Yes they do stuff for old British cars, this is what I use -  https://www.millersoils.co.uk/products/classic-sport-high-performance-20w50/

 

and I use this in gearbox and rear axle - (modern motorsport oils) - https://www.millersoils.co.uk/products/crx-75w90-nt-2/

 

They do standard engine oils and modern motorsport (including Ginetta and Hewland). - https://www.millersoils.co.uk/product-category/motorsport/

 

If you did not like the idea of CFS (competition fully synthetic) on the label they also do EE Performance Engine Oil 10w40. - https://www.millersoils.co.uk/products/ee-performance-engine-oil-10w40/

 

Edited 26 January, 20224 yr by nta16

49 minutes ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

As for Febi Bilstein 06162 tomorrow i will give a call to the dealer and i will check my car's hydraulic oil level (we had snow for 2 days and i couldn't).

I briefly saw on the television news here the other day that the airport roof/cover collapsed under all the snow.

 

We are expecting warmer than average 13C here on Saturday, been coldish but no snow so far this winter but we do not see much snow here.

 

 

19 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

I have clear mineral oil 

 

Mineral oil had when i bought it and all these years once i added some.

Have you changed yours?

 

The new order (2 bottles of Febi Bilstein) is on it's way, next week if the weather permits it i will make the change by myself.

Today after a small route of few kilometers the level was between Min and Max.

5 hours ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

The new order (2 bottles of Febi Bilstein) is on it's way

Yes !  Er, Yes, but which, no do not tell us let it be a surprise (but I have a small bet with myself which you have ordered).

 

 

5 hours ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

Today after a small route of few kilometers the level was between Min and Max.

Being serious, it cold weather now.

 

If when you emptied/drained you can get get a swab in you can check for any contaminants / crud / bits (of seals) and if there are any use more swabs to remove as much out as you can before flushing and refilling with fresh fluid.

 

Rub the first investigative swab across a white tissue to see any fluids and bits and to also see how the 'lifetime fill' of original oil compares with the fresh.

 

Good luck, you can wait for better weather (sunny and mild(-ish) here today).

 

11 hours ago, nta16 said:

Yes !  Er, Yes, but which

 

If when you emptied/drained you can get get a swab in you can check for any contaminants / crud / bits (of seals) and if there are any use more swabs to remove as much out as you can before flushing and refilling with fresh fluid.

 

 

 

Febi Bilstein 06162 Mineral.

 

I saw a video where a guy used Carburettor spray to clean the remains of the old hydraulic oil from the reservoir but i hesitate to do the same.

 

3 hours ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

Febi Bilstein 06162 Mineral.

Well what a surprise, I did not win much off myself as the odds were very low. 😄

 

 

3 hours ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

I saw a video where a guy used Carburettor spray to clean the remains of the old hydraulic oil from the reservoir but i hesitate to do the same.

Personally I would hesitate to do this, my guess would be that any timely effective cleaning agent like this might be a bit aggressive to use unless the reservoir was removed from the car and open both ends.

 

Thinking about it if I was using the swabs to clean as I suggested earlier with the parts still fitted to the car it might be best to also give the swabs a light coating of the fresh clean oil to reduce any abrasion and retain any fibres to the swab rather than transfer them to the fitted parts and components.

 

Cleaning the fully open parts on a bench where you can turn them and drain and dry them and use perhaps low pressure air to remove loose debris from the part or cleaning materials is different to when the part remains fitted.  When fitted liquids and debris can pool or catch and remain inside the parts as they may be difficult to remove or they may be flushed to other areas as the system is partially closed.  I hope that makes sense, it is not a clear explanation even for an English person to read!

 

Edited 28 January, 20224 yr by nta16
spelling

3 hours ago, nta16 said:

hope that makes sense, it is not a clear explanation even for an English person to read!

 

 

Do not worry, i read and understand far more than i can write.

 

Compressed air can be found in local gas-stations and repair-shops but this means i had to abandon my tools etc beside the car (keep in mind that i work alone in the side of the road) for a while so this isn't wise.

My first thought is to remove as much oil as a can with a syringe and a small piece of tube as an extension, then take the resevoir in my hands and:

1) use rag and with a thin stick to swirl it to collect as much as remaining oil it can, then a new clean rag or

2) use rag and with a thin stick to swirl it to collect as much as remaining oil it can and then use a cleaner spray or isopropyl alcohol with another clean rag to make the inside or the reservoir as much clean as i can.

