What oil replaces volvo OE oil?

[Vikingt5R]

Hi ,

As every year I am doing a thorough review of my volvo and it is my turn to replace the engine oil.

What brand do you recommend for use on the B5234T3 engine, year 98?
So far I have always used the Castrol 10w40 Acea A3, but I have heard that Total oil is the most suitable for Volvo 5-cylinder petrol engines.
What is your opinion?

Greetings from Spain!

[ITSv40]

Welcome to the forum

The Castrol oil you are using is fine for your engine. I ran a 360 for 270,000mls and a V40 2.0lt for 370,000mls both on the same Castrol oil without any problems at all. Both cars scrapped due to rust, but the engines were still good. Oil and genuine Volvo filters changed every 5 - 7000mls.

The important thing is that you use a good quality oil to ACEA A3

I currently use Shell Ultra 5w40 ACEA A3 in my current Volvo's, again same oil change intervals and no problems.

[AndyV7o]

Any big brand 0w40, 5w40, 10w40 to A3/B4 spec is fine, doesnt matter what brand. Just keep to the 40 and dont go above 10w.
Yes, some engines like some oils better, as in it may be quieter, smoother, tad more economical, etc, and might not like others as much, but at the end of the day a big brand oil to the right spec is going to lubricate the engine fine.

[Vikingt5R]

Thanks for the answers,

For now i will continue to use castrol that has always worked well for me.
I had heard that the Total brand was the one they sold as original Volvo oil, I don't know if it will be true.

[AndyV7o]

Volvo recommends castrol, or shell if not, and often do/did r&d on engine developement with castrol. They may have done r&d with Total too, I dunno.
What you get in a volvo bottle could be from total though, manufacturers will tender-out production every now and then between the big companies, fuchs, total, shell, mobil, castrol are all common oe suppliers.
What you also may have picked up is info for the 1.6d which is a peugeot/citroen designed engine, with additional input from Ford. Total did the r&d for this engine and supply the factory-fill. They make an oil specific to this engine, with psa's more stringent requirements than the basic A5/B5 that volvo spec. Thus it is considered this oil is better to use in these fragile and problematic engines since it is designed to counter some of the problems which can/do occur.

[Vikingt5R]

Thank you, very useful your information.

[Mkengineering]

I use fusch titan 10w60 ester based oil as recommend by Tim William's racing

[AndyV7o]

Originally Posted by Mkengineering

I use fusch titan 10w60 ester based oil as recommend by Tim William's racing

You really shouldnt!
Its far too thick which reduces flow rate, cooling, creates high oil pressure, etc. It is commn misconception that 10w60 is an 'ultimate' oil, it is not! It is only suitable for certain engines in certain environments. For these engine you'd need to be runnng about 700+bhp in the desert, at midday, for endurance racing to even touch upon 10w60 being appropriate.
10w50 or 5w50 for highly tuned engines used on track, 0w40 5w40 10w40 is more than sufficient for even tuned road engines.
The guy might build a good engine, but using 10w60 is crippling it. You should not f##k with oil viscosities or hths unless you have comprehensive oil knowledge, and anyone who has comprehensive oil knowledge would -never- put 10w60 in a road engine or even most track engines (bmw's designed around 10w60 as an obvious exception).
Lots of builders or mechanics thnk because they know their way round some spanners and feeler gauges that they automatically are experts in oil when the actual degree of knowledge is no more than 'pub talk'.