Club 80-90 Forums

Is this the right oil? I've been putting in 10/40 for both petrol and diesel engines (mines a petrol).
Admittedly the vans probably had a mixture of oils over the years..due to the oil leak, I have to top up fairly frequently.

I've just got it back from the garage because I couldn't fathom (and did not find the time) the technical side of testing my oil pressure (due to a flickering and then constant oil pressure light, approx into 15 minutes of every journey).
They have changed the oil filter and flushed all the old oil out and replaced with new 15/40 oil, saying that the oil was too thick to run the engine due to the wrong type of oil being used.

What do you use?
Thanks, Emma

Ive just done some research and I was using the right oil 10/40 ..but I bought it from Halfords so it probably wasn't the best grade...eeek. Could that be the problem?
I've checked on GSF and Europarts and for my make/model its coming up as 10/40 too. Just Kampers are selling Morris semi synthetic oil 10w/40 at around 28 pounds for 5 litres, suitable for up to 2100cc.

I think you should consider finding a new garage.I and many others have used 10w40 for years.Have you been using the same oil in both vehicles as diesels use a diesel specific oil.Theres nowt wrong with halfwits oil BTW.

Oh no, I feared the worst. Its hard for me to check the van right now, it got home okay but its taking 15 mins for the warning light to come on, so I'll test it out on Monday when I have a day off work.
Is it possible that the oils not been changed or flushed out in a long, long while (as I'm pretty sure it hasn't been) and that could affect the van in this way?

Only time will tell! So im safe with the oil I have. I only have one vehicle Rob, its petrol. Its weird because the garage I've used for a while (this is the not the VW one that took my eberspacher out btw), deal with old automatic Saabs regularly, so I'd have thought they would have known about older vehicles. Huff.

15/40 mineral is fine.

Vw made the oil debate very easy for us, in the late 80's vw came up with the classification vw501.00 which is what the wbx engines need. Make sure that any oil.you put in is APPROVED for use where vw501.00 is required, if it says recommended then that just means that the oil company thinks it meets the standard whereas approved means it has been independantly tested to meet the standards.
At the moment I can only find 3 oils that are approved none are mineral.
FYI the owners manual says that non approved oils are OK to use temporarily until approved oil is available.

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The wiki (as usual) says it all I reckon.
https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ge ... ils_-_Data

Have I got this right? They took out the 10w40 because it was too thick? And replaced it with 15w40!
Anyway, I'm afraid it reads as if your engine could be very poorly. Did the garage actually test the oil pressure?

Also regular topups due to an oil leak doesn't sound good

Yes, you read it right. I called in to ask if they could test the oil pressure because the oil light was coming on after around 15mins of driving. I said Id checked the oil levels and they looked correct.
They said that they think that the various oils that have been used over time have caused the engine temperature to rise, thus sparking off the oil pressure light unnecessarily. The therefore emptied out the oil that was in there, changed the oil filter and put the 'correct' oil in.
They never said what the oil pressure was.

When you say you think my engine is very poorly...do you mean its terminal?

My vans watercooled ..but is it flat 4? Im not sure what that means.
If it is, then wikipedia is saying that I must use 15w/40 as a thinner oil such as 10w/40 would result in a noisy engine. (my engine is noisy!)

You should really get the oil pressure checked professionally ASAP but sounds to me like it's not looking particularly promising. As the engine warms up the oil becomes slightly thinner so that's why the pressure light comes on after 15mins or so.

Emma&Al wrote: They said that they think that the various oils that have been used over time have caused the engine temperature to rise, thus sparking off the oil pressure light unnecessarily. ....

utter tosh.
the cooling system controls that

Emma&Al wrote:When you say you think my engine is very poorly...do you mean its terminal?

not until you get what you asked for an oil pressure check!
even then it's not terminal just sometimes expensive to fix

No mention of oil buzzer?

pull the wire off the oil buzzer switch under water pump and rev above 2000 to see if it works.

oil light can just be a faulty switch if the buzzer works.

Just to confirm...both oil viscosity's 15W40 and 10W40 are technically correct, however, the hydraulic tappet elements on the wasserboxer engine (the one you have) can be susceptible to 'drain down' particularly when the engine is stopped after it is very hot then started a day or more later.
If your engine NEVER suffers from a loud clattering noise for 10 - 15 minutes from cold then I suggest 10W40 semi synthetic oil is fine. IF on the other hand you regularly hear this noise from cold (say one in 5 cold starts) then your engine maybe better using the thicker (when hot) 15W40.

But this is all incidental along side your main issue...get the oil pressure checked properly first and report back.

Martin