Oil change coming up. What oil ??

I take the same approach on my 200Tdi. Have used Difflock's Fully Synthetic oils for a couple of years now with very good results. Not the cheapest though but a definate noticable improvement over cheapo-bog-standardo oils i have used in the past.

The chap there is also very informative and you can by in 1L bottles so you dont have stacks left in the garage.

I have MT75 in the Gearbox, Trojan in the axles and transfer case and "the other one" they do in the engine - cant remeber its name though (think thats the right way around!). For the sake of completeness I have 1 shot in the swivels.

The engine oil is good, but i think the "best" / most noticable differnce was when i changed the gearbox oil to MT75. Even after long (2-3 hours plus) motorway runs at 70mph the gears dont crash or stick when approaching round-abouts etc. Very good.

I have nothing to do with Difflock, but credit where its due. I think these are good products.

Jon

Twas Thu, 14 Oct 2004 12:15:28 GMT when "Hirsty's" put finger to keyboard producing:

Ref synthetic oils, I read in a book recently ("off-roader driving" by Tpm Sheppard) that wear is virtually nil in an engine run on synthetic oil, I find this a very bold statement but if it is true then it's interesting. I thought about synthetic for my old engine but I understand it'll piss out through the old seals, so I currently use

20w50 mineral oil. I have been considering stripping and reconditioning the engine (or doing a recon exchange with someone who knows what they are doing, after which I would certainly consider a synthetic oil if the above claim has alot of merit.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

We don't get Comma oils here in NZ but a quick look at their website shows that their diesel oils (including the synthetics) only meet the older (and lower) API specs of CF or CF-4. IMO any oil that doesn't meet a spec newer than 10 years old (CF) or 14 years old (CF-4) should be treated with due suspicion. Additionally they make and sell oil additives - says a lot about their oils that they feel a need to market additives for them too. I'd steer clear of the minor oil players - I run PennzOil in my own vehicles, and either Pennz or Caltex products at work. Caltex Delo 400 in a 15W/40 is semi-synthetic and would be ideal for the Tdi. I'm sure our resident oil expert will have a more technically supported opinion shortly.

Yuk - it's made to "stick to metal" and according to tests here it carries all the swarf around the engine and doesn't deposit it in the filter very well leading to increased engine wear.

Only if you run with the ultra lightweight synthetics like the 0W30 and similar, synthetic oils of the same viscosity as your normal mineral oil don't seem to give much trouble in this regard.

should

I don't know who that is but I, for one, more ore less agree with you. I didn't know Delo 400 had gone semi-synthetic though. Are you sure? All TDi 200 and 300 engines have always needed an SHPD oil for their standard service intervals. There is no reason today to use one with a specification of ACEA E3 or/and API CH4 which are as good as anyone should need in the most extreme of duty cycle.

If it carries any wear particles around the engine then it will certainly be pumped through the full flow filter and will therefore be caught there if big enough to worry about.

Huw

On or around Thu, 14 Oct 2004 15:05:02 +0100, Jon enlightened us thusly:

the only thing I've found against 75 in the gearboxes is that it can be balky and stiff when seriously cold.

Huw wrote: There is no reason today to use one with a

Correction. There is no reason today ** NOT ** to use one with a

Huw

Not really sure what the specs should be but having had a look at the can the listing at the front is

ACEA A1 B1

API SL CF

Does this mean they meet the new spec or not ?? The can of Magnatec GTD I have has;

API CF

ACEA B3

I presume this one is OK ??

Tia John H

My error - there is a fully synthetic Delo 400 available too, but Caltex's own tests show equal performance from the conventional Delo 400 range.

