Hello everyone, 

 

             i havent posted on this site for quite a long time due to my wife being very ill and her  issues  being still unresolved .I am posting today because my car is with my independent   in the town being serviced. The  3 year Skoda service schedule says engine oil  changed and oil filter changed . I have also asked for the front wheel alignment to be done, have touched a few kerbs so am  playing it safe.

 

            My post concerns the best brand of engine oil to be used. I have told them it has to be 0w20 viscosity but havent specified any particular brand. I have had various brands in the  past, all the major ones. I carry a litre top up can of 0w20 that was given to me as a "freebie" by the main dealer who sold me the car. That brand is Miller and I havent had any occasion to use it yet. Having the car serviced today got me thinking about different  brands of engine oil and whether any one brand has any advantage(s) over other brands. In short, is there a best brand or are they all about equal?

 

              Because I had a bad  fall last year followed by my.  wife being very ill my mileage since the last service has been very low, only 2400 miles. The year before it was a bit higher, 3600, still very low of course. I do completely understand the need for annual oil changes with such low mileage,  absolutely vital in fact. I may be too late for specifying a particular brand for todays service but I would be really interested to know what my fellow Briskodians think. If the correct viscosity is used and it meets VW spec 5008 does the brand matter or are they all equal? 

 

      Thanks for reading.

 

     

 /

 

             

No such thing as best brand, each brand has various oils. 

 

The 0w-20 is to get an nth degree more mpg out of a car that gets heavier and more complex each year almost).

 

Personally I take VW numbers with a pinch of salt, they change them anyway and will have different commercial contract at various points of time, the oil needs to be suitable for the time of engine.  If you look at say a folder that came with the car when new it'll probably show the brand and model of oil that was in favour at the time and you can stick with that (probably Castrol?).  Whether it's the best oil is a different matter.  Some (mechanics and engineers particularly) will tell you all the oils are the same (they're not) and use the cheapest you can with the correct specification which you could do and it would give the minimum protection specified by VW (who want the engine to make it out of the warranty period, 7 year in Aus? 3?, 5? years in UK or can you buy more now.

 

At such low annual mileage especially if this is made up of very short journeys an annual change of oil and filter would be a minimum - but if you're not keeping the car for too many years then just do the annual oil and filter change with the cheapest oil in spec if you don't care about the next owners, and why should you necessarily, VW and the UK motor trade generally don't and many might not care about you.

 

ETA: VW spec is 508 00.

 

If you want to support a UK oil blender (for your German car) just one example is Millers Oils, their WhichOil? Oil Checker Tool''. - https://www.millersoils.co.uk/which-oil/

 

ETA: I've used Millers Oils for a good few years now by choice.  I'll put a small bet the Miller's oil you were given was the cheapest "Pro" oil suitable unless it was left by a previous owner, VWŠkoda Dealerships normally use Castrol AFAIK but I might be wrong, perhaps a Yorkshire one might be loyal to the local oil blender but I doubt it.   

 

Or I have a list somewhere of VW Approved engine oils but I don't know that it's still up to date, oil companies and blenders often change their product names and packaging and sometimes tweak their oils.  0w-20 is now like syrup or treacle to later and better made engine manufacturers but might be a bit thin for old German designs when the engine ages and gets used more but we'll have to wait and see how well these VW engines last on the 0w20, perhaps someone with 30k-40k miles might know or in the future when they get to 60-70k miles.  My wife's 65k-miles 2015 Fabia uses a bit of (VW Approved) oil between services.

 

Edited 17 July, 20241 yr by nta16
ETA:

Fuchs oil UK ltd.  Quantum oils as used by Skoda Dealers and supplied by TPS is fine.  I doubt many companies are UK owned.   To VW 508 00 / 509 00 so the 0w 20 FS IV for fixed or variable oil and filter cha  Or as we were VW 504 00 / 507 00, 0w 30 FS III, or 5w 30 FS III.    Fixed service could be VW502 00.  5w 40 FS.  But Skoda UK never shows this now.  Brand might as well be Asda or Tesco as long as to the spec.   It comes from synthetic oil producers. 

