Remember People, Always Change Your Oil...

[jon bda]

...or the engine wrecking fairys will come and visit you . Pulled this out of a 100,000 mile Transit (W reg).



The guy had it serviced by the lad i'm working with when he first bought it...almost three years ago...and thats it . Looks like the oil has broken down, been sucked into the inlet side (air filter had big oily splodges on it), blown into the engine again and its done that to no4 con rod. Do you like how we had to cut the bottom off the rod so it would actually pass up through the cylinder.

[WoLFe]

It amazes me how little people look after their cars/whatever.

Funny in the summer holidays when you see all the people breaking down on the motorway due to their rarely driven, badly serviced wrecks smoking.

Probably wouldn't be so funny if it happened to you but, yeah..

[bertoli]

For the price of an oil and filter change (£15 at national) it is sheer laziness not to get it done.

It's cheaper than buying the oil and filter seperately at Halford's. What's to think about?

[t_aitch]

National? Is this another place like quikfit or chain garages?

[toolsong]

A friend works at a VW dealer and they charge out technician labour at £115/hr!

[Butuz]

And then they pay them £10 an hour!

Butuz

[Russ]

my cars going in next week to have anti rull bushes loobed.

had oil changed at 5k, now im at 10k, so will get it changed again

[doll]

Nice. You tend to find with people like that, even if they don't bother changing the oil, they only top up with £2.99 20/50 oil anyway. Which is just as bad as not bothering.

[badass]

And then they pay them £10 an hour!

Butuz

Which is around £20k per year. Plenty for a fitter to get paid IMHO (they are not even technicians as all they do is remove and fit stuff)

[badass]

Nice. You tend to find with people like that, even if they don't bother changing the oil, they only top up with £2.99 20/50 oil anyway. Which is just as bad as not bothering.

Not true. the £2.99 20/50 stuff lubricates the engine albeit not aswell as a £35 Esther/PAO based fully synth.
Really old oil does significantly worse and bungs up vital bits.

[[GSV]Trig]

I change mine every 3-4k.....

[Lowe]

Not true. the £2.99 20/50 stuff lubricates the engine albeit not aswell as a £35 Esther/PAO based fully synth.
Really old oil does significantly worse and bungs up vital bits.

Hmm, the £2.99 stuff doesn't last long though does it, and soon returns to the sludge that they're topping up instead of replacing!

Plus, you'd be amazed how many people put the £2.99 crap in newer cars that have specific requirements for oil!

[Nemeliza]

How often do cars need an oil change?

I do about 5-6000 miles a year and get it changed when i have a service. would you cay i need to do it more often?

[doll]

Not true. the £2.99 20/50 stuff lubricates the engine albeit not aswell as a £35 Esther/PAO based fully synth.
Really old oil does significantly worse and bungs up vital bits.

I assume from your highly technical response to my post that you fully understand the mechanics of oil technology?

So topping up/putting 're-conditioned' 20w/50 engine oil, in the Transit listed above, will be better than the long-life, low HTHS viscosity Ford specific 913B 5w/30 series oil that should be in it? Despite the fact that the oil may not have been changed in some time? Knowing more than me, you would also know that vehicles running these specific types of oil, on extended drain intervals have low fuel dilation requirements. Something which any '£2.99' oil will most definately not be able to offer! In fact I would go as far to say that, if '£2.99' oil had been used, it would be just about useless after the first few miles in such an engine.

You also state, 'very technically' that the channels become 'bunged up'; how would 20w/50 oil help this during the vital first few seconds of the engine starting up, when the recommended weight is 5w/30?

I still stand by my statement that £2.99 oil, is not better than flushing oil. And unless your car is throwing oil all over the floor, or burning a gallon a week, it provides no protection whatsoever for 'modern' engines.

HTH

[doll]

How often do cars need an oil change?

I do about 5-6000 miles a year and get it changed when i have a service. would you cay i need to do it more often?

Sounds good to me. Quite often you are not testing the limitations of the oil. You are testing the limitations of the oil filter. No mainstream (i'm talking £2.00 to manufacture level here) oil filter can take over 10,000 miles. There are filters available in the market place, but in the margin driven world of car manufacture, these are deemed 'too expensive'. In particular, a lot of cars that now run extended intervals have an automatic bypass system on the housing, so when the filter becomes 'clogged' the oil is simply routed back around the engine. Hence why a lot of new cars have manufacturer specific long life oils to reduce engine damage.

[siuron]

o gosh