Oil Change Again!!!

[TwistingMyMelon]

Should be oil, DOH!

Hiya

Been a silent reader for tooooo long!! I have a mk1 94 1.8is (pics shortly). I like to change the oil every 5000 miles / 6 months (I drive it hard), normally I send it to the chumps at ATS, as it is £35 for a Shell fully synth change and have had no complaints.

This time I thought I'd do it myself as I intend to work more on the car. Just had a quick rekkie to look for any potential issues and have the following questions:

1. Do you have to take the plastic bottom engine guard off to access the sump plug, from what I can make out the plug is just at the end of this , although Rod's enthusiasts manual suggests you do?

2. Whats the best oil to use, spec and brand? I get a little HLA noise on startup sometimes, but the oil pressure always remains good (real gauge not on/off one).

Any advice and answers would be much appreciated I'm off to do some wrist exercises, so i can get a good grip on the Filter

Edited by TwistingMyMelon on Tuesday 4th September 13:30

[Raify]

Oli change FAQ at miata.net: http://www.miata.net/garage/oil_for_novices.html

I find 5w40 fully sinth works well in mine.

[TwistingMyMelon]

Brilliant! Came across it before but forgot about it!! Is it stupid to use a 19mm Spanner to get the sump plug out as oposed to a socket (Brother is borrowing set)? Also, can anyone recomend anybrands or offers on oil at the moment, online or shops?

[Raify]

Halfrauds have a 2 for 1 at the moment on their own brand 5w40...

[lord summerisle]

mines running fantastically on Silkolene Pro S 5W-40

having changed to Pro S, changed airfilter & oil filter and exhaust to a larini the cars running better than ever... and i'm getting about 50-60miles more out of the tank... before i was getting about 240-250 out a tankful... no getting over 310! with no change to driving style.

before that i was doing the same - £25 oil change at ATS

[ALawson]

I have just purchased a marine blue Mk1 1991 1.6 Going to be giving it new oil and filter, air filter, plugs, HT leads if required, coolant change.

Will get the local spanner man to change the brake fluid and cambelt if required.

Will post some pics up when I collect her later this week.

2 owners, 80k good service history and a 2 yr old hood for 1.8 bags of sand!

Also all the tyres are good as well.

[TwistingMyMelon]

Used halfords fully synth in past and found it OK, mite pop down and have a look tonight.

Stop Press!

Just had a look on ebay and found 4 litres of Silkolene Pro S 5W-40 for £40 with free p&p from Opie oils, looks like I might go with that.

Cheers for the help guys

[Kinky]

I've fixed the title for you

K

[Kinky]

Might be worth having a look at CostCo, if you can get in there.

Their prices are pretty good!

Search on PH for CostCo - and it should throw up a few results as it's been discussed a few times.

K

[MX-5 Lazza]

Kinky said:

Might be worth having a look at CostCo, if you can get in there.

Their prices are pretty good!

Search on PH for CostCo - and it should throw up a few results as it's been discussed a few times.

K

I'm a CostCo member and can get Mobil1 5w40 for around £20!
I've been using Mobil1 for a number of years now in all my MX-5's and can confirm that it's great stuff.

[anonymous-user]

If CostCo's not a possibility then Silkolene 5W40 from Opie Oils is the way to go.

[Firefox1]

I ran my 1.6 Eunos on Havoline extra 10w-40 semi-synthetic from 58K kms to 210K kms over 3years with no problems changed every 12k and used a genuine filter. I usually brought the oil at Morrisons supermarket for about £10.00.

[DennisTheMenace]

im running mine on magnatec 10w 40 , no probs and the hla's are only tapping every now and again on start up .

[anonymous-user]

DennisTheMenace said:

im running mine on magnatec 10w 40 , no probs and the hla's are only tapping every now and again on start up .

At the risk of covering old ground here (search for any posts by oilman) the magnatec actually has quite a low percentage of the electrostatic ester base compared to some of the other oils on the market.

[DennisTheMenace]

Eh ?

its done 132k seems ok and survived on it pretty much all its life so i will stick with it .
and me HLA'a rarely tap

[anonymous-user]

I'm not saying that it's a bad oil, just that for a company that advertises it as sticking to the engine parts to aid startup lubrication, there are better oils with a higher percentage of the Ester basestock that has this quality. See Opie Oilman's opinion here

[skinny]

that's because magnatec use esters as an additive due to the fact it's a part synthetic, whereas the other oils you are talking about use esters as part of the base stock because they are fully synthetic, so they are completely different oils