What engine oil does everybody use?

agw_01 said:
It's a 15 year old 2 litre turbocharged engine that has just ticked over to 130,000 miles. I drive it hard nearly everytime I take it out.

If changing the oil every 6,000 miles keeps it running as well it is does now, then who cares if it costs £40+ to do so.



Errr, to keep my engine heathly? More-so when I start modding the engine with bigger turbos and free flowing exhausts... pushing ~250bhp out of an engine originally meant to produce 197bhp needs looking after.



Where did I say I was looking for 'cheap' motoring? If I wanted cheap motoring I'd buy a 1.2 Corsa, not a 200bhp turbocharged car.
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Tim said:
I've done a trackday before yeah, not a regular though.

It's a high revving whiney 4 pot with no service history, swapping the oil is cheap and doesn't take very long. Why not?:)
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thats what i was commenting on...



anyway just seems a utter waste of time/money as your oil probably hasnt even changed color by the time you remove it.
 
whatever diesel oil I can buy from the nearest petrol station when the light comes on. Its a company car so not too worried.
 
agw_01 said:
Pre-filling the oil filter and then turning the engine over on the starter until the oil pressure light goes out is the way I do it :)
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Not quite as easy on a Honda when it screws on the back of the block sideways. ;)

You could do that without the engine on, if you cared enough?
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How do you mean? One would assume that with 3k changes you do care enough?
 
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You can change oil too often, the anti-wear components get more active as the oil ages and the Aryl/Primary ZDDP turns to secondary.

3k is just wasting money
 
Jonnycoupe said:
How do you mean? One would assume that with 3k changes you do care enough?
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I just try and change it twice a year, which is roughly every 3-4k. It's not OTT imo.

A Hamp filter is £7, 4L of Castrol GTX is £19. It's not expensive. In fact I went with Motul 6100+ this time, which was about a fiver more.

If I was using a fully synthetic oil I'd probably go with the 6k interval.
 
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You're probably right but my car seems to burn fully-synth oil too quickly, or it's getting past the rings :\

Admittedly i've only tried one type of fully-synth though, Silkolene Pro-S 5w40.

My logic is if it's burning oil that's designed to last and therefore defeating the purpose of a longer lasting oil, I might aswell stick in a cheaper semi-synth. I don't think it'd save me money anyway, the Silkolene stuff was ~£50 inc delivery.
 
Get a different oil, ideally one that isnt pushed on every single forum I've ever come across by some clown.

I dont think there would be any reason no to use magnatec for 6k. Hardly uses a drop in my DC2.
 
This has come close to what I wanted to ask about now . . . A lot of MX-5 owners swear by changing the oil every 3k! I just changed mine as I did 3k going across europe, and driving it hard the whole way. For a few months at least I'm going to be using it to commute, and this means lots of mile pretty quickly.. like an oil change every 6 weeks!

Now I drive it hard, and I drive it often, and it's got like 150k on the clock . . . should I change it every 3k? I actually care about this car other than my last . . .
 
Whatever I happen to be able to get hold of. Normally Castrol GTX because I like the bottle.
 
AtomicBanana said:
This has come close to what I wanted to ask about now . . . A lot of MX-5 owners swear by changing the oil every 3k! I just changed mine as I did 3k going across europe, and driving it hard the whole way. For a few months at least I'm going to be using it to commute, and this means lots of mile pretty quickly.. like an oil change every 6 weeks!

Now I drive it hard, and I drive it often, and it's got like 150k on the clock . . . should I change it every 3k? I actually care about this car other than my last . . .
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To be honest, you will get a lot of responses that differ wildly, but my opinion is that it depends on the quality of the oil and how quickly it degrades when you use the car the way you do. The way to be sure is to put some fresh oil in and drive it as normal for 3k miles, then send a sample away to be analysed, which will tell you if the oil has broken down and will also give a good indicator as to the engines condition.

Personally I can't see any car needing an oil change every 3k miles unless the oil is rubbish or the engine reaches melting point on every journey.
 
read up the info on sites where theyve done oil analysis.

fully synth is within spec until abuot 7.5k-8k miles according to some US BMW site. i do about 5k on semi synth, but am gonna change early on this sump cos of my nurburgring trip. i was seeing 120* on the oil
 
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