V70: Engine Oil.

[ShadeTek]

I went in to Halfords for a quick look around only to find Castrol Fully Synthetic A5/B5 at less than half price. £17 for 4 litres, which is the same as one supplier on Amazon, but still a good price for the high street. Some tools on half-price too.

[100K+]

Went in to Halfords today.... But the oil referred to is 05w30 a5/b5 Magnatec and not 0w30 a5/b5 as required by my 2014 V70 D5. Perhaps the requirements are different between Shadetec's Volvo and mine.
However, I found myself banging my head off the shop walls as I tried to square the circle of what my car oil requirements are, and what was available.
The handbook clearly states Volvo recommend Castrol, and the grade is 0w30, but they throw a spanner into the works to my mind by stating it must also be A5/B5. Its an oil burner so surely it should be a ACEA class C oil?

So ... why ,even though my car is fitted with a cat, do Volvo state that I must use class A/B grade oils rather than Class C oils which are specifically designed for use with DPFs ??

My only way of squaring this circle was to perceive that High saps oils, (class A/B) are a better lubricant than a possibly environmentally friendlier Low/Mid saps oil. (Class C)


Cheers
Bob

[AndyV7o]

No-one truly knows why, but B5 and volvo dpf's have been working together quite happily, infact a lot better than some other manufacturers using C spec oils with their dpfs!
Tim from Opie oils had a customer who used C3 for a service fill and kept getting soot filter warnings and regens, changed back to B5 and the problem went away! Baffling!
B is diesel spec btw, A is petrol, C is diesel with dpf oriented but most modern manufacturer specs for petrol and diesel are based upon a C spec as there is no need for seperate specs hence A3/B4 or A5/B5 on the same oils etc.
5w30 is ok to use instead of 0w30 unless you experience persistent sub-zero temperatures in double figures.

As for saps, C3 and C2 should be fully backward compatible with A3/B4 and A5/B5 respectively in regards to wear protection, unless there is some metallurgy/technology which is dependant upon a certain minimum level of zddp which cannot be guaranteed by C3/2 as some have enough and some dont. Zddp is substituted with other anti-wear agents which are increasingly more effective, so in principle, even if a C3/2 only contain 600ppm zddp instead of the base number of 800ppm for dependant metallurgy/technology, this should be the case that the substitutes in combination with the zddp have proven sufficient for the expected level of protection. The problem here comes with cheap oils, and as you cannot guarantee they will be sufficient for backward compatibility, the result can be simply to only use A/B spec oils.

[Model flyer]

I used 5w-30 in my V70 for years with no problems whatsoever just make sure its an A5-B5 oil . The viscosity of 5w-30 is fine for UK climate .

[AndyV7o]

A5/B5 for euro 4 onwards D5 (2005>) and pretty much every other volvo after the millenium.
A3/B4 for euro 3 D5 (>2005) also renault dci engined S/V40's (5w40)

[Peter86]

Just go with what the handbook says and that's all you need. The engine was designed to work to oil of that specification and not cause any problems. Oils are far superior and designed to work in alot of different engines where as years ago there was petrol oils, diesel oils, with alot of different specs. Alot of manufactures now use the same features or same engines in multiple brands as its far cheaper to produce cars this way. The only time you should have any concern is driving your car in extreme conditions.
As for brands that's a personal choice but if the spec of the oils right it should work perfectly.

[AndyV7o]

The only caveat to that is that budget oils dont always retain the spec performance throughout the full interval.
They are tested in lab conditions for a set duration to tipify the rate of degradation and performance, but in the real world over an extended oci they can 'fall apart'. Some will be fine, but its best to excercise caution if you value your car long-term.
Basically, its like a chinese 'De-Waukee' knock-off tool being used as opposed to a genuine De-Walt or Milwaukee. (Examples, not making any statement about either brand) If you are fitting your own kitchen once and will never use it again you'll get by with the cheap item, if you are a tradesperson who depends on it, its a false economy.