I see there is quite a spread in cost of fully synth. oil on eg ebay. eg £19. to £30 for 5/30(40). Are the more expensive ones (Castrol) worth the extra? I usually go to Halfrauds but 1st time try online for this. :-)
Buying syntheic engine oil on the web
Mar 11, 2013
11 Replies
You need to get the exact spec of the oil you use - API and CCMC/ACEA numbers as well as just plain viscosity. A brand name - like Castrol GTX or whatever isn't sufficient as the formulation changes over the years. And quite a bit of the oil on sale cheaply will be to an older spec.
I tend to make a couple or so phone calls to local motor factors.
I can usually get down to £16-20 for 5 ltrs.
By the time you add postage to an online purchase, I can't see it being economic.
Always check that the product meets or exceeds your car makers specifications. Any decent oil will have this marked on the can.
Meets yes, exceeds, not always as the reduced levels of some additives like ZDDP can have very detrimental effects on older engines.
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As long as it meets the spec quoted by the manufacturer I don't see any problem. I've been using 'no name' brands in my car since the warranty ran out, still running well with 145,000 on the clock, doesn't use any oil. Personally I think frequency of oil change is more important than spending extra on the oil. I'd rather spend half as much and change it twice as often.
Quite - mainly applies to pushrod engines.
But where do you get a synthetic engine to use it in? grin.
Brian
Yep, in the Halfords sale at Christmas they had fully synthetic (5/30) for £10 (4litres). I'll bet it's closer to £40 now!
For the past few years I've been buying fully synthetic for under £20 for 5 litres and at that price I don't mind changing it more often than recommended.
When I had my RX8 ... a dealer
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were one of the best deals.
They used to give discount to RX8 forum members as well
I always used local factors until they didn't have and couldn't get the specified oil for the Subaru. Now I use opieoils.co.uk and buy enough for free delivery. Please reply to group - email address is not monitored Ian
Not just pushrods, cams acting directly on flat tappets, particularly narrow lobe multi valve engines that are proven to run for decades and hundreds of thousands of miles on early 1990's spec (API SG/SH) synthetic yet have significant cam and cam follower wear issues with anything API SM ->
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