[Closed] Car engine oil?

Try Opie oils.
Put the number plate in and they'll give you some options, depending on how rich you feel.

Yeah but they are quite often wrong, they give the wrong oil for my Focus for example.

Look in the table in the car's manual. It may also say what you need on a sticker under the bonnet.

Yeah but they are quite often wrong, they give the wrong oil for my Focus for example

Really? Fair enough, it's been ok for us. Depends on the car I suppose. I've usually decided what oil I want first anyway.
Usually 10w40 for our elderly cars.

it will say in the manual, what specification it needs to meet or exceed. Then you just check what your buying has that approval.
should be in the format PSA XXXX, for peugeots i think.

Peugeot reccomend:

5W30 TOTAL QUARTZ INEO HTC (PSA Standard B71 2297)
All engines after July 1999 excluding engine emission reference - RFJ/RFH/3FY/3FZ/UHZ

Id be interested to know what your local garage put in it though.
Do they keep a whole range of oils in stock for all the different engines they see, or do they have two 25 gallon drums. One for petrol engines, and one for Diesel.

Who knows.

Yeah but they are quite often wrong, they give the wrong oil for my Focus for example.

Look in the table in the car’s manual. It may also say what you need on a sticker under the bonnet.

More likely is the manufacturer has retrospectively changed the spec, happened to two of my cars, in one instance twice.

Give you local Peugeot dealer service department a call and ask them what spec oil to use. They might also be able to advise you on roughly how much oil you might need to top it up.

eg my Renault Trafic requires ~2 litres from low oil warning line to top of the full line.

Too much oil is bad for the engine too, put a conservative amount first eg in my case 1.5 litres. Give the oil a few mins to settle and check the level on the dip stick and add more if required, up to the top marker, don't go over.

When did it last have an oil change? If it is overdue, take it to a garage and get a change. If you need to limp there, any engine oil should be OK, on the proviso it is going to be drained anyway.

You should be more concerned about what has caused the oil level to drop, especially if within the specified service interval.

I generally go synthetic and find one with some kind of awesome name like SUPERMEGAMAGNATECGTX on offer. The numbers (e.g 10W40) relate to the viscosity at different temperatures, I get one that starts with a 5 as that works best for colder ambient temperatures that we occasionally see in the UK.

Make sure to change the oil filter too, they're cheap.

Is it really a message telling you to top up, or is it a red oil can symbol? The latter is usually the oil pressure pressure light. If this comes on then don't drive it at all. It means it's so low that the pump can't suck up oil at all and major damage is imminent, possibly within seconds.

Oil comes in standard standards which seems to be ACEA, and manufacturer specific standards. Basic engines seem to require an ACEA standard, the handbook will tell you. They seem to be incremental so a later standard with a higher number supercedes earlier ones. It's bog standard Halfords or Asda fully synthetic oil.

Manufacturers have particular specs which are important, e.g. a VW PD diesel engine with long life servicing needs I think 507.00. This is also in the manual. On the back of the bottle it will show all the standards it adheres to which is usually several. This is why some oils say "for VW" or whatever on the front.

squirrelking

More likely is the manufacturer has retrospectively changed the spec, happened to two of my cars, in one instance twice.

Yes that's quite possible as Halfords, ECP and some others also have it wrong, (and the battery as well).

Check the receipt for your last service for what kind of oil they put in it?

Always remember Rule #1 - any oil is better than no oil

I dont know much about cars but the symbol for engine top up oil has come on,

Please go and read the manual to confirm if this is low oil or no oil pressure.

The latter is very serious - a friend drove her Zafira, via school and shopping, to garage, it siezed on the roundabout in front of the garage. Dead car time.

Id be interested to know what your local garage put in it though.
Do they keep a whole range of oils in stock for all the different engines they see, or do they have two 25 gallon drums. One for petrol engines, and one for Diesel.