I would not personally be happy with any of those specifications in a

200/300TDi. You should specifically seek out and use an oil that meets either

ACEA E2 or better still E3 and E5. [E4 oil is better still but not warranted for this application]

MB 228.1 or better 228.3 [228.5 is equivelent to E4 above and both are generally synthetic oils for extreme long and severe duty]

API CG4 or better CH4 or CI4

Volvo VDS11 or VDS111

For those in the Southern Hemisphere JASO DHD1

Be aware that just because an oil might have the magic word "synthetic" on the can, it does not follow that it even meets the standards quoted above unless stated on the can or data sheet. There is no justification to using the E4 or mb228.5 specification with normal recommended drain intervals [perhaps I should not have mentioned them] as all the 'better' specifications above will exceed the manufacturers specification by a good margin.

Viscosity is a separate matter and 15w/40 is good almost anywhere except where temperatures below -5C is routine [not just occasional] where a 10w/30 or lighter oil according to application chart is better.

Huw

API CF is a 1994 diesel oil spec that has been surpassed 3 times since then - it's likely to be obsoleted in the near future. An contemporary oil meeting only this spec tends to be a sign of a lack of development on the part of the manufacturer, and I'd prefer to use an oil with some recent development.

ACEA ratings areat the link below - I'd be looking for a B4 compliant oil.

The link below gives details of the API classifications.

Perhaps you mean Delo Gold formulated with something called ISOSYN technology but not specifically claiming to use synthetic base oil? This monograde range of oils would not really be suitable AFAICS, not only because it is a monograde [although this might be perfectly acceptable where you are] but it has large gaps in its specification list. CCMC D4 for instance but not the SHPD entry level D5, although both specs are long obsolete. mb 228 but not 228.1 through to 228.3. These ommisions could be because the oil is a monograde and the specs call for multigrade, I'm not sure and I'm too tired to look it up. It does meet JASO DH-1 though, which is odd because ordinarily if it meets this it should also meet the parallell standards of API CH-4 and ACEA E3 but these are conspicuous by their abscence. In any case, this oil is not available in the Northern Hemisphere AFAIK.

Huw

Thanks Huw & everyone else here, makes more sense now.

John H

Ordinary Delo 400 is ISOSYN technology too!

On or around Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:03:59 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:

having said all that...

LR's minimum oil spec for the TDi engines is ACEA B2:96 or API CE*. For V8s they say ACEA A2:96 or API SH.

Nothing says you can't use a better oil, and no, I don't know if the standards quoted are equivalent, just that's what the book says. Exceeding the minimum standard can't be a bad thing, exceeding it by a long way may well not be justified.

You can buy for example Castrol's racing synthetic stuff (the one that's

0W60 or somesuch grade) but it's bloody expensive, and probably only justified if you do indeed go racing.

I'm not sure that an oil rated "only" CF is necessarily a sign of no development, unless that's the manufacturer's premium brand. It might be that they simply continue to make and sell the older spec as a cheap oil for older engines that don't require the latest spec oil.

• so says HBoL. all the handbooks are outside in the rain. CE sounds a tad low compared to ACEA B2, but it might be right, they're all different tests and standards, after all.

But, apart from marketing bullshit, what does it mean? It only meets the specifications it meets and is certainly not up to the next step which is mb228.5/ACEA E4 or what is commonly known as '100,000 km+ oil'.

Huw

For the TDi you *can* use an oil that exceeds ACEA B2 but, at least my book said to use a CCMC D5 oil for changes. D5 is long obsolete but ACEA E2 is equivelent and should be the minimum used today. Since superior E3 oils are commonly available and cost not much more, then there is no possible reason not to use E3 oils. These will also likely have an ACEA B4 rating in certain viscosities.

It will certainly not be justified to use an E4 or mb228.5 synthetic, or in Morris's case a semi-synthetic, oil in this engine unless you anticipate completely missing the occasional oil change by accident, even then an E3 oil would likely be fine. These Ultra High Performance Diesel [UHPD] oils are extremely expensive and are for specialist applications. You may guess that I use them LOL The ones I use are occasionally Morris Ring Free Ultra and as a rule Fuchs Titan Cargo 1040, mainly for my Land Cruiser which I extend the drain interval by over *2. If I was confident of the filtration I would not hesitate extending by *4. It is 3.5 times more expensive than ACEA E3, API CH-4 oil.

Huw