better off using a specialist oil for older vehicles - one which has the required additives (which are being withdrawn on grounds of toxicity and catalyst poisoning)

For instance in UK Millers make a range of what could be described as "legacy" grades. Castrol also have a range available in the UK and USA. Depending on just how old that engine is you may even be better off with a single-phase oil.

Its one of those occasions where you'd do best to pick up the phone and call the tech support team at Millers or Castrol and see what they say.
If you stick a modern oil in it - even a diesel oil - the cams and pushrod ends will prematurely fail

The key antiwear ingredients are zinc dialkyldithiophosphates, but theres a lot more to it than that as anticorrosion additives and detergents also need to be present - and in all cases too much can be as bad as too little

Ms stevef uses her Clio for two three-kilometre commuting trips a day and it's quite alarming to see the oil filler cap mayonnaise forming in less than a week. Gawd knows what the water and acid content is like inside the sump.


Brought back the vivid memory of a friend, yes a girl, but not a blonde, who arrived at my house with her little French car. I offered to look at the engine bay. Removal of the water filler cap revealed a mass of mayonnaise. I reeled back into my wife's arms in horror.

"It's alright," she said, with wide-eyed innocence, "I've got a spoon."

She dashed to the glove box and indeed, produced a plastic spoon. It's task for many months had been to scoop the mess out of the mysterious hole so that water could be added.

"The main use of zinc didiophosphate (ZDDP) is in anti-wear additives to lubricants such as greases, gear oils, and motor oils, which often contain less than 1% of this additive. It has been reported that zinc and phosphorus emissions may damage catalytic converters and standard formulations of lubricating oils for gasoline engines now have reduced amounts of the additive, though diesel engine oils remain at higher levels.

Crankcase oils with reduced ZDDP have been cited as causing damage to, or failure of, classic/collector car flat tappet camshafts and lifters which undergo very high boundary layer pressures and/or shear forces at their contact faces, and in other regions such as big-end/main bearings, and piston rings and pins. Roller camshafts are more commonly used to reduce camshaft lobe friction in modern engines.

There are additives, such as STP(R) Oil Treatment, and some racing oils such as Valvoline VR-1, available in the retail market with the necessary amount of ZDDP for engines using increased valve spring pressures. The same ZDDP compounds serve also as corrosion inhibitors and antioxidants." - Wiki

TZ, Milo and RJM

Ta muchly. Some good gen there. I have yet to build the engine, leaving it for last so as to avoid it standing around doing nothing while I complete the aircraft. Will begin snooping around for decent oil. Got to be some racing workshops around here who know where to get it.:ok:

As you say, 10000' over the Drakensberg is no place to start worrying about your engine.

call Castrol tech support


CASTROL HEAD OFFICE IS LOCATED AT:
10 Junction Avenue
Parktown
Johannesburg
2193
South Africa
Tel Number: +27 11 488 5111
Fax Number: +27 11 643 7269
Technical Queries: 0800 111 551 (Toll Free - South Africa Only)

Honda civic 12 years old? Mine got to 149k without ever leaking a drop. More or less any know brand of the right weight will do just fine. Probably could run fine on piss. Great car. Filter hand tight no tools - rub your hands in soil for grip.