Halfords oil at £13 or Texaco at £9

I've used that Texaco oil on most of my cars without hitch or worry - I always over-service and my cars have never complained. I've always considered Halfrauds to be over-priced, though my brother has recently told me that they sell a branded semi-synthetic oil for around £15, which is cheaper than my local car parts shop.

Go for the Texaco!

A

cheap one could be that horrible recycled stuff!

I've used the Texaco one from Halfords in quite a few of our older non performance cars and it seems to do the job well. Wouldn't touch their really cheap stuff though.

Although our Asda doesnt seem to stock it any more :(

My engine has done 150,000 - it still gets Magnatec 10/40.

This goes back to the many earlier comments on other threads - I believe in good oil and regular maintenance. My last car was scrapped at over 230,000 without ever having to touch the engine other than scheduled maintenance - and it was still within manufacturers emission limits - not just MOT....... ( maybe the Slick 50 every 50K helped too )

You pays your money, you takes your choice.

Ian

Assuming that the Texaco oil is also a semi-synthetic of the right viscosity, then use it.

Well many people seem to think that the slick 50 is just snake oil.

As is usually the answer in these cases, check your handbook then check the oils then make a judgement. Chances are you could use pretty much whatever you like but some of the really cheap stuff doesn't meet modern performance rating requirements.

Thanks to all. I have had kwik fit put oil in for me previously, it does make me wonder what *quality* of oil they put in?

The Haynes repair manuel for the corolla's 92 >97 says use: multigrade oil, SAE 15W/40, 10W/30 or 20W/50 tp API SG or better.

So i'm well confused, why so many different SAEs' I wonder?

Cos the precise viscosity (grade) doesn't matter THAT much? The API/ACEA rating is the quality spec. You may benefit from a higher viscosity in a very high miler. More important is that you change it often enough.

Z

Halfords semi synth is good enough with regular changes. My last Primera ran exclusively on it from 50k to 160k changed every 5-6k, run to the red line every day and it still went like new and used zero oil.

The specification the oil conforms to will be on the container. Do a Google to see what they mean. Your handbook should give the minimum spec for your engine.

mobil 10- 40 or summat they told me

For countries with different climates? You don't need a super 'thin' oil if you live on the equator nor a 'thick' one in the Artic circle.

The real clue is the API spec. Make sure any oil you use conforms to this.

In news:_OOUh.553$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe4-win.ntli.net, JWBH typed: | I need some more engine oil for my 1994 Corolla GLI 1.3 . In | halfords their list of the suitable oils for this particular car | lists 10/40 semi synthetic. which they sell for £13 or so for 5 | litres. A few yards down the road in Asda they do a home brand oil | for about £8 and a texaco oil for another pound, both for 5 litre | container. | | The engine has done 95,000 miles and it still runs very well, so I | guess I will stick with it to its end. With a milage like this is it | expedient to pay the extra for the halfords oil or is there indeed | any *real* difference between the more expensive stuff at Halfords | and say the Texaco (or Asda ) or oil. thanks for advice, on | whether its worth paying the extra money, in this case.

I will not buy anything off Halfords. Use the Texaco and if you can try to find a smaller but better dealer than Halfords.

On my BX, which has quite a high revving engine (and gets a bit of abuse), I'll always use Magnatec or similar. But as I've said I've always found the Texaco oil to be good and I've often used it in our daily runabouts, or the older, lazier engines (like my Volvo 360 for example). And most places seem to treat it as a 'semi decent' oil and charge ~£20 for 5 litres - not sure how Asda can charge so much less.

I may have done the wrong thing, since I passed by Asda again, and before reading all this advice, bought the Asda oil. Guess its not too late to change it for the texaco.

But on neither the Asda oil or the Texaco could i see semi-synthetic written on the containers. I now understand semi-synthetic is what i should be getting for this Corolla.

On the Asda it says, specs: API SL/CH4, ACEA A2, B2, E2.

Would any of this jargon signify it's semi-synthetic please. thanks.

The API specs are American Specs for gasoline (petrol) engines (SL) and Diesel (CH4).

The ACEA A2 are similar European specs for gas (petrol) and E2 and B2 are for diesel engines. The specs don't tell you if the oil is from conventional, synthetic or a mixture (semisynthetic).

Jeff

The spec doesn't refer to synthetic etc. It's quite possible for a quality dino oil to exceed the spec of a full synthetic.

I'm sure the asda oil will be fine.

An oil expert once told me that the semi-synth was made in the same way as standard mineral oil, only with a few more additives and was merely a marketing ploy to fill the price gap between mineral and fully synth. Could be wrong though.

Z

This is a 1994 car - does the toyota handbook call for semi-synth or just halfords? Anything that meets or exceeds the handbook requirements will be fine synthetic or not. In any case oil is relatively cheap compared to a tank of petrol so splash out on some halfords stuff if you must.

The "SL" part - the higher the second letter the better. ACEA rating is stricter and I think the higher the number the better.