best oil for xantia 2.1td with 186k

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deian
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best oil for xantia 2.1td with 186k

Post by deian »

I was in Halfords today looking at oil, the choice is silly, first you need to decide mineral or synthetic, then the grade, then whether to go for quality or halfords brand. My guess was Halfords brand, (regular oil changes with ok oil will do me), but synthetic or mineral? I've heard mineral is good, but i have a turbo to cool too, so maybe synthetic? Or semi-synthetic... then which grade... ok so what i'm trying to ask is, is there any oil that most people favour here for a high mileage turbo diesel?

I should point that it's not a bad engine, it pulls well, doesn't smoke at all, doesn't use oil and isn't excessively noisy.

Any suggestions would be great. I did try a search, but it came up with too many broad answers.

Thanks guys.
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Post by jeremy »

What do Citroen recommend? Is there anything wrong with that?
jeremy
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Post by deian »

if i wanted to know what citroen recommended i could look in the user manual of the car or in the haynes book, Citroen don't specify which brand and viscosity to get, they recommend certain types of oil for different environemts, but i'm asking for more specific answers from people with experience, what they use, why they use it, does it last well, etc etc, with problems i'd be specific, but this is a general oil question from general people who drive a turbo diesel xantia, so i don't want to be too specific with the questions, people will share what they feel they want to share if they want to share. so thanks for that jeremy, real help
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

deian wrote:if i wanted to know what citroen recommended i could look in the user manual of the car or in the haynes book, Citroen don't specify which brand and viscosity to get, they recommend certain types of oil for different environemts, but i'm asking for more specific answers from people with experience, what they use, why they use it, does it last well, etc etc, with problems i'd be specific, but this is a general oil question from general people who drive a turbo diesel xantia, so i don't want to be too specific with the questions, people will share what they feel they want to share if they want to share. so thanks for that jeremy, real help
I dont agree !
Citroen recommands viscosity 10W-40 or 15W-40 which is also stated in both the owners manual and Haynes.
You dont need to search for an engine oil with the highest API spec - its not necessary as your Citroen engine is no scientific rocket engine required to withstand a trip to Jupiter and back.
The brand and synt/mineral is completely personal according to your oil religion. Citroen recommands Total simply because Total oil company had a good deal of the shares in Citroen company once. It does not mean that other oil makes are no good for Citroens.
Haynes mostly recommands Duckham oils simply because Duckham sponsored most Haynes manuals once.

Use your common sense - and replace the oil at clever intervals - like every 6K miles - and you will never get ANY oil related problems with your engine.
Despite the screaming adds for costly synt oils - you cannot extend the service intervals between oil changes. Because no oil in the world can prevent the combustion from creating engine pollutants - like sooth particles - which can only be removed by replacing the oil.
Sooth particles are flowing around in the engine as part of the oil - and works like sandpaper.
Some are caught by the oilfilter - but only partly. Thats why the engine oil is a black ugly fluid when replaced.
Last edited by AndersDK on 19 Mar 2006, 20:19, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by zzf00l »

Come on guys... and especially you AndersDK... lets keep this forum civil, no need to call our members 'liars' lets assume that deian misread the Citroen manual and give him the benefit of our individual experiences.

My personal preference is 'Halfords own' and change oil and filter every 6K
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Post by Peter.N. »

Any oil with a CF4 spec should do, which should be obtainable for less than £6.00 per can. What is far more important is that it is changed regularly. I change mine every 5k miles and have had engines lasting nearly 300k at the time of sale.
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Post by np »

I used to use Halfords own brand semi syn 10/40,in the orange/bronze bottles.But £18 ish every 6k was getting on my nerves.I tryed 15/40 before xmas(comma)which was fine,but after changing back to Comma 10/40 semi syn from my local factor(£12 for 5 lts) i`ve noticed that on long motorway runs that my oil temp gauge reads a fair bit lower on the 10/40 than the 15/40.Will stick with Comma 10/40 semi syn from now on,& its also £5 or so cheaper than Halfords own brand. :)
53`406 est SE Hdi 140,110k
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Post by AndersDK »

zzf00l wrote:Come on guys... and especially you AndersDK... lets keep this forum civil, no need to call our members 'liars' lets assume that deian misread the Citroen manual and give him the benefit of our individual experiences.

My personal preference is 'Halfords own' and change oil and filter every 6K
You are right - cant call a member such offending words :oops:
As you can see I have edited my post.
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Post by deian »

thanks for understanding zzf00l :wink:, the posts after yours were more what i wanted to know, and AndersDK yes i'll put my hands up, Citroen prefer Total, in fact there is a badge on my rear window with total/citroen on it, didn't mean to lie and upset you ...putting that behind us now.

i may go for the 'semi-synthetic' oil for a try, halford brown tub like 'np' used, is that what you used too zzf00l or was it synthetic or mineral only?

i don't have an oil religion, which is why i asked, i guess some engines run better on different oils, and i 'will' change it often, i've read the frequent oil changes line often on this forum, so i know well by now :)

thanks ppl
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Post by AndersDK »

Right deian -

Do you find Jeremy's answer at wrong ?
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deian
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Post by deian »

no his answer was indeed very right, but i was just after a more personal answer from people, or humans, thats what forums are for (correct me if i'm wrong)... if i wanted a definate answer like jeremy provided me i could have searched on google. please can we drop this now, i already said in the last post to put it behind us.
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Post by Mandrake »

One thing that is important is don't get oil that is too thick. I don't know about the diesel engine but the petrol engine doesn't like thick oil like 20w-50.

I'm almost ashamed to mention it but I "accidentally" put Castrol GTX 20w-50 into mine, a viscocity and formulation in hindsight desinged for "older cars". (Yes it even says so on the container, which I didnt notice) :oops:

After only a couple of months performance was going downhill steadily and I couldn't figure it out. (And on a slugomatic you need every last drop of performance you can get to make it acceptable :lol: ) After a heads up on Aussiefrogs I did a bit of research and realised my mistake.

I changed it to Castrol Magnatec 10w-40 and I *immediately* noticed that performance had improved somewhat, and then after a few hundred Km's it was quite a bit better again. A few weeks later the good performance is still being maintained.

Note: this is not an ad for that particular oil, but rather for using an oil of the right viscocity which meets the right standards.

In my defense this is the first car I've had which was made after the 80's when all the new oil grades started being used on engines, and I wasn't really up with the play. BUT if I had read the book properly and the labels on the oil's I wouldn't have made this mistake.

Hopefully someone will benefit from this.... :)

Regards,
Simon
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Post by bencowell »

GSF are v cheap for Total Quartz 9000 5w40. Speaking of which I will need to change again in a couple of months. Oh the joys of driving.

Still, with Hydropneumatics and a few bricks for safety, oil changes are a piece of cake!
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Post by Mandrake »

bencowell wrote:GSF are v cheap for Total Quartz 9000 5w40. Speaking of which I will need to change again in a couple of months. Oh the joys of driving.

Still, with Hydropneumatics and a few bricks for safety, oil changes are a piece of cake!
I'm not sure that the words "bricks" and "safety" go together. Bricks have been known to crumble and disintegrate with heavy loads. (Especially when they don't have mortar to keep them together)

You might get away with it with a car like a BX or Xantia, but just try supporting the front of a CX with bricks and watch the excitement :shock:

You really should use axle stands. If you need to make up some distance use cut lengths of 2 by 4 wood, not bricks...

Regards,
Simon
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2016 Nissan Leaf Tekna 30kWh in White

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Post by bencowell »

I've looked but cannot find axle stands that fit under a C5 with suspension on high. Does anyone know of any?

Cheers
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