Looking for oil recommendations for my cars

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Oct 11, 2011
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Hello everyone, i am looking for the perfect oil for my vehicles. So far i am using 0w40 Mobil 1 new life in my Fiat Cinquecento and some unknown old oil (Probably selenia something) in the Lancia Thema i recently bought. It has not been driven since and will not without undergoing an oil change.

Ok car number one i need a recommendation for:

1. What kind of vehicle you have

Fiat Cinquecento 1.1 Sporting, my one and only

2. What your owner's manual says -- not just viscosity, but certifications (look for acronyms like API SM, ILSAC GF-4, etc.) and change intervals as well

between 5w40 and 15w40 i think, no certifications specified afaik.

3. Where you live

Germany

4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?)

Sportive, but always looking at the revs, not revving over when the car is cold, aka oil temperature below 90 Degrees Celsius. And slow down if i manage to get over 140 degrees on the highway on really hot summer days.

Sometimes doing hourlong full-throttle runs on the highway too or always driving at more than 5k rpm when doing sportish events on fiat-meetings.

5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?)

Both short city rounds where the engine won't even get warm (trying to preheat with an independent webasto heater) and long stressful roadtrips on the highway or on country roads. Mainly city trips, but the majority of kilometers is done on the highway. Always carrying a lot of load with me, roofbox and things.

6. Whether your car has any known problems

Nope.

Additional stuff:

The engine is a 1.1Liter 8V OHC freerunner with 312000 kilometers. The engine has never been opened, first headgasket and all. I want to drive this engine until it has at least 1 million kilometers, or for the rest of my life, whatever comes first. I drive in every weather and under any condition and i often let it run in idle for long times. For example when sleeping on a road trip in the winter.

Before i switched oils to Mobil1 new life 0w40 it ran on 10w40 shell diesel oil for most of the time. Since i switched, it consumed less (!) oil and started better on really cold days (>-10 degrees)

Second car:

1. What kind of vehicle you have
Lancia Thema 2L 8V

2. What your owner's manual says -- not just viscosity, but certifications (look for acronyms like API SM, ILSAC GF-4, etc.) and change intervals as well

I'm sorry, i do not know that yet, i have only just bought this car to save it from the scrapyard. I'm in love
laugh.gif


3. Where you live

Germany, as mentioned before
wink.gif


4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?)

This car will stand in a garage or open parking spot 90% of the times, it is only meant to be cruised around on really nice summer days.

5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?)

Long trips in nice weather, always keeping an eye on the rev meter and the water temperature of course. No revving past 3k before it reached 70 degrees.

6. Whether your car has any known problems

I do not know of any so far, other than that the engines is slightly sweating out some oil.

Intervals are always 15000 km or one year to me.
 
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Welcome to BITOG!

Originally Posted By: milp
not revving over when the car is cold, aka oil temperature below 90 Degrees Celsius. And slow down if i manage to get over 140 degrees on the highway on really hot summer days.

The Cinquecento has an oil temp gauge? Or did you add one aftermarket?

Quote:

Before i switched oils to Mobil1 new life 0w40 it ran on 10w40 shell diesel oil for most of the time. Since i switched, it consumed more oil and started better on really cold days (>-10 degrees)

Do they sell any high-mileage oils over there in Germany? Maybe that would help reduce oil consumption. But if you don't mind the consumption, M1 0w-40 is probably a good oil for the spirited driving that you're doing. Shell Helix HX8 5w-40 might be another one to consider. This oil might be OK for your Lancia as well.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Welcome to BITOG!


Thanks!
Quote:

Originally Posted By: milp
not revving over when the car is cold, aka oil temperature below 90 Degrees Celsius. And slow down if i manage to get over 140 degrees on the highway on really hot summer days.

The Cinquecento has an oil temp gauge? Or did you add one aftermarket?


Added one aftermarket, i changed almost everything about the car, only the 'propulsion' is still original.
Quote:

Quote:

Before i switched oils to Mobil1 new life 0w40 it ran on 10w40 shell diesel oil for most of the time. Since i switched, it consumed more oil and started better on really cold days (>-10 degrees)

Do they sell any high-mileage oils over there in Germany? Maybe that would help reduce oil consumption. But if you don't mind the consumption, M1 0w-40 is probably a good oil for the spirited driving that you're doing. Shell Helix HX8 5w-40 might be another one to consider. This oil might be OK for your Lancia as well.


