Help choosing right oil.

Shane Slv

Rite guys
Iam goin to have a go at serviceing my car by my self for the first time tomorrow. Am fairly handy so should go ok.

its a mazda 323f with the 1.3 16 valve engine. Would this oil be ok:http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_253905_langId_-1_categoryId_212419
The manual seems to say to use 5w30 oil for colder climates and 10w30 for normal climates but i cant seem to find 10w30 oil.?

Any help much appreciated

mickdw

Look up castrol website, it will give their suggested oils for your car.

Halfshaft

A gallon of 10/w40 is what you want, no need to put anything more expensive in it.

langdang

Ya, all the older mazda manuals say 10w30, 10w40 will be fine if it's running ok and not burning any oil. Might be worth trying 15w40 if it is using oil and the mileage is high. If you'll be changing it yourself every 5-6k miles then you don't need very expensive oil - they are fairly low tech reliable engines. (low tech FTW!) You get 5L of a less well known brand from a motor factor for 18-20yoyo, you might manage the same in Halfords if theres a deal on. Standard mineral oil would do fine if you'll be checking it and changing it yourself I'd say.

Don't overfill with oil. Should do my own soon really...

If it's not burning oil I wouldn't offend the engine by putting mineral oil into it, for the sake of a tenner extra a good semi syn is well worth it. I'd only put a mineral oil in a 1.3 Ka and to be honest I put semi syn 15w40 in that even.

Pkiernan

RoverJames wrote: »

If it's not burning oil I wouldn't offend the engine by putting mineral oil into it, for the sake of a tenner extra a good semi syn is well worth it. I'd only put a mineral oil in a 1.3 Ka and to be honest I put semi syn 15w40 in that even.

So you choose to be only half-offensive to your engine?

langdang

Ya, I wouldn't usually recommend the mineral oil, except that some of the older mazda engines have valve stem seals that leave a bit of oil drain in the cylinders overnight - boggo cheap oil changed regularly might be less inclined to filter through.

I'd say John Gormley would create a special carbon tax especially for me if he saw me start my thing in the morning....

As you said, if it's not burning any oil then semi synth is probably better, considering the sump capacity is small whatever oil is in there will be working harder than cars with bigger sumps.

mot_Socks

just don't over fill it. Find out how much it supposed to take, fill up to under a litre below on level ground. Check dip stick. If more needed add slowly, check dip stick.

Cheap stuff will do being honest. CASTROL site is really good.

Shane Slv

Tanks for the advice guys, done the service today it went very well Changing oil is one messy job:D. I saved about 80 euro and got the satisfaction of doing the job myself. Their is actually a noticeable difference in the engine. I went for this oil in the end http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_254023_langId_-1_categoryId_212419