Unless it's something really unusual there aren't that many specs. e.g. (There will be exceptions so don't trash your engine based on this being advice, it's not) all ford cars from the last 20 years or so can use the same 5W30 synthetic, the latest version will be compatible with DPF's, add blue, tubro's, petrol, diesel, or your bog-standard NA Duratec. Then recall that Ford share engines with PSA, who share them with BMW, and share models with Toyota, Vauxhall and Mercedes. And you start to see why garages can get oil in a handful of 55gal drums and why Halfords can sell 2 entire aisles of "suitable for ......." oils.

There are exceptions of oil specs and engines that you can't mix, but it's almost by exception (e.g. a classic or track car with reprofiled cams might need an oil with zinc, which isn't suitable for cars with cat's, but you cant put modern oils in or the cam will wear out).

Is it really a message telling you to top up, or is it a red oil can symbol?

On a lot of modern cars (which includes your Peugeot) you will have a message on your display to tell you to top up, usually text in the main screen. If you have the red oil can symbol then, as molgrips says, you've left it far too late and risk doing serious damage.

There are exceptions of oil specs

Yes, the PD long life spec I mentioned is pretty important because the injectors are driven from the cams so it needs extra lubricity to protect those and for a long period of time. There were a lot of PD engines on the road, and long life was the default, so not a small cohort. I don't know what the BMW or Ford specs are for but I would be very wary of dismissing them. If there's a Peugot specific one, get it.

Some oils meet lots of standards, that might be what the garage has in the one big drum. Or it might be that they have a big drum of ACEA C3 which is bog standard stuff that as TINAS says fits huge numbers of cars, and there's a cupboard full of 5l bottles of the less common stuff that you can't see. Or they just might not give a shit and put the same stuff in any old car.

Its an actual message saying top up oil levels.

I have just looked in the manual and its says

'It is normal to top up the oil level between services, it recommends to check and top up oil every 3000 miles and top up if necessary'.

all ford cars from the last 20 years or so can use the same 5W30 synthetic

But does it have to be the right 5W20 synthetic? I have a Focus with the Ecoboost engine, the timing belt runs in the oil and the short life of the belts in some cars (resulting in the oil pump being clogged with bits of belt) is often attributed to using the wrong oil.

Just pop into halfords and put your reg number in the little iPad doo-dahh in the oil aisle. You'll probably only need a litre (generally between min and max is about half a litre, so if you put about 1/4 bottle in and see what the display says. If it's like mine it takes a while to show any change so the gauge won't show it being more full until you've driven it for a bit. Don't overfill it.

But does it have to be the right 5W20 synthetic? I have a Focus with the Ecoboost engine, the timing belt runs in the oil and the short life of the belts in some cars (resulting in the oil pump being clogged with bits of belt) is often attributed to using the wrong oil.

Sounds like they may be new then if they're not 5w30 anymore. But at the time I had two fords (and my parents a 3rd) and bought a big drum to do several years' worth of changes. They had 2 oils at the parts counter, ludicrously expensive 5l bottles of ford branded stuff. Or workshop drums of Millers.

I would say that a timing belt running in oil is exactly the kind of non-typical thing that would require a particular oil spec. I think TINAS is talking about bog standard NA cheapo engines not a small highly turboed car with unusual innovations.

You wouldn't necessarily know that about the belt, so don't assume it'll be fine and follow the spec in the handbook.

Go to your local motor factors, give them the registration, and they'll sell you something suitable.
A petrol Peugeot that age won't need anything special.

Oil recommendations are continually superseded.
What is written in hand book will likely be out of date within a few years, as the vehicle manufacturer changes specifications, and oil suppliers update oils accordingly. The chances are you won't even be able to get the exact specification for an 8 year old vehicle, as the oil will have been superseded to make it compatible with newer engines/specifications.

The last time we asked our main oil supplier about condensing the number of oils we keep, they had over 20 5W30 oils, with very little overlap in applications due to vehicle manufacturer additive specifications.
The result is we keep 6 of our most commonly used oils, and everything else is ordered specifically for that job. The days of a few oils that cover 90% of vehicles are long gone.

We had a 1.6 petrol Citroen Picasso (and 308 before that - glutton for punishment).
That took 5w/30 oil. It was supposed to be a certain type although I can't remember exactly what that was now - C2 springs to mind.
Both cars drank oil, but apparently this is normal.