Oh i'm sorry, i meant to say it consumes less oil, Waaay less. about 2 Liters in 15000km, so between 2 oil changes. with the Shell 10w40 it used to consume up to 0.5 liters per 1000.

I do not know of oils for high mileage engines, maybe you can recommend me one? The lancia has only 142 000km by the way.
 
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2 liters per 15k km is not too bad, considering your "hourlong full-throttle runs on the highway".
smile.gif
Most engines will consume some oil when revved high for extended periods of time.

Disregard my high mileage oil comment. The concept probably does not exist in Europe anyway.
smile.gif


Also, please post some pictures of your cars.
smile.gif
 
Hm well I'm not sure i want to do that, i had some quite bad experiences with posting pictures. I do a lot of modifications, but not with optics or asthetics in mind. I do what is practical to turn my cinquecento in a small car that covers my needs for camping, versatileness and self sufficiency on trips. I can sleep, cook, heat and get entertained in it and it has enough electrical power for a good 1 or 2 days.

The lancia however is old and cheap, but i fell in love with it at work so i bought it before my boss could bring it to the scrapyard. It's in a bad shape but was only 250 bucks, here are some pictures:

http://bf1942.moretoast.de/lancia/l1.jpg
http://bf1942.moretoast.de/lancia/l2.jpg
http://bf1942.moretoast.de/lancia/l3.jpg
http://bf1942.moretoast.de/lancia/l4.jpg

Ps:

I thought the mobil1 new life was an oil made for high mileage engines?
 
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Mobil 0W40 is one of the Mobil best oils, if the Fiat consumes less oil with Mobil 1 0W40 you should stay with it, the Shell Helix 5w-40 is another good oil if you can buy it for less than Mobil 1 then it is a good alternative.

Mobil 1 0W40 should be able to perform well in the Lancia too.
 
Thanks guys, will stay with mobil 1 then. My only doubt was that they started naming it a "SHC Synthese" Oil instead of a plain and simple fully synthetic oil. That seemed like there might be something scammy going on.
 
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Originally Posted By: milp
My only doubt was that they started naming it a "SHC Synthese" Oil instead of a plain and simple fully synthetic oil. That seemed like there might be something scammy going on.

This thread may be of interest to you, if you haven't read it already:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2383817#Post2383817

Long story short, yes, there are some group III+ (VISOM) components in it now, but that does not make it a bad oil by any means.
 
Hm ok i'm not an oil expert, i just found it weird.
Everyone i told about my change to 0w40 mobil 1 also was concerned that a viscosity like that might not be good for my engine.
 
Who is "everyone"? Are they oil experts and did they explain in details why it might not be good for your engine? What oil did they tell you to use instead?

FYI, M1 0w-40 is a factory fill in a lot of high performance engines. It meets some of the most stringent manufacturer specs. It holds up great in extended oil change intervals as indicated by numerous UOAs posted here on BITOG.

I'm not claiming to be an oil expert either and you certainly have other options available to you. There are many good oils out there. M1 0w-40 is just one of them.
 
They'd say 0w40 is way too viscuos for this engine and it wouldn't be good. Most of them have some experience in car mechanics, but no real experts. Most were also of the opinion that i should just go and get the cheapest supermarket 10w40 i could get as that would be enough for that engine. They are just unable to value this type of car.
 
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Originally Posted By: milp
They'd say 0w40 is way too fluid for this engine and it wouldn't be good. Most of them has some experience in car mechanics, but no real experts.

We run into this sort of misconception here, too. Sadly, many car mechanics (anywhere in the world) don't know much about engine oil, although they think they do.

Here's the easiest way I know how to explain it in simple terms: Oil is the most "fluid", or thinnest, when it's at operating temperature. And since the second number (40) describes the viscosity range at operating temp, it means that for practical purposes, a 0w-40 is no thinner than a 10w-40 or 15w-40 or any other Xw-40 oil out there. The only difference is that 0w-40 does not thicken up as much as 10w-40 or 15w-40 when the oil's temperature drops, but they will all become thicker as you get below operating temp. This is what makes 0w-40 superior in cold startup situations. It can flow faster and reach all engine components faster, thus reducing startup wear.

