18 replies to this topic

[Cooperman]

If a garage said 15w40 then they are wrong. They will probably sell you a synthetic oil which is also wrong.
You need a 20w50 mineral oil like Castrol Classic, Halfords 20w50 or similar quality 20w50 mineral oil.
Best bet will be to change the oil and filter and use the 20w50 oil. That way you know it'll be correct. It might even reduce the oil loss too.

[Tinkerbelle]

Just to be contentious, I always use Pennzoil mineral 20/50 in my 1310 marginal tuned mini with not problems (I got the stuff from the US for a fraction of the price here). But a year ago (about 15k miles) I put in 3 litres of 20/50 mineral and 2 litres of 0/30 fully synthetic (BMW Longlife if you care) and ever since the gearchanges have been smoother, the car seems to idle smoother and the oil pressure seems to be more stable with temperature, which could be a problem with long motorway journeys.

The reason for this was late night oil change; I thought I had a full 5 litre of 20/50 oil, but it was 3 litres so reached for anything to top off so I could get to work in the morning.

I am not advocating this but it seems to work for me.

Matt

[jaydee]

I've heard about mixing 3 lt of engine oil and 2 lt of EP gearbox oil before, not too sure about mixing different viscosity grades though.

[minimissionary]

i've heard of using motorbike oil. It's specially designed to deal with shared gearbox/engine oil.