Engine Oil

[chickx]

With the number of different brands of engine oil available on the market is there really that much difference between say Castrol and a own brand like Halfords?

[Canary42]

Ask Which?, they may have researched it.

[douglas9401]

Mainly the advertising budget.

[TWR]

Would you bye cheap petrol for your car? I would not bye cheap oil for my car's engine, Chick, It's false economy to try, I have, & never used cheap Fluids, that's my view.

[Hopkirk]

Would I buy cheap petrol for my car?

There's no such thing, but I will buy the cheapest I can find.

As regards the oil I buy decent ones, because I tend to keep my cars until they die. A decent oil is a good investment.

[DTCwordfan]

as is a decent fuel and supermarket fuel is not as good as you can get - if only I had some photos of valve seats after running 5000 miles on supermarket fuels versus a Shell or Chevron.

As to Lubs, fit for purpose - it is pointless putting a fully synthetic into a car 7 years old or older, they are now to thin and one can get seepage from the seals,

My preference is Shell over them all owing to their high carbon disposal, polymer selection/performance, interaction with the exhaust catalysts, and anti-friction properties, however Castrol make a good quality product and I would favour that over a store's product. Environmentally, the Shells/Mobils of this world are cleaner products - I use the word cleaner as with lubricants, it is virtually impossible to have a totally eco-friendly products. For example new friction modifiers are being looked at (instead of Molybdenum and Vanadium based ones) but these do involve some fluorine so there is always the issue of jumping into the fire when coming out of the pan........however, if there is an overall improvement, that we should encourage.

[DTCwordfan]

(by the way the chemistry bases in Lubs can be very different, depending on the additives suppliers to the company - there was a thing on one of the petrol threads yesterday about some of these engine cleaning packages and there can be some awful messups when interactions occur. Salycilate and sulfonates are two very different handling systems when redex comes in contact with them.....)

[solvitquick]

Car is too valuable to take risks for the sake of pennies per month over a year. I buy from companies where their product is their core business - here it's Castrol. Supermarket's petrol is an add-on to their core business which is groceries and they can afford to fail on car services - it happened a few years ago to two big supermarkets in the north!
Usually petrol to Esso, Shell and Supermarkets comes from the same regional depot. So why do I stick to Esso or BP? Because there's more involved than the prime source - notably quality control after the station receive it, e.g. maintaining the cleanliness of their own reservoir tanks and ensuring the right stuff goes where.
Esso, BP, Shell and the rest of the big seven-sisters cannot afford one mistake and have never made one.
In this car-area you get the reliability you pay for. Buy the best on their record over many decades and don't outsmart yourself by price-cutting.
SIQ.

[solvitquick]

Is there horse meat in Supermarket petrol?

[ummmm]

Lol...probably :-)

[DTCwordfan]

Tescos have a promotion, a free burger with every 10 litres; it's called "Only Fuels and Horses."

[DTCwordfan]

solveit - there's quite a considerable difference in fuel additive packages too, such as engine detergency.......why I do not use supermarket product.

[Toureman]

Always use the oil recommended by the car manufacturer.

[gingejbee]

Look in your car handbook for the correct spec. of oil you require regarding viscosity and API and ACEA. Then compare prices of big-brand oils with those of own-brand of the same spec. Then divide by 12 and you will find that you save less than £1 a month , assuming a once-a-year oil change.

[Teddio]

Halfords oil, of the correct specification, is perfectly ok (eg. 505.01 for VAG PD diesel engines ) It certainly isn't cheap either !

[solvitquick]

No more to say xcept if, like me, one's pretty car ignorant don't take chances and buy the long-standing big names. No need to be an engine geek and over-analyse.
Oh, molybdenum and other smoothers are useless on a well used car, only in the early miles of a new one, so my mechanic said years ago.
In all life's spending ignore the green-loonies just as the USA, India and China do. It's all based on pseudo-science so that researchers and industry can get big grants from we mugs the tax-payers!
Oops deviation - sorry, lets not go there.
SIQ.