As for using the cheapest 10w-40 available because the engine doesn't deserve anything better, well, I guess it's for the car's owner to decide. Judging by your own experience, the 10w-40 was causing more startup noise and more oil consumption. Whenever you have excessive oil consumption (not leak), it means there are potentially dangerous deposits forming inside the engine as a byproduct of oil burn-off. If you're planning to keep this car for a long time, like you said you are, then it's in your best interest to find an oil that does not burn off as much. Also, a high quality synthetic may burn off more cleanly (leave less deposits) than mineral or semi-synthetic, although I'm not 100% sure on this last part.
 
One other thing I forgot to mention, if you're seeing temps as high as 140C (284F), which are considered rather extreme, a high quality synthetic will handle them better.
 
Well the 1.1liter can get up to 135 easily if you do stressful things in hot temperatures, like driving balls to the wall up a steep hill or continously driving faster than 130kmh, which is a high speed considering what load the car has to carry. Roofbox, batteries and all that.
 
Hey guys, it's me again. Additionally i'm now looking for the perfect gearbox oil for my Cinquecento 1.1 Liter. I felt after more than 300k kilometers it was time to change it and so i did. Someone recommended me to use 80W Oil, it was some wellknown brand, i forgot which though.

That's what i used.

Anyways, a lot of things got better, but i notice that when i drive the car while it's cold in autumn or winter for example, i'm having a hard time shifting gears.

Which viscosity or brand would you recommend, especially for this very high mileage gearbox?

It's five speed and front wheel drive, that's pretty much all there is to it. No hydraulic clutch or anything fancy.
 
Originally Posted By: milp
Anyways, a lot of things got better, but i notice that when i drive the car while it's cold in autumn or winter for example, i'm having a hard time shifting gears.

Which viscosity or brand would you recommend, especially for this very high mileage gearbox?


I didn't notice. What year is the vehicle? Have you experienced shift issues in the cold before? Unfortunately, my experience with rather old manual gearboxes indicates that harder cold weather shifting is often the norm.

Do you have any literature on the vehicle? Surely there must be an old, semi-retired mechanic nearby who might have some idea of what might fit best in your application.
 
I'm sorry, the vehicle is made in 1995, i don't recall the gears shifting any harder when cold when i was still on the stock-oil. It just didn't shift good at all, regardless whether cold or warm.

I actually have the full manufacturer service manuals for the car, but i don't trust FIAT's recommendations in the least because usually all they are going for is "as cheap as possible, it doesn't need to last long". It's not that i hate the brand, i love it actually, but that's what i can tell from what i've seen. And i work there. I recall taking the 80w oil that is in it now from the recommendations.

Asking experienced mechanics is another story, they always have their own beliefs in some way, you know what i mean. Also most can't value that type of car, so it would be hard to get a good recommendation anyways.

What i was hoping for is that there is some "pinnacle of oil" for manual gearboxes, like mobil 1 is one of the best for engines.

Oh here, have a laugh:

http://bf1942.moretoast.de/IMG_20111020_085427.jpg

laugh.gif
 
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Originally Posted By: milp
I'm sorry, the vehicle is made in 1995, i don't recall the gears shifting any harder when cold when i was still on the stock-oil. It just didn't shift good at all, regardless whether cold or warm.


Well, the vehicle should have a pretty modern transmission, all things being equal. My experience with transmissions really being noticeably much, much worse in the cold involves much older vehicles than that. However, one would expect things being a little stiffer in the cold, it's certainly hard to quantify such a statement.

Originally Posted By: milp
Asking experienced mechanics is another story, they always have their own beliefs in some way, you know what i mean. Also most can't value that type of car, so it would be hard to get a good recommendation anyways.

What i was hoping for is that there is some "pinnacle of oil" for manual gearboxes, like mobil 1 is one of the best for engines.


That is the issue - finding a mechanic who isn't simply relying on some belief system. If you cannot find a mechanic who doesn't have a passion or soft spot for these cars, check some dedicated forums. Surely you're not the only person who has come across this issue. One would think that someone out here has come across a solution or that a consensus has been reached that the issue is simply there without solution.

The pic was funny, for sure.
wink.gif
That's quite the impressive oil recommendation. He he.
 
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