Car oil
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Discussion

Arbo1970

Original Poster:

145 posts

176 months

Saturday 20th March 2021
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The initial message was deleted from this topic on 21 March 2021 at 17:47

Lincsls1

4,090 posts

170 months

Saturday 20th March 2021
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A good quality variant of either will be just fine.
Its not a complicated highly strung engine with turbos bolted on.

Arbo1970

Original Poster:

145 posts

176 months

Saturday 20th March 2021
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Thank you, I was looking at this for £20...

ChocolateFrog

34,954 posts

203 months

Saturday 20th March 2021
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A decent synthetic oil isn't expensive and it's almost always the better option.

Semi-synthetic is a marketing term to sell mineral oil.

Lincsls1

4,090 posts

170 months

Saturday 20th March 2021
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Arbo1970 said:
Thank you, I was looking at this for £20...
Nothing wrong with that as a choice.
If you do lots of mileage between changes, consider the fully synthetic. If you don't do many between changes the semi would be fine.

I used to use a decent semi in my 300zx cars - 3 litre twin turbo engines, the MX5 engine having a much easier life I'd suggest. Never gave me any trouble, but was low annual mileage.

Edited by Lincsls1 on Saturday 20th March 19:40

gazza285

11,208 posts

238 months

Sunday 21st March 2021
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ChocolateFrog said:
A decent synthetic oil isn't expensive and it's almost always the better option.

Semi-synthetic is a marketing term to sell mineral oil.
What is synthetic oil made from?

aka_kerrly

12,506 posts

240 months

Sunday 21st March 2021
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gazza285 said:
ChocolateFrog said:
A decent synthetic oil isn't expensive and it's almost always the better option.

Semi-synthetic is a marketing term to sell mineral oil.
What is synthetic oil made from?
Not sure if this is a genuine question, isn't the whole fully synthetic, semi synthetic an mineral oil really just a marking way of describing "very refined" , "quite refined" and "just about refined" crude oil.

In a 20 year old MX5 semi or fully synthetic oil is perfectly acceptable, it is the age/condition of the oil that is more important than it's formula especially when you consider any new semi 10/40 is a huge improvement over some black stuff that was once fully synthetic.



ChocolateFrog

34,954 posts

203 months

Sunday 21st March 2021
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gazza285 said:
ChocolateFrog said:
A decent synthetic oil isn't expensive and it's almost always the better option.

Semi-synthetic is a marketing term to sell mineral oil.
What is synthetic oil made from?
How much detail do you want, I've got my tribology textbooks in loft.

gazza285

11,208 posts

238 months

Sunday 21st March 2021
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ChocolateFrog said:
gazza285 said:
ChocolateFrog said:
A decent synthetic oil isn't expensive and it's almost always the better option.

Semi-synthetic is a marketing term to sell mineral oil.
What is synthetic oil made from?
How much detail do you want, I've got my tribology textbooks in loft.
Not much, mineral oil will do.

Charles Sweeney

105 posts

125 months

Sunday 21st March 2021
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Always go by what the manufacturer recommends. I've only ever once bought cheap oil. Put it in an MG Midget. Following day a con rod went through the block. An expensive lesson well learnt!

Chris32345

2,141 posts

92 months

Sunday 21st March 2021
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gazza285 said:
What is synthetic oil made from?
In some cases natural gas