Then i will start the oil replacement procedure (fill new, move the streering wheel from lock to lock, collect the old in a bottle, add some new, move the steering wheel from left to right etc till i see new oil to run inside the plastic bottle).

 

I will try previous night to park my car in a quiet alley so next day i can work with quietness and safely.

The compressed air is only for bench cleaning really.  I do not have compressed air but you can buy it in small cans (called air duster) for blow out computers, keyboards and the like, or you could do what I do use a hairdryer set to cold or use a narrow hose or tube and use lung power, careful of spittle and no passing out with hyperventilation.

 

"Lint-free" cleaning cloths are cheap and more consistent than rags.

 

If you're just cleaning the outside and inside of a reservoir then the cloth/rag needs to be as lint free as possible, old microfibre cloths might be good.  If you wrap them around the end of a thin stick and secure them you have a swab.  If it is just the reservoir and the rags/cloths are "lint-free" to a good extent then yes the first few you use could be dry.

 

If using some sort of cleaner you want to make sure it has fully dried or evaporated out.

 

If you have plenty of new oil left after your procedure you could drive the car and the next day remove and replace some of the new oil but remember to keep some back in case a top up is needed.  If you have enough left after that you could repeat removing and replacing again another time after driving the car more.

 

Personally I think you missed an opportunity to see if you could decrease your fuel consumption a tiny bit from cold starts as synthetic oils generally flow better when cold than mineral which also helps the power steering components to operate more efficiently quicker,  reducing wear and engine power needed.  Also synthetic  handles heat better, pressure brings heat,

 

The same type of things apply to the engine oils too of course.

 

See this page and all the yellow boxes links at the bottom of that page including 'Flushing System' and 'Bleeding System'. - https://powerracksdirect.co.uk/what-fluid-to-use/

 

Good luck.

14 hours ago, nta16 said:

The compressed air is only for bench cleaning really.

 

If you're just cleaning the outside and inside of a reservoir then the cloth/rag needs to be as lint free as possible

 

 

As i saw the inside of the reservoir isn't with sensors or metal screen to snag or something that need extra caution as a MAF sensor.

Many times the compressed air is adjustable so there is no need to be in full open, from distance few pressings from the one end to pass air through the other will be enough.

 

I will use microfibre clothes or in worst case a quality college t-shirt that i don't need any more.

 

14 hours ago, nta16 said:

Personally I think you missed an opportunity to see if you could decrease your fuel consumption a tiny bit from cold starts as synthetic oils

 

It's a risk that i can not take, i have an old car and there is no a Felicia driver here in Greece to consult me that he did the same with Synthetic and after a year at least everything is fine etc.

I don't want to make my Trusty as a ''test animal".

If i use synthetic and something goes wrong i will pay the price and i don't want it because will cost me a lot of money, take me out from the family budget plus that even if i try hard there is no chance to make a completely flush on the system working alone on an alley.

Even if i let my car in a repair-shop i am not sure that will try as much as they can to remove the Mineral oil for 100% from the system.

 

The oil that i have now is from 1999, any change with a fresh brand name oil will do nothing more than good.

This isn't a coolant sensor or a radiator switch that i can change ASAP if something goes wrong, i have no access to the whole steering wheel mechanism so i won't do this step ahead.

1 hour ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

Many times the compressed air is adjustable so there is no need to be in full open, from distance few pressings from the one end to pass air through the other will be enough.

You have obviously had the luxury of the availability of such equipment, I once borrowed a portable compressor, and that was another 'car story'.

 

 

1 hour ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

a quality college t-shirt that i don't need any more

More wealth and extravagance. 😄  I like my clothes to be 'comfortable' so they are generally well worn (out) I was going to use one of my old t-shirts for rags because it ripped at the back as I took it off over my head but when I looked at it it was too worn thin for usable use as a rag.  (Comments about Four Yorkshiremen may follow from others.)

 

 

1 hour ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

It's a risk that i can not take, i have an old car and there is no a Felicia driver here in Greece to consult me that he did the same with Synthetic and after a year at least everything is fine etc.

