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Found an alternative supply of this stuff at a price somewhat less than the stratospheric levels charged in retail car accesories shops. It's called Castrol CONSTAB PS - 10W/40 fully synthetic - £43 plus VAT for a 25 litre drum. Available from the likes of Lubricant/Central heating oil distributors and normally supplied to Police Authorities ( hence the name, I suppose...)
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Thanks Mike, do you know what the spec is?
BTW suggestions wanted for what the PS stands for.
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PS in car specs is German for horsepower.
Pfeder Schaft ? (Spellcheck, all you scholars)
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Stuart B
I have no further info. at the moment but I will ask Castrol and get back to you.
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Stuart,
Castrol CONSTAB FS is 5W/30 fully synthetic - exceeds API SJ/CF and
also ACEA A2/A3 and B2/B3.
Castrol Constab PS is 10W/30 partly synthetic - spec same as the above.
Info. courtesy of Castrol Commercial Tech. Help at 01908 853 135.
Apologies if I've confused anybody
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Do cars (apart from F1) and very high performance engines really need fully synthetic oils or is it a marketing ploy.
I use semi-synthetic with an oil change every 5000 miles but whether its really necessary I,m not so sure.
My cousin who ran his own HGV recently retired. His DAF lorry had done close to a million miles.
"What oil did you use Norm" says I. Expecting him to give me some brand name which he would extoll as the finest you can buy.... "The cheapest bloody oil I could find" was his reply. Anything he could find cheap he would use.
Yes I know that a lorry is running at lower revs and rarely runs cold, but still it makes you think....
Alvin
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PS=pferdestärke - the metric unit of engine power.
Roughly the same as Horsepower - much more true to life.
David
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lacey u dum tart it isnt similar to horsepower it is the german for horsepower
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Thanks Mike, so we also have the answer about what the PS stands for!
Ta muchly I will take a look as it might be an economic way of reducing Ecotec oil consumption. Despite dipping and topping up exactly according to the manual I still think the consumpton is too heavy, but using Millers Fully Synth reduced consumption on a relative's Xantia. Prices in Halfords though are just too much in my opinion.
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Stuart
My Ecotec 1.6 16V used to use a lot of oil until I changed from the dealers 15W40 (wrong viscocity) to 10W40. If I upspecced to 5W40 I dare say things would improve further. Having said that it's oil consumption that mars an otherwise excellent engine.
Charles
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Starnge. My Vectra 2.0l Ecotec used less than a litre between 10,000 mile service intervals.
Regards
John
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John,
Unfortunately the situation is like this engine being a 2.0DTI.
When I first visited the Backroom oil consumption was at a level I could not believe, but amazingly rather than post a question I searched on the old threads,....... yes I know strange but true.
Anyway there was a thread which gave the excellent advice which basically boiled down to read the owner's manual and do it like that, hmmm doh!
So since then I only dip the oil when the engine is at normal operating temp, after it has been stood on the level for about 30 minutes. If it needs topping up, only add oil a bit at a time until further level checks show that it is half way between the marks on the dipstick. The aim being that there is enough oil and yet I have not overfilled it.
With this method the oil consumption reduced, so previouslt there must have been an element of overfilling. The consumption has not fallen to a level which I call acceptable but nevertheless the response from GM is this is within tolerance or however they word it.
Now for reasons too long to explain here comes the rub. The car had its 40k service a while back. Checked the oil after its service and it was clean and full. OK! However then I put some mega miles on in very rapid time and I forgot to check the oil! Yes I hang my head in shame as the tyres etc were not checked either. However after only 2000 miles the "check oil level" message came on on the LCD display! Of course I pulled over as soon as it was safe in order to put in the litre I carry, and having let it stand for the statutory not only was it below the minimum, it was off the dipstick! Well Ok there was a tiny little drip on the end. (That's just a feed line to all you comedians for comments about like the drip behind the wheel yeah yeah!)
Whatever GM says I do not regards that as acceptable consumption. To answer the obvious questions there are no leaks, and following the car driven by someone else it does not look like an oil burner.
In his Saturday DT column a while ago HJ asked for contributions about these engines and oil consumption, so HJ here is mine.
best regards
Stuart
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Actually checked the records, it took a full litre to top up after 1500 miles, within spec acc GM................
as you know who from the Royle family would say " my *rse!"
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GM must have made some really advanced technogology design changes to make these engines comsume so much oil. A bit reminiscent of the Ford Lotus Cortinas that could really drink the stuff - 200 miles to a pint!
I have a 150,000 mile Carlton that needs no oil between its 5000 to 6000 mile oil changes.
Do these engines consume so much oil because of larger clearances in the interest of increasing power?
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