High Mileage Oil: Worth it??

Got an old Astra, 1.6i. 168 000km on the clock.

I need to replace the oil- have been using middle of the range oil so far. Now deciding if the High Mileage stuff is worth a shot?

Car doesn't really leak oil. I need to put in a bit every thousand KM or so. What are the benefits of different types of oil? Does driving style/conditions influence what oil would be best?

I drive 50km everyday round trip to work- 95% of that is on the freeway at 130-140km/h. Reckon the car is pretty healthy all round, and gets serviced regularly so it's worth looking after- I need if for the next three years at least

Well, Game has Havoline High Mileage on special: R89 for 5l. Gonna get that regardless

I'm no oil specialist but I think the 'High Mileage' oil is typically a higher viscosity than what you would usually pour into your engine. ie if you usually use a multigrade 20w40 then the 'High Mileage' stuff stuff may be 15w50. The difference in viscosity (the 'thickness') helps to reduce noise from worn components, will reduce leakage if any is present and in consequence reduce oil consumption. Downside may be that being 'thicker', it doesn't lube as effectively or get to reach all the spots that a 'thinner' oil might. I've used 'High Mileage' oil with great results in older motorbikes.

Hmm. Any reason not to mix oils? Some thin some thick to get the best of both worlds??

UPDATE:

So I get round to topping up the oil this morning. Check dipstick to decide how much to pour in. What do I see? Oil level is OK- 100%! Fscker pompie must have stopped it short of the bottom of the sump to make it look like I had no oil.

I was quite surprised when he showed me the dipstick as I check oil every other fillup and hadn't noticed a drop... I asked him to show me agian- watched him as he put it in, and was convinced he had done it correctly- advice to everyone: CHECK YOUR OWN OIL before getting a topup at a petrol station.

On top of that, insist the pompie opens the can in front of you- their next trick is to decant oil of quesionable origin into a 500ml can, then bring that to fill your car. Bastards. Can't trust anyone these days...

Budza said:

Hmm. Any reason not to mix oils? Some thin some thick to get the best of both worlds??

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That's what multigrade oil is...

Budza said:

UPDATE:

So I get round to topping up the oil this morning. Check dipstick to decide how much to pour in. What do I see? Oil level is OK- 100%! Fscker pompie must have stopped it short of the bottom of the sump to make it look like I had no oil.

I was quite surprised when he showed me the dipstick as I check oil every other fillup and hadn't noticed a drop... I asked him to show me agian- watched him as he put it in, and was convinced he had done it correctly- advice to everyone: CHECK YOUR OWN OIL before getting a topup at a petrol station.

On top of that, insist the pompie opens the can in front of you- their next trick is to decant oil of quesionable origin into a 500ml can, then bring that to fill your car. Bastards. Can't trust anyone these days...

Click to expand...

I dunno why people have garage attendants check oil, water, etc. The attendants are clueless - they're not mechanics, and they don't know the foibles of different cars. They don't know what gade or viscosity of oil to put into particular engines, or the required antifree/water mixture required in cooling systems Replying on their technical knowledge will just lead to issues.

My take on high millage: It's a marketing scam that isn't properly tested. That's also why it's cheap, it's sh#t oil, high viscosity and a huge difference between the cold and hot viscosities.

The engineers who built an engine specify which oils to use. If they say that you should not use anything above 15W40, that's what I'll do until the engine is blown. Parts like the bearings have tolerances and those tolerances were known to the engineers when they built the engine. It may cause the car to smoke less because less oil makes it past the rings, but if those rings are allowing oil past them then no amount of oil is going to save it. All you do by putting in high viscosity oil is ruining the rest of the engine.

Same goes for low viscosity oils, 0W30, I wouldn't touch it because my car specifies 5W40 minimum for very cold environments (the manual has a table with temperature ranges and recommended oil). I usually use 5W40 because it covers the largest temperature range (the lowest and highest you would encounter in SA) and it's not that expensive (R250 for 5L last time I bought Shell fully synthetic). Fully synthetic definitely made my lifters less noisy (camshaft lifters), they are usually quite audible on a cold morning.

Claymore said:

I dunno why people have garage attendants check oil, water, etc. The attendants are clueless - they're not mechanics, and they don't know the foibles of different cars. They don't know what gade or viscosity of oil to put into particular engines, or the required antifree/water mixture required in cooling systems Replying on their technical knowledge will just lead to issues.

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100% agreed. I don't even let them pump my tires, forget topping up battery water, adding water to the engine (why do they even ask that, I don't know of any modern engines that use coolant).