which oil for diesel

Shell Rimula X

Mate has 530,000klms on his GQ TD42, removed the head off of it to inspect, you could still see the original Cros bleep ching from NEW...

thats with oil and filters every 5000klms.

YMMV.

Hi Gossy,

I'm in the camp that favours 5000km changes of a reasonable quality 'conventional' diesel oil (& filter) rather than using mega-buck synthetics, with the temptation to leave it in there for 15 - 20K kms because it costs so much. I believe any of the 'brand name' diesel-specific (high detergent) oils of the correct grade for your engine (probably 15W40, SAE CG-4 or better) would be fine.

I've been using Castrol GTX-Diesel in our Discovery for the last 75,000km (since we bought it with about 90,000km up) but I guess I won't know how well it's performed until we eventually have to take the head off or something - hopefully still a long way off!

Hi,

Change oil and filters at 5000km, or 6 months, whichever comes first.

I use Caltex Delo 500 oil which is about $60 for 20 litre drum and is suitable for all except some very recent turbo diesels. Delo 400 is suitable for them but more money.

Phil I

Short answer is: AFAIK, high detergent levels are needed to cope with the high soot levels generated by diesels. The detergents keep the soot suspended until it's drained out at the next change, rather than let it accummulate in deposits inside the engine.

For a much better answer, have a look at the excellent Tech Info section on the Penrite site including this guide

thanks for that. I have the car in for a major service this Friday and I just rang them. They use Castrol FMX 15w-40. He said that this is one of the best around.

I have called the Castrol customer line and they said that this oil is the mass produced oil (can only be bought in drums) for mechanics etc. The equilivant oil for us consumers is the Castrol GTX3 Diesel. I guess this is a fairly good oil ?

Use the oil the manufacturer recommends in the manual.