Thread: What Oil

Originally Posted by Rick Fischer

Recommend you use Mobil 1 0-? Comes in Gold container. $80 plus for 5 litres. sometimes you can pick it up cheaper. Used to have to get mine from the local Mobil agent.

It is the BMW/LR recommended oil for the engine. Used it for 266 000km. Less expensive oils are just not worth the trouble.

Cheers

RF

With all due respect, the oil Simon mentioned above in post # 8 is a better oil than the very good M1 0W-40.

If you want to do your head in, read some of the old oil posts/threads on here and it may (or may not) become clear why.

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

My recently purchased TD5 Disco is coming due for a service. Looking in the hand book there are a few different oils and oil specs that can be used.

Can you all tell me what oil you are using?

Valvoline synpower 5W 40, fully synthetic.I change every 5,000 kms. although my local independant LR dealer says synpower can go out to 10,000 kms no trouble. Oil still looks ok at 5,000 kms, 350,000 kms on the D2. Bob

Originally Posted by bob10

Valvoline synpower 5W 40, fully synthetic.I change every 5,000 kms. although my local independant LR dealer says synpower can go out to 10,000 kms no trouble. Oil still looks ok at 5,000 kms, 350,000 kms on the D2. Bob

Unless you are doing lots of sub 10km trips and/or lots of city driving/idling and it takes 12 months or longer between oil changes then yes, you are wasting your oil.

Originally Posted by bob10

Valvoline synpower 5W 40, fully synthetic.I change every 5,000 kms. although my local independant LR dealer says synpower can go out to 10,000 kms no trouble. Oil still looks ok at 5,000 kms, 350,000 kms on the D2. Bob

That oil will do 15k easily in TD5 under normal type driving conditions.I have had it tested at this type of mileage & it was OK.
It is also the oil MR auto use in the TD5's.


Same as what Rick says,wasting money changing to often.

For those that use Penrite 5W40 HPR5 Diesel, what frequency are you changing it out. I've just done 4500km heavy towing/touring in Victoria, thinking of changing oil and filters. Is the Valvolene synpower a better oil???
Regards
Robbo.

Originally Posted by rick130

If you want to do your head in, read some of the old oil posts/threads on here and it may (or may not) become clear why.

Rick, Do my head in is an understatement. I have trolled through a lot of threads and all these ACEA numbers are confusing.

What I did learn though is that you are the oil Guru. So I have a couple of questions. A lot of people are saying that a TD5 must run synthetic yet there is no mention of this in my LR hand book.

My hand book says it must be ACEA A1 and B1. It then has a note saying that B2 oils are also suitable. Is this saying that B2 is not as good but ok to use?

Below are two reasonably priced oils that the manufacturer says is ok for TD5. What are your thoughts on these?

This oil does not have anything that that the LR book recommends.



This one does have B2 but no A1.

IMO if you are only doing 5-10,000km oil change intervals, why would you use a full syn oil unless you are absolutely caning your engine ?

A full synthetic oil isn't always needed, and plenty of good mineral based heavy duty diesel oils will outperform a light duty full synthetic oil in hard diesel use.
I know of blokes that have used oils that would send the average TD5 owner on here into apoplexy if they found out, yet the oil test always came out brilliantly.

TD5's can be hard on cams, particularly the lobes for the unit injectors.
It might be a metallurgy issue, I don't know, but as a consequence I sure wouldn't like to use a petrol fuel efficiency oil like Mobil 1 0W-30, even though it's a full synthetic oil.
This is because M1 0W-30 is formulated to meet the ILSAC GF-4 specifications which among a very long list of tests has a relatively low HTHS (High Temp/High Sheer) pass number to meet fuel economy requirements.
In highly loaded areas such as unit injector lobes, these oils may not provide sufficient protection

I'm not sure how those PDS's can list the ILSAC GF-4 spec and meet the ACEA specs listed ??
The HTHS specs are totally different ?
Is it possible for an xW-40 oil that can meet the GF-4 spec anyway ??

Put it this way, I wouldn't use any oil in a TD5 that listed the ILSAC GF-4 specification, IMO the HTHS requirements are too low, where as the ACEA specs listed have a more than adequate HTHS pass number.

FWIW the GF-4 spec is now obsolete from a licensing point of view, with ILSAC GF-5 now superseding it.
The HTHS specs with GF-5 are still too low for turbo diesel use according to European manufacturers.


A couple of simple things re ACEA oil specifications.

A = petrol engine for cars
B = diesel engines for cars/light duty use.
C = low SAPS oils
E = heavy duty diesel oil

The A1/B1 is a really old spec now and doesn't meet the minimum requirements for any modern engine. It was originally introduced in 1996 but has been upgraded a number of times since.

What Land Rover demand as a minimum spec in the handbook for the TD5 is so out of date now it isn't funny.
Oils have moved on so far since 1999 I wouldn't even bother looking at it, eg the B2 spec doesn't even exist anymore.

The A3/B3-08 and A3/B4-08 oils as listed on the two different PDS's meet the same wear/sludge/varnish specs, it's specific manufacturer approvals and some viscosity range differences that separate the two specs.
I'd be looking at both those specs as a minimum for a TD5 these days.


Either one would be more than acceptable if they didn't list the GF-4 spec, (it has to be a typo) the 5W-40 just uses higher priced base oils compared to the semi-syn 10W-40 which is reflected in its price. In real world use they would probably perform the same, particularly here in Australia where we have mild winters compared to Europe.
A 0W or 5W-40 oil just isn't needed here, even in the snow. (that'll get a few going )



If they make an E4/E6/E9 10W-40 oil for the same money I'd go that way. Heavy duty diesel oils are the way to go in 4x4 engines IMO. Nothing like a bit of overkill for the same $ or less

I agree totally with rick on that. A bit of overkill wiyh oils can only be a good thing, within reason and wallet! The Defendor Tdi has always had Tection Global ES in it( apart from the first dealer service of RX ) and 307000 later the oils still cleanish looking at changes.
Scott