Nice to see you poking about Tim!
The more around here who actually know about oil the better, theres a fair amount of misinformation banded about, as with any car forum ;)

My two pence, pretty much what Opie and Clan said, stick to 0w30 unless you really rag its nuts for long periods of time on a regular basis, and A/B spec not C specs.

Hi

Oil is one of those things that always causes a debate on forums and facebook, I'm on one of the Volvo FB pages (for my own car) and see so much nonsense posted, but so many people don't want to listen. There are a couple on there that know about oil, but perhaps we're not the loudest shouters.

Cheers

Tim

Absolutely with you on this except what is the definition of rag nuts / long periods / regular? My V70 D5 has sat on its rev limiter in top for I guess on average 10 minutes every working day for the last 2 1/2 years and I cant really detect any oil loss at 300K miles. If anything I would say the ragging it has kept it running more smoothly compared to the first 5 years of running it in the UK:confused_smile:

Yeah thats not ragging it.
Driving it like Sebastian Loeb all day every day is the kind of boy racer stuff that gets things real hot along with the contant rpm fluctuations...

I'm resurrecting this old thread with my experiences using Shell Helix Ultra 5-40 and Liqui Moly Ceratec over the last two years in an 200K+ Euro3 V70 auto.

OK, it is not a Euro4 with DPF.

I bought this with 209K. As always when I buy an "new" older car I do an oil change with Shell Helix Ultra 5-40 and a can of Liqui Moly as described above. I do other stuff as well depending on who I bought it from (how much I believe what the seller told me) and available paperwork.

The following oil changes (every 5-6K miles) I add half a can of Ceratec as recommended by skyship007. The car does at least two long European trips every year.

The result?

It doesn't use any oil whatsoever between oil changes. Every one who drives this D5 comments on how quiet it is - how responsive the engine is and ask me what I do to it. It's now done 232K. It is much quieter than when I bought it.

I just bought a facelift XC with 178K on the engine. The seller told me he used Comma full synth and recently did an oil and filter service.

This week I did the Shell Helix Ultra 5-40 and a can of Liqui Moly Ceratec with a new Bosch filter change.

Considering what it would cost me to replace the engine compared to the less than £50 per oil change it makes a lot of sense to me.

I'm fairly convinced that in 1 - 2K miles I'll get the same comments on this engine as the V70..:)

By the way - I also do a partial transmission dump every year and add LubeGuard Red to the Mannoil I use.

The shifts are silky smooth - much smother than when I bought the car.

I guess I am cynical enough to believe car/engine manufacturers main (only?) interest is they last thru the warranty period.

Just to stir the pot again...
I feel I've garnered some useful insights into oil from this thread though I would like to know people's opinions on Comma oils?
I've heard some bad things anecdotally but they are at a price point that cannot be ignored... Yes, yes, yes, "buy cheap, buy twice"! But surely they cannot THAT bad?
I may have also ordered some of their 5W-30 A5/B5 for my V50 D5... :rolleyes:
Quite happy to send the stuff back if it is of the opinion of a professional/specialist/industry expert that it is truly and utterly guff stuff. (May keep the 'Flush Out' I bought though)

My last oil change was using 0W-30 A5/B5 from Westway Lubricants (I hold my hands up, it was the cheapest I could find) combined with Archoil 9100.
So 9000 miles later its smelling like parrafin on a BBQ, I'm sure the internals appreciate the carbon...

So I was thinking back to some earlier posts about about protection and oil degradation, seeing the car currently has a DPF it must require the use of a - 0W/5W-30 A5/B5 spec oil.
However as my car does get respectfully "driven" most days I would like to know what is the BEST in terms of protection,
I'm bearing in mind here that on these Euro IV D5s, oil contamination with diesel from the DPF regen process is an unavoidable factor.

Thanks in advance!

Comma arent terrible, but arent fantastic either. Average. For same/similar money you can usually get oil from Fuchs, Shell, Total, all of which are much better.
It isnt Extra-super longtime recycled chipfat No.1 starfish brand oil.
Its Spar shop own brand cola, as opposed to 25p value cola or Coca-Cola.

The 'best' protection would be A3/B4 oil. The saps of A5/B5 are 'full saps' so not at all dpf friendly, it mistifies many as to volvos logic specifying it for dpf cars, but you dont get much problems to be fair.
If you drive it easy though andvits a healthy engine, A5/B5 is absolutely fine, just change it sensibly, I recommend 10-12k/12 month but 15k/12 month woukd be ok. The oil really strughles after this point with the contaminants/acids/permanent shearing etc.

Comma are fine, decent oils at a sensible price. There are other options at roughly the same price, but Comma are generally easy to get hold of.

Cheers

Tim