How Often to change the Oil

That didn't convey what I meant either. I give up.

Huw

Try one of the new Haynes manuals, the ones printed on toilet paper. There probably is one for that.

-- Stuart

Any motor factor. They will have specific brands stocked so look them up in your local Yellow Pages and ask what each stocks.

Enter the factor with confidence and insist on a full trade discount. Whatever price they quote you will have VAT added. You can buy in 20 or 25 litre drums or you can have it in 205 litre drums. Surprisingly it is sometimes as cheap in 205 drums at switched on main dealers. I remember a local Nissan dealer promoting its engine oil at a very realistic and competitive price not too long ago. Just because it says 'nissan' on the barrel does not make it incompatible with other brands.

Just buy on the standards met by the oil, not on a brand name.

Huw

Huw

Nothing wrong with it. Most vehicles don't have such a filter setup and National use decent oil.

Depends on the job.

Yup. Open your yellow pages.

Huw (hedydd[nospam]@tiscali.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

And you think your wife is atypical?

If they use decent oil and filters then why change much more often than suggested by the vehicle manufacturer? Why, with decent oil would you say "You can never change oil too many times".

On what basis would you say that changing oil say once a month or 2000 miles is advantageous compared to one year or 10,000 miles for instance? Don't say 'common sense' because it doesn't wash ;-)

Huw

No but it remains a regular service item and is unaffected by the scheduled dealer servicing. I have taught my wife to walk around the car and see if she has a slack tyre before driving. Idiots lights do most other things than goodness. Before 18 months is up you will find almost universal fitting of idiot lights for tyre pressure added.

Huw

Huw (hedydd[nospam]@tiscali.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Apart from the small detail of the senders being unreliable and expensive.

There's been muttering in the Citroen club mag of late regarding the ally valve stems that the C5 uses for pressure sensing - they're fragile (the ally stem is 22thou thick), the ally caps provided seize on easily and regularly, and they cost £35 each...

Whether you like it or not they will be fitted and if you don't trust them you can always manually inspect as you surely do now ;-)

Huw

It's not that long ago that car engines were made out of basically low grade cast iron. Cast iron cylinder heads suffered from valve seat regression without lead added to the petrol which also worked as a lubricant. And that same cast iron provided the bores the pistons run in. Reboring was a common result at fairly modest milages. This was understood then - long lived designs like the Ferguson unit used by Standard Triumph had high quality liners fitted to the cast iron block. Some Rover engines had chrome plated bores.

These days many engines have aluminium blocks with either high quality steel liners or a treatment to the aluminium to allow the pistons to run directly in that.

Very good. Any hard evidence this is of benefit? And just how many miles do you keep a car for?

My brother's BMW is approaching 250,000 miles and only ever had oil changes when the computer said so.

Out of interest, what model/engine is it?

E28 520. Used extensively for towing, too. I bought it at auction direct from a lease company and passed it on to him so it has a full service history. He does his own servicing.

Like the Evo VIII ?

I'm not a company car driver, I don't do any of those things :)

Is that the old 12 valve M20 engine?

Because you can't.

Build up of carbon particulates, swarf and thinning of oil by petrol/diesel.