I was looking at Car Lube oils today at the local auto factors / paint place, and they had in Car Lube fully synthetic oil. Lots of things saying "Recommended / used by TVR, Aston, Lotus" etc. Anyway, the 5w30 was rated A1/B1, whereas most of the others were A3/B3 (say, 5w40, 0w40 etc.). The Ford stuff is rated A1/B1 too, I'm not sure if it's semi or fully synth. Anyway, is there some technical reason why 5w30 wouldn't have a better spec than A1/B1 or is it just harder to make good 5w30?
No reason other than what they believe will market and what they need to provide as full a range of oil as possible without duplication. Anything that needs a 5w/30 will be happy with a 0w/30 and probably a
0w40. If the A2 A3 spec is needed then the choice is simple if one of the viscosities meets the spec. In other words, and in general, the quality spec is more important to get spot on because almost invariably a limited range of viscosities will be suitable in most areas.
Righto. The car only *needs* A1, which tends to get changed every 5 or 6k as I generally do lots journeys of less than 10 miles. Would using expensive fully synth stuff let me leave oil and filter changes longer or do things not work that way?
I do not know which car you have nor its recommended oil change interval. For piece of mind follow the manufacturers recommendation even if you must throw cash at it in the form of synthetic oil or any other A2 oil [which tend to be more expensive]. In theory, if all other systems allow it, then yes, these are oils designed for longer drain intervals. In practice, can you be sure that the filtration has the degree of fineness and the capacity needed for service intervals longer than recommended? Might there be another limiting factor for your engine, like perhaps a high degree of internal condensation that dictates the maximum interval?
It's the 1.3 Ka, the engine is fitted to half the Fords ever. Ford reckon on a 10 thousand mile or 12 month change interval, presumeably with their 5w30 which is what I've been using.
The fact that the engine does a lot of cold starts compared to one that covers the same distance on the motorway, and is driven fairly hard is why it's changed more often than 10k. I'm wondering if full synthetic would be worth the extra cash seeing as there's a fair chance that the car will be kept until it's dead (150k or so?).
If you do run over 10,000 miles per year then the Ford recommendation will be more than adequate. I have to say that I tend to service my vehicles and plant at the mileage/hour limit irrespective of operating conditions but, possibly like you, I do have the occasional twinge of anxiety for some duty cycles. Whether this is warranted or not, I do not know.
For piece of mind, I do use a slightly better standard of oil than usually recommended by the manufacturer. Not going overboard you understand. I do feel that using an oil that is just too good is just as likely to be detrimental as one that is not good enough or not draining quite often enough. I have no personal experience with the Ford engine but do know that it needs a light viscosity oil. I would have thought that any oil that meets either ACEA A2 or MB229.1 would be more than good for 10,000 miles. If you really must use a synthetic, then use one that meets either of the above specs. Not all do.
Synthetic oils tend to be able to handle high temperatures without oxidising better than non-synth oils and tend to have a greater film strength. All other durability (i.e. ability to handle contamination condensation soot etc) properties come from the additive package added to the oil.
Your engine is relatively unstressed (i.e. not a high compression ratio turbo diesel or a high specific power output / turbocharged / high reving engine) and relatively clean too (i.e. not a diesel) so there is little or no benefit to be had from a synthetic oil. An oil with a better ACEA or API rating would in theory give a longer life but you might run in to problems with your oil filter becoming contaminated and full (i.e. in the extreme, blocked) which would cause oil starvation long before the oil needed to be changed.
Short journeys are never good for an engine (especially petrol engines), since combustion tends not to be complete and you end up with part combusted fuel ending up in your oil which can tend to make it acidic and corrosive with time. Short journeys also mean that your oil does not get up to operating temperature (15 minutes is usually enough time for your oil to reach optimum temperature depending on the engine / how it's being driven / weather etc) and you can end up getting condensation in your oil, and no oil can cope with condenstation at all, it ends up as a sludgy mayonaise.
Personally I change at the recommended interval using a Comma semi-synth oil which is better than the required oil but still under a tenner for 5 litres. There is no (or very little) benefit to be had from buying more expensive oils, if when you change your oil, the oil that comes out is still oily (i.e. not gritty / tarry / full of crap). If the oil that comes out is not in good shape it's time to either shorten your intervals or to use a better quality of oil, and by quality I mean API/ACEA rating rather than going mineral -> semi-synth -> synth.
In the end its your choice, your car and your wallet, so use whatever oil meets the manufacturers spec and keeps you happy.
The engine oil bible is quite a good source of extra information (the best I can think of off hand).
All exceptionally good advice. Except maybe for the link below which tends towards lumping synthetics as 'better' irrispective of the standards they meet IIRC, though it is some time since I have visited the site so memory may be playing tricks. I find API standards to be particularly useless in choosing an oil. Generally I find it more helpful to use ACEA or manufacturers own standards [mercedes is particularly graded according to performance in nice steps and is closely related to ACEA] because they provide a stepped qulaity/longevity ladder structure to their standards. By the way, read the free part of the link below but be aware of my view that it is not worth paying for the full edition which contains very little more information than contained in the free part. Purely my view though and not wishing to scupper the revenue stream for Mr Longhurst.
AFAIK the oil isn't horrific when I change it, I've never spent time looking for grit etc, it's just black. Where do you get the Comma stuff from? I generally use Ford oil (semi synth?), and the cheapest I've seen it for 5l is £12.50.
I've been getting my oil from Andrew Page, they're a trade type motor factor and deal mostly with garages, so they don't have fancy inflated prices on stuff generally.
There are other manufacturers like Comma (little know names e.g. Granville) that produce perfectly acceptable oils where you don't pay extra for the brand name, Comma just happens to be the one I know and can get cheaply.
With oils, once you've put it into your engine, there are no labels to show off so it's pointless paying for a brand, but there is plenty of point in paying for good quality oil :)
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