Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! | Technical matters | Back Room Forum

Thu 31 Mar 2011 17:19

Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! - dwm83

I have a friend who commutes around 100 miles a day for work. Her car is financed, so before anyone says "get rid before she blows the engine" the issue she has is:

She is clueless about maintenance. i originally nagged her when it was approaching 40,000 miles and she'd said it hadn't had its first service, but she "gives it a drink when the red oil light comes on".

She now tops it up more often, but with crappy supermarket stuff, and joked "I'll give it a service for its 50,000 mile birthday!"

It's now on 52,000 miles, somehow going strong, if a bit rough, and when I drove it yesterday it perhaps lacked a bit of 'shove'.

Question is, I've nagged her into agreeing to at least get an oil change with the proper spec stuff at a dealer or at least a decent local garage, but should she have it 'flushed' on account of the black sludge that used to be fresh oil long ago when she checks the dipstick? Or will it do more harm than good?

I'm suprised its still going really; it's a testament to how it's probably a pretty strong engine despite recommended changes being what, every 10k max!

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Thu 31 Mar 2011 22:49

Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! - Victorbox

It's probably oil changes every 20,000 miles actually. The usual suggestion is to use a cheap supermarket type oil change to flush the engine before changing to the correct grade with a new filter rather than use a specific oil flush. Correct grade probably should be Vauxhall 5W/30 fully synthetic.

As diesel oil always looks black and horrible after the first few miles it's difficult to say whether a flush is needed from what you see on the dipstick. Even worse than no oil changes, if your friend only tops up when the oil pressure light (note not oil level light) comes on she will have done significant damage already so I wouldn't worry too much. Just give the poor thing a proper oil and filter change at least once in its miserable life. Even Wilkinson sell 5W/30 fully synthetic oil at £15 for her to top up with which is close to supermarket prices unless you mean she puts £6.00 Tesco/Asda mineral 15w/50 oil in it!! tinyurl.com/4zhafum

Edited by Victorbox on 31/03/2011 at 22:51

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Fri 1 Apr 2011 15:11

Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! - dwm83

Cheap mineral is what she's been using, 10/40 I think!

I'm amused it's survived; if the run to work is quiet her cruising speed is basically flat out...

Flush question based on the assumption that what's in there now after so long must be filthy, having said which it's probably changed its own oil over the course of top ups over the miles!

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Fri 1 Apr 2011 17:18

Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! - Victorbox

"having said which it's probably changed its own oil over the course of top ups over the miles!"

This is the point I was attempting to make. Rather than one oil change with cheap supermarket oil run for say 500 miles, then another oil change with decent oil and filter; the top ups with fresh oil (albeit wrong type) mean she's sort of flushed the system. It's letting the oil level get too low that worries me!

She does know how to top up the oil correctly so it's only to the max mark on the dipstick not just sling in a load of oil and hope?

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Fri 1 Apr 2011 23:52

Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! - dwm83

Well, up until ~40k she'd let it run too low, but when I pointed out that red light = already damaged, she's been putting in approximate measures of cheapish supermarket stuff. I checked it recently and it was in between minimum and maximum on the dipstick, so I assume/hope she's been putting the right amount in.

The funny thing is she's akeen driver, just fits the female driver streotype of put fuel in and drive it each day and hope it looks after itself!

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Sat 2 Apr 2011 08:39

Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! - gordonbennet

I'm amused and mildly envious, if i treated a car in this way it would have died long ago and left me with a stonking bill for my negligence.

Surprised the turbo is still turning, i'd have thought the oil filter would be blocked by goodness knows what rubbish by now, and the gunk going through the bypass should have blocked the turbo's oilways and seized it solid, quite apart from more obvious damage that such treatment, oil light coming on, usually causes....as said must be a good little engine and the rest of the car ain't bad either.

I once bought a similarly neglected ex taxi Diesel Granada with the 2.5 Peugeot engine for pennies at 2 years 80K old, no turbo but the crank bearings were shot and excessive bore wear meant i had to strip and rebore the lump and new shells all round (no crank wear though), the savings made by this taxi owner cost him probably 10 times as much in value loss, effectively scrapping a car at a third of it's life.

Edited by gordonbennet on 02/04/2011 at 08:40

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Sat 2 Apr 2011 17:03

Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! - quizman

Vauxhall Corsa diesel for sale.

One lady owner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Sat 2 Apr 2011 19:49

Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! - Railroad.

Most people are clueless idiots when it comes to car maintenance, but the car manufacturers have not helped by telling us that 'their' model will go 20,000 or 30,000 miles between services. This is sales pitch, and nothing but. Whilst oils and fuels have improved over the years the fact is the internal combustion engine is still very inefficient, (around 70% so) and carbon is produced during the combustion process which contaminates the engine oil. Anyone who believes they can run their car on cheap oil with infrequent changes deserves all the trouble they get, and the big repair bills that go with it.....

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Sat 2 Apr 2011 21:37

Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! - SteveLee

Oil hasn't got better lately - as a lubricant it has got significantly worse as the volume of actual lubricant has dropped to make way for the complicated additive packs to make it chemically stable enough to "last" 20K miles between services, the oil is shot to bits by 7-8K miles. Engines are so beautifully manufactured these days that we can and do get away with murder - even worse we have all but removed the best "last barrier" engine protection from oil - zinc - because it contaminates catalytic converters.

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Fri 22 Apr 2011 06:11

Vauxhall Corsa - '08 Corsa CDTi - 52,000 miles, no oil change! - 1litregolfeater

"it's a testament to how it's probably a pretty strong engine despite recommended changes being what, every 10k max!"

umm, think we can agree it's pretty much had it now. It is amazing how much abuse diesels can take, they are full of oil and run on the stuff, but they do wear out and at 50,000 miles this individual has destroyed an engine that could have done 300,000.

I am sure she is intelligent in other ways.

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