I used to use either the QX stuff from Eurocarparts or Halfords own brand that was in a dark gold/brass coloured bottle.

I'd be worried about a car (or van) that can have 2 litres added between low and high marks, that seems an awfully big difference when most engines will only have max 5 litres total.

Definitely don't overfill it. I heard a story once about some total buffoon who overfilled his wife's Nissan Figaro doing about a grand and a half worth of damage. The identity of this fool has never been established and the overfilling certainly not divulged to the injued party.

I’d be worried about a car (or van) that can have 2 litres added between low and high marks, that seems an awfully big difference when most engines will only have max 5 litres total.

I think vans have a lot more no? My Merc 6.5l of oil!

Its an actual message saying top up oil levels.

Then you're lucky and a top-up should be fine. Just add small amounts at a time, like others have said. It's all too easy to add too much and risk piston slap aerating the oil or in extreme cases causing hydro lock in the sump.

A petrol Peugeot that age won’t need anything special.

Don't assume that. The engine in my 2013 Fabia is a design from 2007 and requires a specific grade of oil separate from other VAG cars, enough for garages to add a £20-30 surcharge on it's service on top of the Longlife Synthetic oil charge that lots of VAG cars get lumbered with. I once picked my car up from a main dealer service and the engine sounded rough and unwilling to rev smoothly, thankfully I'd only gone 50 yards so turned back round and queried it at the service desk. They checked and the tech had put the standard oil for the earlier engine in and the computer could detect that hence the poor running. They immediately changed the oil and filter with the correct oil - in full view of me in the waiting area so no other work was done - and it ran smoothly after a few seconds of running. Other owners have reported the same thing on the Briskoda forums, it's an issue with the emission system and if it detects the wrong oil it makes the engine run poorly and illuminates the EML if you run for a mile or so. No damage done but it does do some if you run it for a while. Since switching to servicing it myself I've made sure I get the right oil, thankfully Carlube do one that is inexpensive and fully compliant (R-Tec 16) otherwise it would be double the price for the main brand equivalent.

I have just looked in the manual and its says

‘It is normal to top up the oil level between services, it recommends to check and top up oil every 3000 miles and top up if necessary’.

Not unusual. My handbook says usage of up to 1ltr/1000km is normal, they even supply a bottle in the boot when it's new and at every service but mine hasn't needed a top-up ever. It does use oil but only enough to get just under the full mark between services.

My Berlingo had the "Top up engine oil" light a few days ago. Checked the dip stick and it was about 1/4 of the way up between min and max. Its a 1.2l petrol and PSA recommended 5w30 synthetic to top up. I put 250ml in and the dip stick is now just past half way between min and max. Dashboard now says "OIL level correct".

I do pretty low milage so don't usually check il levels between annual services. Previous cars didn't have a sensor for the oil levels so I bet they were on the low side by the time they were due a service.

"Its an actual message saying top up oil levels.

I have just looked in the manual and its says

‘It is normal to top up the oil level between services, it recommends to check and top up oil every 3000 miles and top up if necessary’."
The manual will also tell you what spec oil you need. Not on the same page though, but hidden somewhere in the "specifications"...

Put some Duckhams 20-50 in, be reyt.

I think vans have a lot more no? My Merc 6.5l of oil!

Yup, my old man's Vivaro is a 2 litre block with a 7 litre sump. Big bugger.

‘It is normal to top up the oil level between services, it recommends to check and top up oil every 3000 miles and top up if necessary’.

My EcoBoost is supposed to go for two years/18,000 miles between services, and at the moment it says the oil life is at 67%.

The Yamaha-developed Zetec 1.7 in my original Puma definitely needed some very fancy, and expensive, Castrol oil, and a close watch had to be kept on oil levels and top-ups, because the block didn’t have iron liner sleeves, instead it had a nicasyl plasma-coating directly onto the alloy bores, like Hyabusa motors, and the very last thing you want is worn bore coatings!

my transit custom(2.0) takes 9 litres for a oil change, gets expensive and with the cambelt being in oil needs decent stuff. its in on wednesday for a service and MOT, do it yearly which is about 15k instead of fords stupidly long intervals.