Irish Mini Owners Club

while in Ashgrove Interparts (deansgrange) buying oil the guy pointed to the bottle of duckhams 20w/50 in my hand and said "thats the last one of those, we cant get 20w/50 any more...." He went on to say that they were looking for a source of 20w/50 but so far hadnt found any.
I know that Halfords stock a "Classic Car Oil" which is 20w/50 but its nice to have a choice?
what are other people doing for oil?

my local guy has loads.....

hi i get my oil in a motor factor i carrick mc cross it seems good and is only 15 euro.

I use 15w40 oil now instead of duckhams 20w50 in my mpi and it seems fine and most importantly I dont have to wait a few minutes on a cold morning before I can change gear

coop wrote:I use 15w40 oil now instead of duckhams 20w50 in my mpi and it seems fine and most importantly I dont have to wait a few minutes on a cold morning before I can change gear

you will however have to get your gearbox rebuilt before somebody using the 20w50 oil

In Dublin you can get the halfords one for 20 euro/5L or in southside motor factors you can get the miller, 30euro/5L though.

Halfords is Duckhams as far as I know,well it looks and smells the same and they have it reduced to €20 for 5 litres.A friend of mine in the motor trade was telling me that he could buy semi-syn cheaper than 20/50 mineral even though it cost more to produce the semi-syn due to the volumes been sold these days.

so this leads me on to another question: do you change your oil on mileage, time or how it looks/feels/smells when you dip it?

i put in new before going to UK and its quite brown now, but still feels "oily" and smells ok. I'm guessing about 800 miles since i changed.

keith wrote: i put in new before going to UK and its quite brown now, but still feels "oily" and smells ok. I'm guessing about 800 miles since i changed.

If the oil doesnt change colour then its not doing its job properly.

as far as i know you should only have to change your oil every 4000 miles.

I read here in this guide for the winter...
http://www.miniprojects.co.uk/mini_DIY_ ... enance.htm

that it is good to put 10W40 oil in for the winter as well as switching to a 92 degrees thermostat. what do you think?

i figure if the thermostat is working at all its should be good for summer or winter. as to the oil, .. . .. i stick to 20w/50, and drive it gently till the oil warms up.

further reading: http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html