Given the explicit detail not to mix and your circumstances I can understand your decision, it was more of a nudge for future decisions and actions regarding good quality (synthetic) oils.  😄  As you would test for shorter term benefits and perhaps appreciate the protective and prevention benefits as well as the medium and longer term benefits with little additional monetary cost of its use and the potential protective and prevention savings in costs of time, hassle and money.

 

You already do a lot more than the vast majority of car owners otherwise you would not have the car so long and it is doubtful it would still be around and used so regularly.  I can understand that you do not want to let slip now as it gets more important to do the right thing for the car's use and longevity.

 

I am used to regularly using (not so much now) and maintaining cars older and  twice as old as yours for about 30 years now, and like you like, when the suitable opportunities allow, to drive in a spirited manner so I do have some experience if not that much knowledge.

 

Here is a video my neighbour quickly made on very cheap equipment at short notice because of the Covid situation, unusually I had cleaned the outside, my car lives outside all the time, but not the inside or engine bay, the exterior cellulose paint is nowhere near as good as it even appears in the video.

 

As an experiment  I turned on the auto-generated (English) subtitles to see if they work and they do but can not cope fully with my neighbour's local accent (which is not as strong as mine) and it misses out the car's model name as the word is now considered an offensive term and there is no laughter just some music.  How it all would be in translation would be amusing but the Greek translation subtitles were just symbols to me. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GWowHiIktA

 

No matter how hard i try i will not get rid of the old Mineral oil from my car to add the Synthetic but if i do it i will have to live with the fear that maybe something will get wrong

Every foam bubble or noise will ring a bell to my mind and i don't want to live like this.

Even if i go to a repair-shop and manage to do thing perfectly still there is no guarantee that my Felicia would like the new oil. I haven't met here in this forum nor in a Greek forum a Felicia owner who did this so i don't want to be the first who will try it.

If i start having a leak for example the situation can easily become a nightmare (repair-shop, money for parts and the mechanic, many days without a car, extra money for taxi to work etc) so i have to stay on the Safe sight.

 

The 2 bottles arrived in the Courier station, i will wait few days for the weather to get warmer and i will ''get my hand dirty'' for another time.

No, I was not thinking of in the power steering, engine perhaps, the power steering fluid boat has sailed and now almosted docked.

 

 

I took a sample of my Hydraulic Oil from the surface of the reservoir, it's not too dark (the back is shadow from my hand) but it isn't Green as the original.

Nevertheless the days of it are numbered.

As it's from the top it would only include and floating debris, if you saved it in that cup and left it to settle it might show stuff on the bottom of the cup.  A photo only shows very little but it does not seem to look too bad to me.  I do not know how colour-fast the dye is that is added.   What is the consistency/viscosity like compared to new fresh oil.

 

If you still have that oil in the cup I would put a drop from the top of it and carefully get a drop from the bottom of the cup and put both on to a clean bit of white kitchen towel or similar and see what they look like, especially compared to a drop of fresh.

 

Again this is only oil from the top, more interesting would be any from further inside the system but all things considered things do not seem to look too bad at the moment and even promising.

 

Unfortunately i haven't that cup any more.

When i pump the rest of the oil with the syringe i will keep it in a plastic bottle for further inspection.Maybe in the bottom of the reservoir the rest of the oil would be different but yes you are right does not look bad at first sight.

If you can put a good few few drops out of the syringe into a set of small clear contains until you are sure you have got to the dirtiest part and before you flush with clean the dirtiest sample will probably tell you the most and you can dispose of the rest.  It is any solid bits that will be of most interest if there are any, as you expect deterioration of the oil and its additives and dye and for it to pick up some contamination.

 

Edited 11 February, 20224 yr by nta16
spelling

13 hours ago, nta16 said:

It is any solid bits that will be of most interest if there are any

 

I have a relative anxiety if i will see something on the bottom of the reservoir.

1 minute ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

 

I have a relative anxiety if i will see something on the bottom of the reservoir.

Always a problem with actually doing this sort of work but it would probably be more surprising if you do not find anything after 21 years of use but it does not mean it has to be bad and clearing it out probably helps a little.  Do not forget it is a 'lifetime fill' so you are doing more than most owners would.  I would guess there are many older cars still on the factory oil.

 

I doubt you will notice much if any change but you will have boosted and prolonged  protection I would not be surprised if the fresh oil soon discoloured a bit but that is nothing to worry about as it is only the oil doing its job and holding muck in suspension.

