Oil Change

[howard jones]

Hi chaps.
As a ''rule of thumb'' is it ideal to change the oil/filter twice a year ( unleaded 1098 ). I am using her every day and will probably end up doing 3-4k miles in this first twelve months. The 20/50 is cheap enough at B+Q - or is this a poor quality oil and would I be better off searching for ''quality'' oil ?

[charlie_morris_minor]

it depends on the state of your engine.. if it is very old / on its last legs probably worth going with the cheapest oil you can find. If the engine is good and not using any oil / very little oil between changes then cheap oils are a false economy in my opinion.

[howard jones]

Thanks for that. According to the previous owner the reconditioned engine ( with unleaded head ) had done about 10k. The pulling power of it is quite good an I have no reason to suspect anything different. My main concern is : I don't mind buying a better viscosity oil if that is beneficial to the long term use, and don't mind changing oil/filter every 6 months, but I would like some opinions on ''better'' oils and whether to avoid synthetic's as I assume these were not around when A series engines were designed ?

[aupickup]

when i had morris vans in the late 60`s we could only afford the cheapest oil, prob why so many engines now are not good
oils are better now
I would say on a good engine get a brand with an api rating
Castrol, duckhams etc
its cheaper in the long run to use good quality mineral oils

[bmcecosse]

That oil is fine for an A series -as is the 20W50 from Wilco/Morrisons etc - and with that mileage ONCE a year is plenty!

[philthehill]

You should change the engine oil and filter at least once a year even with the low mileage you are doing, every six months is even better.
I have used Halfords branded oils in my cars and it is cheap enough and does the job OK. Previous to using the Halfords branded oils I used Castrol GTX but it is now too expensive. Halfords classic 20w50 is currently being sold @ £19.99 for 5 ltr.

[chickenjohn]

Good advice above, if your engine is knackered then it is OK to use cheap oils. If you have a good engine, i.e. no nasty noises and does not burn oil then use a quality API branded oil and change it with the filter at least every 6,000 miles or once a year, whichever comes sooner. better still change the oil twice a year, 3,000 miles. And of course if you have an oil leak (many Minors do! ) keep the oil topped up.

[howard jones]

Thanks for the good advice chaps !