Edited 17 July, 20241 yr by Ootohere

IIRC Fuchs/wotsit is French, Castrol are part of I forget but not really British, Castrol Classic is through the MG Owners Club at Swavesey.

 

As it's a German engine I'd have thought VW would want a German brand but perhaps the German brands don't want to be associated with VW. 🤣

 

Perhaps Castrol has some German connection.

 

As for synthetic, well there's synthetic and synthetic, BMC/BL/Rover Minis and Rolls Royces were both cars but I think we can agree they weren't too much like each other whilst still sharing the basics. 

 

I prefer to buy a better oil in advance, often at a discounted price for various reasons so not that much more than the standard inexpensive stuff, I even do it for my wife's 2015 Fabia and that certainly doesn't deserve me going out of my way for it.  Dealership engine oil changes has always (claimed at least) been with Castrol, two different weights probably for different Dealership owners or whatever was cheapest in bulk buying at the time, though I've never checked it so it could be anything.

 

As an unexpected distress purchase I'm topping up with Castrol EDGE LL (old label) "with patented TITANIUM Technology" I'm not even sure VW approve it, please don't tell them. Oh, "Castrol - a BP group brand *1" - they put asterisk and note number then no notes to tell you what it means.  "Castrol.com BP Europa SE Uberseeallee 1D-200457 Hamburg" arhhh.

 

So it is the VW Group and for decades it was a CASTROL sticker, and a bottle of CASTROL oil, and dealers using Quantum.

German Engines be it BMW, VW Group, Daimler Benz (maybe a Renault Engine) are about the worst out of warranty for a premature demise.

 

French Manufacturers might recommend Total, Japanese MOBILE. 

 

I am happy with COMMA,s engine and other oils,.

 

He who has the biggest Advertising Budget or Manufacturers recommendation need not be the best, maybe sometimes just more expensive for the general buying public.

 

Like Tyres VW Group use.   Have Pulling to the left and they might blame Dunlop or Continental,  funny thing is that never stops them using them.

With the Mk3 1.4 TDI 3 Cylinder Water Pump failures they blamed the Coolant.  The Coolant the procured.

Edited 17 July, 20241 yr by Ootohere

My local car shop now mostly stocks morris oils ,which ive been using for past few years ,well priced and correct spec for my octy vrs tsi ,and i believe its british stuff ,as george says does branding make any difference ,i doubt it apart from the price

Fuch (and the other name they used to use) offered to sponsor our car club last time I was at the NEC and enquiring about their oils (for Armstrong lever-arm dampers IIRC or oil for a mate) and the chap told me the company was owned by a French lady.

 

I do know a little about marketing, sales, advertising and costings and pricing and certainly old enough to know what's suggested or most popular isn't always the best.

 

Comma covers a lot of brands and brand names, Brazil IIRC.

 

Morris oils is an old name IIRC, favoured a lot by some of those with old over-valued, over-priced cars called "classics".

 

There are so many oil beliefs and some people have favourite brands or brand names which is fine as a good oil is a good oil (and a better oil is better) and unless it's counterfeit or a garage or mechanic has ben up to some shenanigans there no bad oils as long as suitable for purpose, some might be more suitable.  The oils can only help with the engine they can't overcome the ancient legacy, design and build compromises and mistakes.  We all all lucky with have German engineering. 😁

 

As for the German and VW numbered coolants, well   .   .   .   ya gotta laff.

     

When we read company history and I just did it is often the case no matter who was and is the front the money is Yen, or Dollar or whatever Qatar or other oil rich countries are trading in.   The GBP hold not much value in the corporate world and any UK companies might well be trading partners as long as they are useful.   The biggest retail oil supplier in the world could well be Amazon.  Or Ebay, or maybe just in hooky oil. 

