Extraordinary prices for mundane engine oil

[winjim]

might void your warranty (if it has one) if you don't manually check and top up your levels regular

I do check it, although not what I would call regularly and it never needs topping up. Anyway the car's over ten years old and well out of warranty.

 

[Salad Dodger]

I had an old Land Rover that got through nearly as much oil (by leaking it and burning it) as it did petrol.
If I still had it, I would have been straight along to Asda to buy up some of their overstock!

 

[notmyrealnamebutclose]

I do check it, although not what I would call regularly and it never needs topping up. Anyway the car's over ten years old and well out of warranty.

I saw a great video on utube about this American guy who owned a good no nonsense garage, he says you
will greatly extend the life and efficiency of you engine if you change your oil at every 6k. Car manu/dealers advice
is around 12k. This is just marketing they don't care if car starts having problems after the warranty has expired.

 

[presta]

I've never had a car that burned oil

I had an old Land Rover that got through nearly as much oil (by leaking it and burning it) as it did petrol.

The piston rings on my father's FA Victor broke up when we were staying with the family in Leeds once. We drove 200 miles back home to Essex trailing a pall of blue smoke, and stopping every few miles to pour more oil in.

OTOH, my '86 Accord had 180,000 miles on it at the end, and I don't recall ever putting any oil in it.

 

[Brandane]

Outside certain enthusiasts, who buys engine oil?

Me!
It's not difficult to change engine oil and filter on most cars; certainly easy enough on any car I've ever owned. And it can greatly extend the life of an engine.
My mk2 Golf GTi NEVER had a "proper" garage service. I changed the oil and filter every 5k miles, also spark plugs, filters, timing belt, brake discs/pads, coolant, brake fluid etc. as and when required.
It still ran like new when I sold it with 152k miles on it.
Plus the feel good factor of knowing that work had actually been done rather than charged for but missed out by the garage (it does happen!). Saved myself a fortune too.
I've done the same with all my cars since then. As soon as they're out of warranty, I avoid garages like the plague.
If I could fit my own tyres, I would do that too. Rather than my recent experience of a supposedly highly rated garage who fitted 4 tyres to my car last week. My list of faults... greasy marks on both front doors; tyres not inflated to specified pressures (not even close, and not even the same. Pressures varied by 8 psi on one axle!). Locking wheel nuts all torqued way too tight. Left off 3 out of 4 dust caps. If that's an example of their standard of work, I wouldn't let them anywhere near my car for servicing!

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I was in Asda the other day, i ventured past the DIY , motoring section, they're doing Carlube fully synthetic engine oil at the following prices (I may have them the wrong way round but bear enough)
5w30 for Ford, Land rover etc...4 ltr for £2,56
0 or 5w20 (can't remember which way round it was) 4 ltr for £1.34

I brought some anyway, not even for my car but Itd do for someone with an older car perhaps, just ridiculous prices.

I don't know if its an error, they're trying to clear the shelves or what. The /20 is an unusual grade and there was a lot of it, perhaps it was a stocking error.
Who knows but weird.

That is incredibly cheap, I would have bought all the stock at that price.

 

[winjim]

Me!
It's not difficult to change engine oil and filter on most cars; certainly easy enough on any car I've ever owned. And it can greatly extend the life of an engine.
My mk2 Golf GTi NEVER had a "proper" garage service. I changed the oil and filter every 5k miles, also spark plugs, filters, timing belt, brake discs/pads, coolant, brake fluid etc. as and when required.
It still ran like new when I sold it with 152k miles on it.
Plus the feel good factor of knowing that work had actually been done rather than charged for but missed out by the garage (it does happen!). Saved myself a fortune too.
I've done the same with all my cars since then. As soon as they're out of warranty, I avoid garages like the plague.
If I could fit my own tyres, I would do that too. Rather than my recent experience of a supposedly highly rated garage who fitted 4 tyres to my car last week. My list of faults... greasy marks on both front doors; tyres not inflated to specified pressures (not even close, and not even the same. Pressures varied by 8 psi on one axle!). Locking wheel nuts all torqued way too tight. Left off 3 out of 4 dust caps. If that's an example of their standard of work, I wouldn't let them anywhere near my car for servicing!

See I would definitely count that as being at the enthusiast end of the scale and guess you don't buy all your parts from the supermarket.

I'm fairly nervous about employing tradespeople for things I don't really understand but fortunately have found a mechanic I really trust. Got some good tyre people close by too.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Isn't it something that's been engineered out on modern cars though? I'm assuming my next car will be newer than my current one.

Admittedly our car doesn't have a high mileage.

You would have thought so, but the VAG engines (petrol) in particular are notorious for it - although the line is, as V said, that 1ltr/1000 miles (or was it km?) is normal.

 

[Chris S]

My car uses about a litre of oil every 1000 miles, typical of the model. I think it’s about £8 a litre, get deals on eBay

I had a 1970's Mini like that. I never had to drain the sump, I just changed the oil filter once a year!

 

[Chris S]

The /20 is an unusual grade and there was a lot of it, perhaps it was a stocking error.
Who knows but weird.

/20 is probably too thin to protect most engines.

 

[november4]

My 'banger' does only about 6K a year and I change the oil twice a year as its a high mileage diesel engine

OP, be careful mixing oil grades. I know from experience..... I did a top up once with a close but dissimilar grade, both good brand synthetic, and it put the car into limp mode and I then had to trigger a DPF regeneration using a plug in scanner - basically the whole exhaust system was old enough (over 100k miles) that the different oil grade toppled the DPF into being sooted up

 

[Jody]

My 'banger' does only about 6K a year and I change the oil twice a year as its a high mileage diesel engine

OP, be careful mixing oil grades. I know from experience..... I did a top up once with a close but dissimilar grade, both good brand synthetic, and it put the car into limp mode and I then had to trigger a DPF regeneration using a plug in scanner - basically the whole exhaust system was old enough (over 100k miles) that the different oil grade toppled the DPF into being sooted up

Straw that broke the camels back.

A small top up wouldn't cause your DPF to block.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

My 'banger' does only about 6K a year and I change the oil twice a year as its a high mileage diesel engine

OP, be careful mixing oil grades. I know from experience..... I did a top up once with a close but dissimilar grade, both good brand synthetic, and it put the car into limp mode and I then had to trigger a DPF regeneration using a plug in scanner - basically the whole exhaust system was old enough (over 100k miles) that the different oil grade toppled the DPF into being sooted up

Was it the grade change (which I doubt tbh) or the fact that it wasn't a low ash spec., perhaps?

 

[fossyant]

Some modern vehicles, especially diesels can contaminate the oil easily so regular changes are a must. Unless you have a car in warranty why would you pay mega bucks to a garage to change oil. It's not difficult.

 

[mustang1]

I pay around this price for my oil

https://www.eurocarparts.com/p/mobil-1-esp-engine-oil-5w-30-5ltr-521771861

My truck takes just 7 litres

Pricey stuff. I have not bought oil for many years, I did not realise oil had got that expensive, even that oil for higher power engines.

When @gbb posted £1.xx for 4 litres, that is the complete opposite end to your oil I guess.

I used to scoff at those ( along time ago) days when dealers started charging over £200 for a "service". Grrr. Then electric cars came out and they still said they need to service those cars annually. I think Tesla has the right attitude to servicing, they do not seem to get "over serviced".