 

Few minutes ago the Hydraulic Oil change finished, the old oil removed, a half of bottle from the new was used to ''flush" any remains from the old and then a new oil added.

No leaks visible from the steering wheel system but as the car was on the garage lift for inspection the mechanic told me that i have to buy a new block gasket because noticed few drops of engine oil, he said it will tighten the bolts but in the future it's best to buy a new.

Also i will need a new gear-shift joint because the stock after all these years has a tolerance, wheel bearings and steering racks are OK.

I don't know if the feeling on the steering wheel would be better with the fresh oil but i feel more reassured than before.

2 hours ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

the mechanic told me that i have to buy a new block gasket because noticed few drops of engine oil, he said it will tighten the bolts but in the future it's best to buy a new.

I would do more investigation and take more advice on this, especially if tighten the bolts is a good idea or not in case it could make matters worse.

 

Also you need to check the if leak is from the block (head gasket?) and not from higher up and just running down from perhaps a pipe connection or valve cover gasket.  You can get a leak finding kit, dye and yellow glass (as per Scotty Kilmer videos) or clean everywhere thoroughly and see where it originates on clean areas.  You can also use other methods but probably not to your liking.

 

53 minutes ago, nta16 said:

I would do more investigation and take more advice on this, especially if tighten the bolts is a goo

 I asked him and said no need for a new gasket, he insisted that it was just a tighten issue and case closed.

When i found time i will clean that part of engine to check for signs of new leak, only then i will feel reassured.

8 minutes ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

I asked him and said no need for a new gasket, he insisted that it was just a tighten issue and case closed.

OK as long as he is not a 'lazy mechanic' and knows what he is talking about and doing.  Your previous posts of mechanics had me a bit concerned.

 

With old British cars you worry if they do not leak as it could mean they have run out of oil. 😄

 

The steering wheel is one click better on suddenly turns due to the new hydraulic oil plus i grab the chance and told to the mechanic to work on the gear shift joint so shifting is one click better too.

As for the leaking from the gasket when the weather gets warmer i will use a degrease spray to clean the area and i will wipe it with a clean rag, then after few days i will make an inspection for any leak signs.

1 hour ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

The steering wheel is one click better on suddenly turns due to the new hydraulic

I can believe it, many others might say it is just a placebo effect, some think the oil is filled for life so lasts for life.  They never say if the steering is transferred to another car after the demise of the first whether this is the same life or a second life.    Also some say oil is in the ground for millions of years so why would it go off in a few decades.

 

 

1 hour ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

i grab the chance and told to the mechanic to work on the gear shift joint so shifting is one click better too.

Great too.  Perhaps later you could be persuaded of the benefit of a (hot, thorough) changing of the gear box oil, to even perhaps a better oil, not GL5 of course.

 

 

1 hour ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

i will use a degrease spray to clean the area and i will wipe it with a clean rag, then after few days i will make an inspection for any leak signs.

Personally I would not leave it a few says and look for leaks before and after the next drive and check and allow for the effects of gravity and driving the car forward.  If there are no signs of leaks then obviously you will need to check before and after the next drive and so on.  This can be a good use of a camera, subject to taking a good photo with correct focus and flash lighting, as you can zoom in for close details.

 

5 hours ago, nta16 said:

I can believe it, many others might say it is just a placebo effect, some think the oil is filled for life so lasts for life.

 

This can be a good use of a camera, subject to taking a good photo with correct focus and flash lighting, as you can zoom in for close details.

 

I never believed that this oil is for life that's why few years back i start hearing noises when i was turning the car full left or right when i was moving inside the parking garage.I said that to a mechanic and told me not to worry, this is normal due to the age of the car and since my steering racks were OK no worries etc.

I trust mainly my instinct thus i let the car cool down and i checked the reservoir of the Hydraulic oil, the level was too low! I had a Pentosin CHF 7.1 canister and i added a quantity and guess what? The noises disappeared.

Then i said ''it's time for flush and new oil" that's why i started the searching and i opened this topic too.

I can feel when i turn the steering wheel from lock to lock when i am trying to park the car, it's one click easier than before.

 

This would be my next ''project", i will take some pics then spray, clean and after few days new photos from the same camera from the same spot.

I don't like dirty engine bay, i think the oil smell will pass from the vents to the cabin especially those hot summer days.