Oil

[prescott56]

Evening,
Are there any preferences on oil? What do you all think of Halfords own brand...the 10/40 diesel semi synthetic is considerably cheaper than other brands...Is it any good?

Regards
Roy

[MrMPuk]

5w30 semi synthetic.

[birdy]

This keeps cropping up and opinions differ ,you should be ok with 10-40

[hifly]

we had a little chat about oil price in this tread.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=59040

[MrMPuk]

This keeps cropping up and opinions differ ,you should be ok with 10-40

[winterheating]

yeah its ok in warmer weather but the recommended oil is 5w-30 semi with the right specifications aswell, no good just getting any 5w-30semisyn from the pound shop.
, why put off the right stuff for the sake of less than a tenner difference. its the oil that can lead to failure of rockers, turbo, piston cooling. .
correct full protection, MPG, correct combustion, chain tensioner operation,etc etc...

[MinorMatt]

We dont know what van

I would happily put 10-40 in a Di, but would definately stick with the 5/30 on a duratorque!

[birdy]

Due to the question being asked in the mk 3 4 5 section one would assume the engine in question is a 2.5 Di .Some offer strong opinions and believe they have the only correct answer = Any of a dozen oil grades can be used and dependant on engine state and mileage etc one grade may well be more suitable than another .I have used 20.50 mineral oil costing £3 - £4 a gallon from Morrisons or Tesco for years and done 2000 miles a week whilst doing so even leaving oil in for 20k miles and when engine was stripped it was noted that it was good cond.Lately i have experimented more and used so called better grades costing far more.Mechanics with far more mechanical nous than myself say 5.30 is too thin for DI's that have high mileage .So "5.30 definitely" my arse, as said before any of a good few will do the job.

[prescott56]

Thanks for the replies,
Should have said the smiley is a 2.5 TD with Epic pump. Its actually a 22foot motorhome.
I bought last sept and before heading off to sardinia did filters, oil change etc. All looked ok.
Did the run down to sardinia and back to UK for Xmas.
All ok returned on average 26mpg, thats over 3000 miles of mostly non motorway driving.

Now going to change the oil and filters again,
I do agree with birdy, I have an old boat down south which has a BMC 1.5 Deisel in it...Its 30+ years old and still runs sweet.
I have been told many many times do not use newer oils, indeed the cheaper the better...I have always used Texaco mineral oil or Cepsa (Spanish) mineral oil.

Thinking i'll stick with 10-40 as most of my driving is in warmer climates..thankfully.

One thing i have noticed is that the van takes a hell of a long time to get hot...once at temp it runs just over half on the temp gauge. Does this sound about right? Hoping to get off south by the end of the end of the week so don't wanna start ripping things apart..

Regards
Roy

[hifly]

Personally i use a cheep 10/40 oil but change every 5,000 miles, as i'm running on veg oil most of the time (bosch pump) it needs changing more often as its a DI. Done this for the last 40,000 miles, van now has near 200,000 miles and the engine is the best part of the van.

[birdy]

Temp sounds good to me .Had several transits and all pretty much the same ,Cast iron block takes some time to get up to temp the upside being Di's rarely have overheating problems .

[MrMPuk]

I'm a little unsure why you bothered to ask the question in the first place and why Ford bother to list correct oils in handbooks.

[MIXA]

Halfotds 5/30 semi syn is on offer at moment any way .£18.75 instead of 26 quid

[birdy]

If the Transit handbook was rewritten it may well reccomend different oils for used vans now, also consider how technology has moved on. As i have already stated i have spoken to oil suppliers and experienced mechanics and not one said to use 5.30 in a 10+ yr old van with 150k miles on the clock ,the preference seems to be to go for a thicker oil the older and more miles an engine has under its belt .No one is either right or wrong on this one because it appears several oil types can be used without fear of catastrophe.

[MrMPuk]

If the Transit handbook was rewritten it may well reccomend different oils for used vans now, also consider how technology has moved on. As i have already stated i have spoken to oil suppliers and experienced mechanics and not one said to use 5.30 in a 10+ yr old van with 150k miles on the clock ,the preference seems to be to go for a thicker oil the older and more miles an engine has under its belt .No one is either right or wrong on this one because it appears several oil types can be used without fear of catastrophe.

Sorry but you're wrong. Ford run engines on test beds and in test vans for hundreds of thousands of miles for these exact purposes.