Millers Nanodrive for a daily driver

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Sep 18, 2015
Messages
2
Location
Surrey, UK
I've been reading this site on and off for a few weeks now, and I have learned quite a bit already (I honestly only really knew the basic stuff like oil weights, semi synthetic, synthetics etc until recently never heard of things like tbn. Even though I work in a machine shop making a lot of tooling for the oil industry
blush.gif
). Although I do know the mechanical side of cars very well. I count myself a newbie when to comes to understanding the properties of oil.

Anyway, on many car forums, clubs, parts shops, people you talk to over here in the UK seem to love Millers Nanodrive. Which is fine, but not many people have any technical idea on it, just word of mouth, and most of that is performance (makes car go faster) point of view. Not long term health of the engine. Plus it does seem to be marketed as a racing oil, not a street oil.

The oil in my car, and recommended by Renault is elf evolution 900 sxr 5w40 (Renault have recommended Elf Oils for as long as I can remember, also Elf, Total and Fina are all the same company)

Website

http://catalog.elf.com/automotive/cars/evolution-900-ft-5w-40

Data Sheet

http://www.total-distributor-partners.com/media/66832/evolution_900_sxr_5w-40_042015_en.pdf

elf%20oil.png

It talks about diesel a lot, although my car is petrol. This is what Renault recommends in my engine.

MSDS

http://www.quickfds.com/out/17429-74849-04186-015168.pdf

As you can see its easy to find out info from elf, its all on there website.

Millers, wells there is their website, which really doesn't tell you much.

http://www.millersoils.co.uk/nanodrive.asp

It fact most of the info I could get about it was from this site.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2999173&page=all

and the info on the link at the top of that thread.

DESCRIPTION:
Competition Fully Synthetic Triple Ester Nano Technology formulation. Suitable for fast road/street modified engines, race, rally, sprints and hill climbs. Ideal for engines with hydraulic tappets. Ultra low friction, nano technology additives.

APPLICATION:
Use as received for competition or modified engines where maximum power release is the preferred criteria. Formulated for high revving engines used in circuit racing or for larger engines for short duration i.e. hill climbs and sprints. Also suited for street cars recommending a 0, 5, or 10W40.

USER BENEFITS:
Fully synthetic Triple Ester Nano Technology Oil provides:
• Significantly reduced friction
• Reduced component wear promotes longer engine life
• Reduced heat production
• Increased power output and torque
• Improved reliability
• Improved energy efficiency
• Superior anti-friction and anti-wear characteristics

PERFORMANCE PROFILE:
• Manufactured to far exceed the requirements of API SM/CF and ACEA A3/B4
• Ideal for fast road or track day use
• Dyno proven by JB Racing to add power over other racing synthetics
• Suitable for continuous operation at 260°F with peak temperatures up to 300°F

TYPICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
SAE Viscosity Grade 5w40
Specific Gravity@15°C 0.860
Kinematic Viscosity@100°C 14.0 cSt
Kinematic Viscosity@40°C 81.7 cSt
Viscosity Index 177
HTHS >4.4 cP
Pour Point °C Flashpoint °C >210
Cold Crank Viscosity@-30°C 6,600 cP Maximum



Right on to the car itself. It's no race car (And on a american site this is going to seem puny, but I'm sure you know Europe with small engines and high petrol prices etc)

It is a Renault Twingo GT, with a whole madding 100 bhp. Sadly I think Renault have recently taken the info about this engine off their site due to them not producing this engine any more (they still make the N/A verison though).

But the promotional video for it is still on youtube, giving you some idea.




So, its a 1149cc (Which I think works out to 70 cubic inches).

Single over head cam 16v ((No VTI etc, just 8 U shaped rocker arms (that push down two valves at once) and it uses a old school locknut system, so no hydraulic tappets or anything like that).

s-l1000.jpg

It's a 4 pot, cast iron engine. With a low pressure ( 0.6 to 0.7 bar / 8.7 to 10.15 psi) twin scroll turbo (mitsubishi TDO25). With a little intercooler and oil / coolant heat exchanger on there too. Plus as shown on the video it sprays oil onto the bottom of the pistons to cool them down. Its port injected, not direct injected too.

As for driving, it does quite a lot of short trips. Work is just under 9 miles away, so London suburban driving in takes just over half an hour to get there.

But it is very stop start driving (I think there are 24 sets of traffic lights in the 8.7 mile trip, and most of the roads are 40 mph limit (well, in the morning you can do 40 mph, coming home its probably nearer to 25 mph). So its accelerate to 40, slow down, stop, accelerate to 40, slow down, stop, repeat 24 times. Which is a bit of a stupid way of doing things, but that's the way the roads are designed around here. It does a longer trip say every 3 or so weeks. (But I don't mean 100's of miles here, more like a 60 mile trip) It probably only goes on a trip of more than a 100 miles twice a year or so. It only goes on the motorway (highway) a handful of times a year. Most of my driving is A roads and B roads. Car gets a full service once a year, about 6000 miles.

So to give you an idea, here are some roads that I use on a regularly, as you can see I'm talking 30 to 60 mph roads, but quite narrow and twisty.

to%20work.png
zig%20zag%20road.png

So, after all that rambling. Is Millers nanodrive a good idea in a daily driver? Or stick to Elf? Or maybe something else altogether? I'm sort of thinking due to my driving a higher TBN would be better (I.e more detergent and dispersant additives due to lots of fairly short trips).
 
The engine seems really nice and probably has get up an go power yet will return good fuel consumption.
 
Hi Noesph, and welcome to BITOG!

The following is a UOA of the Millers CFS 5W-40:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3069070/1

Aside from it's apparent tendency to shear a bit it does have a high phos' level (race oriented after all) which you likely don't need.

BTW is a 5W-40 the lightest oil grade that Renault recommends for your little car? Considering the short trips and no sustained high speeds you could possibly benefit from something lighter.
 
I can't imagine that you are stressing even the elf oil, I would stay with that or whatever Halfords have in the recomended grade.

What is the age and milage of the car?


I used to live in Surrey. How is carlshalton these days?
 
Last edited:
The car is 6 years and 2 months old, with 48500 miles on it.

The manual says use a RN0710 spec oil, then it has the grades to be used according to the exterior temperature

t>-20c = 5w40
t>-25c = 5w40
t>-30c = 0w40

Elf is about £30 for 5 litres, Millers is around £48 for 5 litres.

It is a nice little engine for a road car, its torque band comes in low is is pretty flat. Does 0 to 60 in 9.5 seconds, on to 118 mph top speed, which for the size of it (honestly it looks about the same size as a shoe box when you open the bonnet) it pretty impressive. It was one the first downsized engines to come out on the market back in 06 or 07.

divers-courbe_tce100-big.png

I get around 35mpg in city driving and around 47mpg on the motorway. I know it could do better, but I have a bit of a lead foot.

And as for Carshalton, its fine, but there is a lot of building work going on around here at the minute.

I don't know how well you know the area. But where the big industrial estate in Hackbridge was, they have knocked it all down. There currently building 725 new homes on that site. All the section houses dotted around the place have been flattened (and say where there where 8 houses, there building a block of say 100 flats in there place). Half the bottom of Sutton has been knocked down (the gas works, the Zurich tower and all the shops around there are gone) Burger King in Sutton has been flattened and Times Square shopping centre is being knocked down has well.

Also Caterham, Caterham cars is only a few miles from here. Sadly that got knocked down as well. Which is a bit mad, since Caterham cars put Caterham town on the map. There was a bit up a up roar about it around here at the time.


http://www.surreymirror.co.uk/Iconic-car-company-leave-town/story-15291977-detail/story.html
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/hundreds-say-caterham-cars-plans-4810349
http://uk.caterhamcars.com/news/official-showroom-opening

We also have McLaren cars around here (I have a cousin, a mate from my school days and one of my neighbours works for them). Now and then I see the factory test driving out on the road (I saw 4 P1's following each other in a row last year). Also the company I work for made the moulds for that car. Also James Hunt (the F1 driver, the film rush that came out a few years ago was about him) was born, lived and died around here.
 
I would say go with the Elf.

But then I'm spending £5 for 4.75 Liters of conventional Quaker State from Walmart.
 
Thanks for the Caterham up-date and link.

If the oil choice is between Elf and Millers I would also save the coin and go with Elf. Since a 0W-40 is spec'd as an option I'd look into that as it should have a higher viscosity index than their 5W-40 and should be lighter at all start-up temp's.

I'm assuming your Twingo doesn't have an oil pressure and/or oil temperature gauge.
 
Use the Elf/Total oil chap, it's really good but if you are doing short journeys, driving hard etc half the oil drain interval. The most important thing is to get the application right and drive the engine on light throttles to warm the engine gently before you work it hard. The engine will outlast the bodywork, and you.

Millers is a quality product but IMO the Elf is much better for your engine as the application is absolutely correct. If you were to do a tear down on two engines after 100000 miles, one on Millers and the other on Elf, you probably wouldn't be able to measure the difference in wear.
 
Go for the oil with the spec the people who made the engine ask for.

RN0710 was originally a xW-40 oil specification, since then the specifications were updated and now you can get RN0710 on a 5W-30 oil if that is something that interest you.

If wear is a concern how about something like Magnatec? You don't really need a 0W in the UK.
 
You can't back date the oil specs.

The wife's old Clio was an 06 and was specced for 0w40/5w40 (actually might have been 10w40 aswell)

The later 1.5dci engine had a DPF and was specced for 5w30.

That doesn't mean I can use it in my 1.5dci though there is every chance it would be fine.

One other thing, I don't think the engine in the OPs car was the first of the downsizing Tce engines but was a turbo charged version of the 1149cc engine fitted to the mk2 Clio for several years. Whereas the 0.9 Tce engine was indeed a downsized engine.

Putting a turbo on the 1149 lump was a good idea though, I have always been a fan or Renault and their turbo petrol engines they really do punch above their weight.

A far as the OPs oil choice goes.

If they both match the specs needed then it comes down to personal choice.

I must admit I would be tempted to use Millers Nano oil just to see if it made any difference.

Why worry about saving £10 on something that remains in the engine for 6000/12000 miles?

You will save more by going to the toilet before using your car.......
 
I was comparing different oils for friend's renault with also TCE engine requiring RN0710 class oil.

Basically i found only 5W40 or 0W40 complied, and since from my experience 0W40 is just much more thinner then 5W40 oils even at ambient temperature it was my choice. For normal aspirated engine i'd go with 0W30 elf RN0700.
Anyway, since i couldn't get Elf 0W40 locally i went with Shell Helix Ultra 0W40 'RN0710. Here are its specs:

API SN/CF
ACEA A3/B3/B4
SAE Viscosity Grade 0w40
Specific Gravity@15°C 0.84
Kinematic Viscosity@100°C 13.5 cSt
Kinematic Viscosity@40°C 75.2 cSt
Viscosity Index 185
HTHS >3.68 cP
Pour Point °C -42
Flashpoint °C >241
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top