New purchase 2005 Kia Picanto 1.1

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So as per the title I have bought a little Picanto for running about, the Berlingo has a huge oil leak so is parked up awaiting repiar.

Was a Sunday afternoon bidding sessions!

Good news is that it has mainly Kia service history and a fully stamped up Service Book and has had the one owner who has put 12k miles on it every year since purchase, now on just over 137k.

Was just over £300 and has a months MOT (Annual Inspection for cars older than 3 years old for those not from the UK)

The Aircon is very good and all the electric windows work fine, remote mirrors switch is sticky and needs fiddling with to work. And it has a slightly noisy wheel bearing.

After driving it to work today just after picking it up I have checked the levels, a bit low on coolant so I topped it off.

More worrying was the oil is filthy with little bits in it, last stamp in the book was at 100k and was in late 2013, I wonder if that was the last time it was serviced! The emissions from the last MOT were spot on though.

It was bought as a stand in throwaway car but it actually drives rather well.

So to oil.

Oil specs are API Service SJ, SL or above, ILSAC GF 3 or above, like our later 2014 Picanto there is no mention of ACEA Specs in the handbook.

Acceptable Viscosities are

20w50 from 20 o F to 120 oF
15w40 0 oF to 120 oF
10w30 -2 oF to 120 oF
5w20 or 5w30 for -20 oF to 120 oF

I am thinking about using a cheap Petronas 800EU 10w40 (SN/CF) for 1 month then refilling with a slightly better 5w30 at that point. Probably Mobil Super 3000 X1 Formula FE which is SL

Oil Filter will either be MANN or Bosch.

Any comments?

Hoping to save this car as I reckon it is just at the tipping point were the previous owners lack of maintenance towards the end of his ownership was beginning to have an effect.

Either way for the price paid I can break it for more than i paid for it i suspect.
 
To be honest, when cars are this old, you can put any oil in it and it will be fine.

You can put 10W40 in it but here in the UK, you don't really need 10W because it never gets cold enough. You would be better off putting 15W40 in it. If you get any oil that's got SL and A3 on the can you will be fine for about 6,000 miles. Tesco do a 15W40 that's £16 for four litres. I personally wouldn't advise spending a tonne of money on synthetics because you won't get any benefit from it over and above straight mineral.

I've got a Picanto but the newer 2013 version. Nice solid little runabout
 
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The Petronas is under £12 at EuroCarParts with one of the discount codes, though the price does vary a bit, they put the price up over the Bank Holiday for example.

I don't think 15w40 is a good idea as we are in September already. Kia advise 5w20.

The reason the oil looks so bad could easily be it has been run on mineral oil.

I have never seen oil like that on any car i have run on semi or full synth.
 
Just buy any 5w40...10w40 oil you can get.....

Mann, Mahle or OEM oil filter

Use wd40 for sticky switches.....and wipe off the excess
 
If you buy in quantity, you can get some Total 5W40 cheap here :

http://www.motoroel100.de/epages/62593035.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62593035/Products/%22Total%205W-40%20Quartz%209000%20Energy%205L%22

I recently bought plenty, since it a bit of a "fits them all" oil, and the cheapest with 229.5 approval I could find.


Apart that, any oil for short OCI, and then, if the car is still ok and you plan keeping it, maybe a more "robust" oil? VOA of Petronas Syntium 1000 looked good, I considered trying it on my diesel, and sometimes you can find it cheap (is it me or Petronas is trying to flood the Euro oil market?).
 
I would use 5w30 in these KIA. There is no need for 40 grade if manufacturer specify only API SL service. Problem is of course if there's cheap enough 5w30 oils in UK.
 
This little guy sounds like a steal for less than 400USD. Since it has current MOT and passed emissions, it's probably in no danger of dying anytime soon.
Working AC and PW are certainly a plus. A sticky remote mirror switch is no biggie, since you'll typically set those once and then leave them alone.
I wonder if the PO really went 37K without an oil change?
How does it look through the oil fill hole?
Not sure of what your oil choices are, but here I'd do a couple of quick changes using a 10W-30 syn out of the stash and then go to longer intervals using same in a 5W-30 grade although I might consider a stashed 5W-40. Choice of grade would depend upon observed consumption.
Good luck with your new acquisition. You should certainly be able to drive your money out of it, since you don't have much in it.
 
There are a small amount of deposits on the underside of the oil filler cap, there is a cover under the cam cover but that doesn't look too sad.

After a more careful look over I have noted that the Aux belt looks fairly new and the Air filter is almost new, not a high end make but Crosland who originally a UK brand but I believe they started making them in China and have recently started production in the UK again.

Tyres are different in every corner but have decent tread. I am tempted to buy new wheels for the '14 Picanto and the alloys from it on this one (same tyre size)

Definitely needs a wheel bearing (declared in advert)

I have topped off the oil with some cheap semi synth that I was topping up the Berlingo with (recently developed a bad oil leak). Level is spot on and doesn't look that bad now, I think the gritty bits on the dipstick where deposits in the dipstick tube.

The OCI for this vehicle is 10k, but the fully stamped to 100k Service Book shows that it has been serviced mostly every 12k.