Who knows who is really in bed with who, as long as us servants and nature doesn't stop their profits all is fine.  It's like "Spoons" are one of the biggest food buyers and suppliers in retail, I remember a mate saying he went in and they'd took steak off the menu at very short notice - very soon after that on the telly was something about horsemeat as if that'd affect the general "Spoons" clientele, as long as it was cheap and you got a drink included.

 

A number of years back we went in a "Spoons" to kill 10 minutes waiting for our driver to arrive, we had two halves of one of their regular ales and having a brass neck I asked if I could use the 50p-off-a pint token, lady behind the bar said "yes", for a laugh I said what about two tokens for the two ales and she said "yes", when I asked how much she now wanted she said 29p, I felt a bit embarrassed but also like a true "Spoons" customer and a lot, lot nearer retirement age.  

5 hours ago, hetty1 said:

            Hello everyone, 

 

             i havent posted on this site for quite a long time due to my wife being very ill and her  issues  being still unresolved .I am posting today because my car is with my independent   in the town being serviced. The  3 year Skoda service schedule says engine oil  changed and oil filter changed . I have also asked for the front wheel alignment to be done, have touched a few kerbs so am  playing it safe.

 

            My post concerns the best brand of engine oil to be used. I have told them it has to be 0w20 viscosity but havent specified any particular brand. I have had various brands in the  past, all the major ones. I carry a litre top up can of 0w20 that was given to me as a "freebie" by the main dealer who sold me the car. That brand is Miller and I havent had any occasion to use it yet. Having the car serviced today got me thinking about different  brands of engine oil and whether any one brand has any advantage(s) over other brands. In short, is there a best brand or are they all about equal?

 

              Because I had a bad  fall last year followed by my.  wife being very ill my mileage since the last service has been very low, only 2400 miles. The year before it was a bit higher, 3600, still very low of course. I do completely understand the need for annual oil changes with such low mileage,  absolutely vital in fact. I may be too late for specifying a particular brand for todays service but I would be really interested to know what my fellow Briskodians think. If the correct viscosity is used and it meets VW spec 5008 does the brand matter or are they all equal? 

 

      Thanks for reading.

 

     

 /

 

             

Well, given your present use case, I'd have no hesitation in using Miller oil to the correct VAG spec.

6 hours ago, nta16 said:

IIRC Fuchs/wotsit is French,

 

German.

I'm mixing up Fuchs/Silkolene with Motul - Siilkolene (fork oil) for the LA dampers and Motul for IIRC a mate's gearbox, it was the Motul stand I went to.

 

I should have remembered that Fuchs sounds German but was thinking of more of Silkolene.  A lot of these company names go back to UK starts but of course sooner or later UK no more.

 

This often happens when I go by my memory alone, I balls it up but I never worry as I soon forget I balls'd it up and probably repeat the same mistake again - but I won't remember that, again. 😆

 

There you go @hetty1 a Fuchs Silkolene a German UK oil for a German engine in the UK.

 

FUCHS OIL CHOOSER - https://fuchs-eu.lubricantadvisor.com/default.aspx?lang=eng&country=gb

 

With engine oils the world is your lobster.

 

I meant to put you might be as well to set your display to show oil temperature and see how often and for how long your engine oil is at or above about 90c to see possible frequency of changes as just one very rough indicator, if every journey all year round gets you to 90c then annual changes may easily be enough or even perhaps longer with better oil.  Your car and engine so your choices.

 

ETA: some used to say they never changed their engine oil but I suspect they never intended to keep the cars too long or it was something like a very old Ford (or Japanese) and they were happy to see just how long the engine and car would last like that and save them the cost and effort - be interesting to see how long a more recent VW engine would last, probably still a reasonable time but I'd not gamble on it, imagine the headaches the computers would get and give you. 😁

 

 

Edited 17 July, 20241 yr by nta16
ETA: