Which engine oil?

marktheharp

Probably gonna be all different advice.
But have 3 petrol cars at home .2 are  over 10 years old.ford Ka,Fiat punto and Dacia Sandero. Non injection.box standard..
What the best run of the mill engine oil.to top up for everyday running?
 What grade and does semi synthetic or fully syntbetic matter?
All the advice on the net is different.

 Punto 13 years old, has done 72000 miles cam belt changed recently.Ka has done 22000 but 12 years old ,cam belt just changed and Dacia is 8 years old with 45000 miles.cambelt changed recently too....
Thanks in advance.
Cheers Mark. 

RaymondLin

The correct answer is what it says in the manual.

If you go to Euro Carparts and put in the plate it will give you some answers, for me it gave me 2 different grade, I just picked the one in the manual.

monquixote

I always used to go to Halfords look it up in the book and buy that.

TheMarlin

Don’t skimp on oil. It’s a false economy. 

blobb

These guys know their stuff.

https://www.opieoils.co.uk/

crunchman

RaymondLin said:

The correct answer is what it says in the manual.

If you go to Euro Carparts and put in the plate it will give you some answers, for me it gave me 2 different grade, I just picked the one in the manual.

For a higher mileage car, you might want to go for something a little thicker.

ronnyb

Avoid the cheap oil you find in supermarkets and the like. They may conform to the correct specifications but will deteriorate a lot quicker than quality stuff. 

digitalscream

Just a point of interest...my car's a 2001 MG ZS with the KV6 engine in it, and the manual was right at the time (saying 10W40) but wrong now. Basically, 5W40 didn't exist in any usable form at the time the engine was made, but now it's universally recommended.

It pays to hang around in specialist forums, if you've got an uncommon or old car.

marktheharp

Thanks for info everybody.
Cheers Mark. 

Emp_Fab

If it's of any help, I recently put the proper spec 0W-30 fully synthetic Castrol Edge in my car.  Not cheap as my engine takes 6L of the stuff - but - what a difference....  the engine revs more freely, the power delivery is smoother and I'm getting a few more MPG as well.  

ronnyb

I've been getting Quantum 5w40 fully synthetic 5 litres in a cube from 'vwmotorparts' on ebay. £19.99 with free postage. It's my local VW dealer that's selling it and Quantum is the oil that VW use. I believe it's made by Fuchs. 

m_c

Synthetic means nothing with modern oils, it's just marketing nonsense.
The big thing is what additives are added to the base oil, which is why there are multiple options for each viscosity. 

As others have said, look to see what's suggested for each car.
Unless the cars are burning/losing a lot of oil for some reason, I wouldn't be too concerned about the exact oil used for topping up, given none of those cars engines are likely to be too fussy about what oil is in them.

marktheharp

Thanks .
After some research the punto and Ka use 5w40 fully synthetic and the dacia 10w40.so have ordered some 5w40  

RaymondLin

marktheharp said:

Thanks .
After some research the punto and Ka use 5w40 fully synthetic and the dacia 10w40.so have ordered some 5w40  

The other way to tell is look at your last service and it will say what your garage used.

crunchman

RaymondLin said:

marktheharp said:

Thanks .
After some research the punto and Ka use 5w40 fully synthetic and the dacia 10w40.so have ordered some 5w40  

The other way to tell is look at your last service and it will say what your garage used.

Quite possibly the cheapest stuff they could lay their hands on.

It's always worth checking that they have changed the filter as well.  I've heard stories of people having their car serviced and the oil allegedly changed, but coming back with the original oil filter on.

RaymondLin

crunchman said:

RaymondLin said:

marktheharp said:

Thanks .
After some research the punto and Ka use 5w40 fully synthetic and the dacia 10w40.so have ordered some 5w40  

The other way to tell is look at your last service and it will say what your garage used.

Quite possibly the cheapest stuff they could lay their hands on.

It's always worth checking that they have changed the filter as well.  I've heard stories of people having their car serviced and the oil allegedly changed, but coming back with the original oil filter on.

The Grade, not necessarily the brand, unless you needed clarification. 

chillidoggy

Engine oil marketing has more smoke and mirrors than a Russ Andrew’s product.

Jaycee

I bought 5 litres of oil for one of my cars when a mate was with me, it cost me £15 the correct type etc, "I get mine for £3.50" he said,  "yeah and how often do you change your cars?"   I tend to keep mine for 7-10 years on average, until they become un-economical to repair, he probably went through 3-4 in that time 

Haych

Slippery topic.

I usually go for a quality oil but never splash out on stuff like Mobil 1.  Millers, Motul and lots of others will do a quality oil at a reasonable price.

My car is quite a high miler now, pushing 144k miles.  It also has an engine known to use oil.  Oddly enough, if I use an oil with a slightly higher(?) viscosity it tends to use more. 

It leaks a fair amount, too.  I need to replace the sump gasket (another common problem) but it's a bit of a pig of a job so I'm putting it off.

I think the factory oil is 5w/30 synthetic but the manual states 5w/40 or even 10w/40 is perfectly fine to use.  5w/30 seems to last longer, though, so I stick with that.

Seems odd as the general rule years ago was to use a slightly thicker oil with older engines.  There must be some science behind it though.

Generally, though, many online retailers will suggest an appropriate oil via a registration search.  As already stated, ECP or Opie Oils are pretty good.

Sassafras

What's synthetic oil made of?
Is it like soya milk?

Haych

Sassafras said:

What's synthetic oil made of?
Is it like soya milk?

Good question, I often wondered that.  It probably tastes better than soya milk, though.