Have no idea what oil is in there at the moment but the newish Air filter is a good sign
 
bigjl,

Originally Posted By: bigjl
Have no idea what oil is in there at the moment but the newish Air filter is a good sign


Well, you certainly did investigate a lot of things after you bought the vehicle. What about changing the oil ASAP instead of looking into the oil fill hole via electron microscope?
smile.gif
 
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Do you think that this car was sold on by a second owner?
The first owner apparently had it dealer-serviced every 12K while the second owner only fixed what broke, like the belt?
Four different tires indicates at least three cases of irreparable damage to at least three tires, since tires may wear out in pairs but they don't wear out one at a time.
Only someone who didn't care or could afford no better would replace only one tire at a time.
Used tires installed, maybe?
The second owner was maybe a fairly poor guy who could barely afford to run the car who then found a decent job and bought something better?
None of this really matters, since you got the car at a great price and it appears that no serious harm was done based upon what you've written.
 
Originally Posted By: volodymyr
bigjl,

Originally Posted By: bigjl
Have no idea what oil is in there at the moment but the newish Air filter is a good sign


Well, you certainly did investigate a lot of things after you bought the vehicle. What about changing the oil ASAP instead of looking into the oil fill hole via electron microscope?
smile.gif



It was an eBay auction buy for next to nothing.

Not an £80k Aston Martin from a main dealer.

I have only had it c couple of days.

Thanks for the input, feel free to leave it there
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Do you think that this car was sold on by a second owner?
The first owner apparently had it dealer-serviced every 12K while the second owner only fixed what broke, like the belt?
Four different tires indicates at least three cases of irreparable damage to at least three tires, since tires may wear out in pairs but they don't wear out one at a time.
Only someone who didn't care or could afford no better would replace only one tire at a time.
Used tires installed, maybe?
The second owner was maybe a fairly poor guy who could barely afford to run the car who then found a decent job and bought something better?
None of this really matters, since you got the car at a great price and it appears that no serious harm was done based upon what you've written.


One owner from new, the original owner traded it in for a brand new Suzuki

The stamped service book ended at 100k, there is the possibility that the history after that was lost or never kept after that point.

It is not unusual for cars owned purely for the purpose of getting to work and back whose owners know or care little about such things as tyres.

The tyres are the size and load rating as the ones on the 2014 Picanto

I could swap the tyres and I can guarantee my wife wouldn't notice for example.

It is also not unusual for fast fit chains to use really poor quality oil, the deposits noted initially on the dipstick could be due to the use of cheap oil.

I gave it a wash today and a quick polish and the paint is actually pretty good. Paint is a solid red colour with some peeling of the laquer on both mirrors and two of the door rubbing strips, it also had those silly door edge protectors fitted, which has caused some minor scratching as is usual, there was also a lot of dirt behind them.

I think this spec Picanto was around £8k new back in late 05, so the previous owner had his monies worth. Happily he was a non smoker. And didn't have a dog!

Oil and filter being done tomorrow, along with some Redex. MPG at the moment appear so good, have done 80 miles after putting in £12 of petrol ar £1.109 per litre, about half is left, but I shall be doing a brim to brim comparison over the next month. The 2014 model we have has averaged 44/45 in daily running around, though gets mod 50's on a long run at motorway speeds.

Will be interesting to see how a 1.1 4pot Picanto with nearly 140k miles on it compares to a 2014 1.0 3pot with under 20k miles, the wife has put nearly 13k on the 2014 since March. That will be getting an oil and filter change later this week, will use a OE Kia filter and I will source an SM or SN 5w20.

Have decided that I will be using 5w30 in the 05

Choice is either Shell 5w30 Helix HX7 which is SJ

Or Shell Helix Ultra Professional AG 5w30 which is SN

Both are 5litre bottles for £20.

Filter will be Mann.
 
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Oil and filter change now done.

Oil didn't look that bad but was as black as the oil from a diesel.

Oil filter was a Cooper brand which didn't look to be that old, now has a Bosch in place.

Oil used was 10w40 Petronas EU800 which is Full Synthetic.

Done some more digging and have found that it had the cambelt done in Nov 2009 at just under 60k miles with a Contitech Cambelt kit.

Which makes it due (or even overdue) again now really.

It's returning over 50mpg in the same usage pattern that returned low 30's in the Berlingo which is to be expected.

Next thing on to do list is a set of four new tyres a nsf wheel bearing and an MOT in 3 weeks.
 
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Originally Posted By: bigjl

Oil used was 10w40 Petronas EU800 which is Full Synthetic.


I believe that oil is a semi syn.

What made you decide to go with a 10w40? In the previous post you said you were going with a 5w30.
 
Originally Posted By: CharlieBauer
Originally Posted By: bigjl

Oil used was 10w40 Petronas EU800 which is Full Synthetic.


I believe that oil is a semi syn.

What made you decide to go with a 10w40? In the previous post you said you were going with a 5w30.



You're correct. I made a mistake when I posted.

I had initially considered using the Petronas 10w40 as it was on special offer at EuroCarParts.

After considering the age of the car, the mileage and lack of knowledge of the previous oil change (throughout its life it has been serviced every year at around 12k miles, Kia OCI is 10k) and wanting to do a short OCI (probably 1000miles) to hopefully clean up the engine a bit, before than changing to an oil for a longer OCI of 5k or so.
 
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