Oil change intervals

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Dave Bamber
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Oil change intervals

Post by Dave Bamber »

I've always been one for changing the oil at regular intervals (5-6000 miles), which must stem from being in the trade as a wee lad when that was the norm. Nowadays service intervals are stretching ever longer, my Berlingo diesel is 10000 miles (the HDi is 12000!). I think this is far too long to leave oil in an engine. I'd like to know other people's view's are on the subject.
With the Berlingo, as it's under warranty, I'm not suppose to fiddle with it for at least 3 years, so the oil stays in there for lots and lots of miles. Yes, I am going to change it at 5000 with Valvoline fully synthetic, but not the filter as it has a large blob of green paint on it. One wonders why......
madpenguin
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Post by madpenguin »

Dave,
I couldn't agree more. My ZX TD has done 160K miles and is still leaving boy racers for dust.
pwatson
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Post by pwatson »

I agree - reckon that changing oil and filter every 5000 miles is a good way of keeping the engine sweet and it's a lot cheaper than risking oil deteriorating and wrecking the engine. By the way - if you ever go to France for cheap fags and booze look at the price of synth oil and filters - about half uk price!

Phil
Jon

Post by Jon »

The longer service interval on the Berlingo DW8 is achieved by the use of semi or fully synthetic oil, together with long life oil filter (Citroen 1109R1, GSF N12048).
As theres no first oil change at 1000 miles, I do not intend to service my Berlingo at 10,000 miles, I'm going for 6000, and I will use Total Q7000 semi synthetic, and a genuine Purflux 1109R1, that way, you are using the genuine items specified, and as far as I'm aware, the warranty will not be affected. I will also reset the service indicator, and do my servicing at intervals of 6000 miles thereafter.
PS The blob of paint on your oil filter is the fitters mark, you will see that many critical items are blobbed with paint to show that they have been done up correctly in the factory, Citroen have done this right back to the days of the 2CV!!!
Jon
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Post by JohnD »

Yes! I couldn't agree more. We have four diesels in the family. a Xantia, a BX and two Pug 205's and they all get fresh oil and filters every 5000. And yes - the oil comes over from Calais together with the wine and beer. It's my belief that extended service intervals has more to do with making certain cars look more attractive than with sound maintenance.
John.
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Post by alan s »

There was a recent debate on a Bulletin Board in Australia which is exclusively for French cars. One contributor was a guy who owns a specialised French car service business & he claimed that oil company reps recommend (unofficially of course) that any oil is useless after 8,000 klms due to loss of viscosity & floating metal particles.
I once bought a Citroen Mechanics private car & he extolled the virtues of prolonged oil changes. The motor stunk like a pole cat & all the breather hoses were rotton due to the acidic action of old putrid oil. It would be interesting to know at what intervals these cars with the chronic "mayonnaise" problems have had their routine oil changes done in the past.
Alan S
Dave Bamber
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Post by Dave Bamber »

I finally changed the oil on my Berlingo today, 5000 miles before Citroen say it should be done (10000 mile service intervals). Boy was the oil knackered! Very thin and dirty. It being the same oil put in at the factory, as the car was new in February. The oil filter had alot of visable bits of muck in it too. The oil was supposed to last another 5000 miles, I don't think so!! I used a Purflux oil filter from Andyspares (thanks chaps) so the warranty should be ok, and Valvoline semi synthetic oil.
Dave Burns
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Post by Dave Burns »

Hi Dave
I tried (think it was) Castrol's fully synthetic oil a few year's back in a naturally aspirated 1.9D xantia, can't remember what they called it now but the car just burned the stuff and at £20 a gallon I soon kicked that one on the head, I now use Valvoline turbo diesel and buy it in 5 gallon drums, the oil in a diesel engine goes jet black soon after it is changed that's normal and comes from the soot produced during combustion, soot (carbon) in this form actually has lubrication properties and is another reason that diesel's are so long lived compared to petrols.
Dave Burns
Dave Bamber
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Post by Dave Bamber »

Hi Dave.
I remember reading a long time ago, a test using fully synthetic oil (Mobil 1 I think). The test involved putting the oil in 3 different cars and noting the results. One of the cars was an MGB GT, which like your Xantia, consumed the stuff at a ferocious rate! It was, remembering this, that I put synthetic into my 2CV. The change was dramatic! It stopped leaking oil, revved more freely, was quieter, and the back pressure in the engine decreased. The problem is that it is sooo expensive. I now use semi-synthetic as it seems to be a good compromise between cost and protection.
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