Which Oil is best? help!!

[gemmasweetie]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can tell me the best kind of oil I can put in my Megane? Its a 5 door hatch, 1.6 16V. It says change oil on screen so I should really top it up. Its due a service soon so maybe I should leave it til then?

What is the cheapest and best oil I can use for my car?

Cheers

Gemma

[Ozzy82]

Hi Gemma! Welcome

I jus serviced my car, and used Castrol 0w-30. My car is running better than ever, smooth and i have noticed its slightly more economical too.

Castrol is abit on the dear side but well worth it

[jason]

Hi there if your mess on your dash is reading change oil.....your service is now due just topping up the oil will not change this message. your first mess on dash would of been change oil soon this will come on about 1,000 miles or its birthday (12months or 24months) before service is due.

P.S still check oil level thou....

Jason......

[IainMW]

Hi and welcome to the forum

You need a Fully Synthetic 5W30 oil that meets the ACEA A3 standard. As Ozzy says a 0W30 will be just as good as long as it meets the same standard.

If you can't find either of those a 5W40 ACEA A3 oil will do the job just as well.
At a push a semi synthetic 10W40 ACEA A3 oil will do the job but not offer the same protection as the others.

In my opinion there is no such thing as a good cheap oil. You pay for what you get!

If you take it to your Renault dealer they will probably use 5W40 or 10W40 oil and charge you a lot for it!

Go to your nearest motor factors (stay clear of Halfrauds and Motor World) and get them to find you a good oil if price is so important.
You could even supply a 5ltr can of it when you take it in for a service to save youself some money

[AlexB]

Sweetie,

If you want the best... it may be not necessary for your application, but anyway... Get X-Lite (top of the range) or X-Max from Motul range at
https://www.opieoils.co.uk

Register with them as our club member to get a discount.

"Change oil soon" does not mean that you need to top it up. It means that the mileage/time has come to change oil. Check the deepstick on the cold engine -- the oil should be almost on the MAX mark. If it drops below MIN, the engine dies within seconds.

[Ray]

or you can goto a Shell garage and get some Shell Helix Ultra or even Shell Helix Plus

My change oil message is up too. Normally I'd go with Helix Ultra, but I'm open to others. AlexB? any recommendations for a 2005 1.9dCi?

[Deano16v]

ray, is the shell diesel stuff ok too? i need to chuck a quart in mine. gonna change it all in the new year but would like to keep it topped up in the meantime

[Ray]

They never had a diesel range last year and i'm using "normal" Shell Helix Ultra which i can recommend! 5w40.

[Deano16v]

top man, ta matey

[AlexB]

Ray,

Shell Helix and many other popular oils are group 3 hydrocracked mineral oils. They are adequate, but contain high percentage of viscosity improvers and shear under high loads. If you want a better cheap oil, get this:
https://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-997-fuchs-t ... iesel.aspx
It is cleaner and more stable due to lower viscosity index.

Alternatively, I would be thinking about a group 4+5 lubricant, which are usually 0w... with the word "ester" in the description. You know my choice: Motul 8100 E-tech Ester 0w-40.

[IainMW]

AlexB is right most "fully synthetic" marketed oils are type 3 hydrocracked, but they are still very good and perfectly okay for the Renault range of none FAP dCi engines. Webcode and oilman confirmed this along time ago. Daily driving is not like racing round Silverstone where an oil is really put to the test.

Renaults recommendation following all the turbo problems the early 1.9/2.2dCi's suffered is for a 5W40 ACEA B3 B4 oil.

Oilman posted 2 very good documents recently
https://www.meganeownersclub.co.uk/forum ... highlight=
and
https://www.meganeownersclub.co.uk/forum ... highlight=

I for a long time used Castrol GTD Magnatec 10W40 but have also used oils from Millers and Comma
https://www.millersoils.net/1_Millers_fr ... RETAIL.htm
XFD 5W40
https://www.commaoil.co.uk/
Comma Syner-D 5W40

At the moment I'm running on this and I'm very happy with it.
https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... WLIST#LIST

The wife's old Clio dCi 80 ran on it for 2 years as did my Megane and my dad's 1.9dCi Megane is also on it. The new Laguna will also get this when I change it in another 5000 miles and the New Clio is getting it next week before we go on holiday in it.

As long as you change your oil at 9000 not 18000 (or 6000 not 12000) you will have no problem running a type 3 oil.

However if you feel you want that little bit extra protection and piece of mind then go for a type 4 Ester/PAO oil

Oilman will recommend you an oil for your car after all that is his business

[AlexB]

Yep, it is all about peace of mind...

... mostly. The first 2 years my car was running on French 5w-40, then I cleaned the EGR valve. The valve was OK, but there was some sooty and oily "goo" in the intake manifold in the area where the EGR system connects to it. It was thick, as its oil component partly polymerised. Two years later, after using the group 4+5 oil, I opened the same part again. The goo was present, but it was different and much less in quantity. The oil did not polymerise, so the black stuff kept flowing and being consumed by the engine. In both cases oil consumption was low: about 0.8 and 0.4L per 10000 miles correspondingly.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this as an alternative to EGR valve cleaning. On both occasions the circular passage around the valve had plenty of dry soot in it, which has no relationship to the oil.

I've checked data on many 5w-40 oils. Almost all of them, apart from racing Silkolene PRO S and Motul 300V, are very similar group 3 hydrocracked mineral oils. This fact is usually hidden, but it can be seen in the MSDS documents. So, Shell, Halfords, Total, Elf -- they are all very similar to each other due to the same type of base stocks and similar viscosity.