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What oil



  PH2 172
Going do a service tomorow and was wondering whats the best oil to use for my 172 cup. Going my local halfords so what ever brands they do.
 

aucky

ClioSport Club Member
I knew all that just didnt know if there was better makes or brands should i say to buy
Personally, I'd use silkolene/fuchs or motul 300v. Which ever one is on offer from opie oils near te time that i need it.

FYI, most of the 'fully synthetic' oil in halfords, even well known brands, it not as good as they make out.
Costs of synthetics vary considerably. The most expensive are the “Ester” types originally only used in jet engines. These cost 6 to 10 times more than high quality mineral oils. The cheapest synthetics are not really synthetic at all, from a chemists point of view. These are in fact specially refined light viscosity mineral oils known as “hydrocracked”. These have some advantages over equivalent mineral oils, particularly in lower viscosity motor oils such as 5w-30 or other oils with a low “W” rating such as 5w-50 etc and they cost about 1.5 times more than good quality mineral fractions.

We use several different grades of this base oil, where appropriate. This is the “synthetic” which is always used in cheap oils that are labelled “synthetic”.

Yes it’s a cruel world, you get what you pay for!

Now, you may ask, why are these special mineral oils called “synthetic”?

Well, it was all sorted in a legal battle that took place in the USA about ten years ago. Sound reasons (including evidence from a Nobel Prize winning chemist) were disregarded and the final ruling was that certain mineral bases that had undergone extra chemical treatments could be called “synthetic”.

Needless to say, the marketing executives wet their knickers with pure delight!
They realised that this meant, and still does, that the critical buzz-word “synthetic” could be printed on a can of cheap oil provided that the contents included a few percent of “hydrocracked” mineral oil, at a cost of quite literally a few pence.

So, the chemistry of “synthetics” is complex and so is the politics!

The economics are very simple. If you like the look of a smart well-marketed can with “synthetic” printed on it, fair enough, it will not cost you a lot; and now you know why this is the case.

But, if you drive a high performance car, and you intend to keep it for several years, and maybe do the odd “track day”, then you need a genuine Ester/PAO (Poly Alpha Olefin) synthetic oil.

This oil costs more money to buy, because it costs us a lot of money to make, very simply, you always get what you pay for!
 
  RS RIP
Going do a service tomorow and was wondering whats the best oil to use for my 172 cup. Going my local halfords so what ever brands they do.

you have got a nice running F4R engine, capable of pretty damn good and demanding extremes when driving it hard. Do'nt go the Halfords route with it

Mine gets Motul 300V, and i could really tell a simple first difference in engine-noise when first chucking it in after Mobil. It for one supposably keeps the poorly designed dephaser-pulley in good shape ; a good oil.
 
  330i. E30 Touring.
you have got a nice running F4R engine, capable of pretty damn good and demanding extremes when driving it hard. Do'nt go the Halfords route with it

Mine gets Motul 300V, and i could really tell a simple first difference in engine-noise when first chucking it in after Mobil. It for one supposably keeps the poorly designed dephaser-pulley in good shape ; a good oil.


PMSL. Oil's oil.

As long as it keeps the engine lubricated, and providing it's changed regularly, I'd bet my life you wouldn't notice the difference between Halfords, Motul, Mobil or any other oil manufacturer.
 
  RS RIP
well i also bet your life ;) i noticed the difference.

I may exaturate a bit by speaking about my own use of the car and how i prefer things.. When redlining it every time you run it you want to keep it in good nick.

Oil is oil ? yeah i guess, but there is def a big quality difference. A good one for example leaves a lubrication film on the internals when not running. The cold startup causes wear because tolerances are'nt reached untill heated up so a good lube at this point is quite essential !
A cheap oil leaves parts unlubricated on standstill, simply said it just drips down off the parts into the sump.

A genuine Esther based oil is far better than the so called "synthetic" oils being sold.
So oil is oil is'nt exactly right ...
 


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