Morris Minor Owners Club

decided to improve Primrose's dampers with the addition of SAE 30 or 40 oil into them, but from where does on get it from?

i have tried halfrauds but i just get junk like 10w and other "w" related stuff and nothing with an SAE rating. any ideas?

Hi

Just type sae 30 into ebay you will see lots there and a clue as to what shops to try, its nearly all for lawnmower engines or motorcycle forks

Taupe

Tesco garden section has SAE 30 in a handy small pack. SAE 40 from a motorcycle shop, probably. Don't be fobbed off with 'fork oil'.........

got some sae 30 lawmower oil from B&Q, bit of a faff to empty the dampers and then refill. but good god the difference is noticable in just pushing the car up and down

Of course it is !!

whats the difference? how does the viscosity affect it? not sure what ive got in mine but ride is hard

'Hard' ride is usually caused by the suspension hitting the bump stops. Is there good clearance between stops and chassis ? Even with more viscous oil in the dampers - the Minor suspension is still nicely 'compliant' - it just doesn't bounce about like a super ball quite so much!

just to confirm this is the front dampers we are talking about, dont saloons and travellers have rear dampers aswell?
i have a pick up so have shocks on the back, which afre not really adjustable, ive proably got 3 in 1 in the front dampers

Well - 3 in 1 is very definitely far too low viscosity ('thin').

som how would that affect it?

pour some oil through a funnel. then pour some water through a funnel.

come back and tell me which one empties quickest.

The dampers work by squirting oil through tiny calibrated holes in the valves. Low viscosity ('thin') oil squirts through easily - high viscosity ('thick') oil less so - but of course, there are reliefs built in, so there is a limit to how much harder you can make the damper work, unless you also beef-up the relief valve setting of course.

thank you bmecosse for your useful explanation of how it works, i had no idea.
and chris your glib comments do nothing to help or educate me so dont bother next time

I'm sure Chris meant well with his explanation - it amounts to the same thing........

sorry for the glib comments. won't happen again.

hang on, it wasn't a glib comment.

it was a practical explaination of how viscosity affects flow.

...albeit portrayed in a glib way.

apology accepted

I was looking to top up my dampers and came across this thread.
I have 0/30 oil for my Honda. I'm assuming the 30 is the SAE rating so will this be ok to use?
Is there a facility to drain the old oil in the damper before topping up but without removing the damper from the car?
I'm assuming mixing the oils be a problem?

Thanks

there is the drain plug at the bottom, if you whip that off, place a suitable jar underneath and bounce the car up and down a bit, it should flush the old oil out.
refill and bounce a bit more to get the air bubbles out and enjoy the new stiffness of the damper

NO!!! 0/30 oil is effectively 0 SAE - so will be worse than useless in the dampers! Buy a small tin of SAE 30 from Tesco - it's not expensive.