Just back from my servicing dealer...who is 400km from my home...and they don't sell the special Castrol Titanium with Jaguar fairy dust, other than by the 50 gal drum....

Looks like a dealer oil change is my only option. Have 1600 km or so on the car and want to do a change as I have trouble with the 15,000km before a change concept, though the service manager commented modern Jag/Landrover engines...and otherws...are built to such better tolerances that is fine ( apparently the newest Landrovers go to 26,000 km before a change.
He did not support my idea of Castrol Edge Titianum 5-20 oil which is readily available...he stuck with the idea of the 0-20 fairy dust special oil.
Anyone have helpful insights ? Naturally I'd like to use the 2-20 rather than wait for another 13,500 km . Any point in just changing the filter ?
Thanks for any help.
Alan

 

Yes, I'm more concerned about the filter lasting the prescribed mileage than the oil. Any trapped contaminants will restrict flow and cause problems before the additives package gives out. On my MINI, I change the oil at 15k miles and the filter every 7.5k.

 

Does the oil test tell you if parts of the engine are getting sludge build up?

 

Its not fairy dust- that oil is unique. And critical on the 5.0 Aj133.

Changing the filter will do nothing. Its not about metal shavings and wear, its about cleaning the engine.

Be very careful using any other oil, it has the real possibility of getting baked on and clogging vital tiny openings. And then there is the carbon build up.

 

This directly answers your question about why Castrol from dealer as opposed to Castrol from autozone.

"All synthetic oils are not created equal. Here in America we are at a disadvantage as to knowing what oils are synthetic and which are not. Due to a loophole in regulations and advertising, companies in America can advertise their group 3 oils (which start life as gasoline and are turned to liquid via hydrocracking) as fully synthetic. Many of these oils such as Royal Purple, Castrol Syntec, Mobil 1 cannot be called synthetic in other parts of the world where these things are taken much more seriously. As such, we recommend group 4 and group 5 oils exclusively. Many oils like Redline, ELF (Total), Amsoil, Torco, and Castrol formulations from Europe are all good examples of this. These oils are so important that every Volkswagen company (VW, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, etc.) REQUIRE their dealerships to use them exclusively. So when in doubt, you can always have your oil changed at one of those dealerships to make sure you are getting the best quality oil."

 

That's all well and good, and I have no reason to doubt what you're saying, but we've had numerous reports here of US JLR dealers not using the stuff w/ "fairy dust."

 

I suspected as much!! How did they discover the cheat?

 

Risking re-igniting another oil debate, I am willing to bet that special formulation has to do with unreasonably long oil change interval more so than with specific performance characteristics of the engine. Once out of warranty, I will risk "conventional" 5w20 full synthetic oil and 5K change intervals.

 

If you're going to plagiarize, at least quote the source

The Dangers of Direct Injection | CorkSport Mazda Performance - Blog

 

Sure that is my source. But I miss the point, other than you are some houdini who can sniff my seat to tell me what I had.

 

I am with you.

However, the commonly available oil that does withstand high shear and has low sulfur (for the carbon buildup problem) is about the same price as the Castrol Slx. Even then it does not meet the criteria.

BTW jag has now changed to 0-20W just a heads-up.

 

In multiple accounts, there's been no attempt to cover it up various dealers. People have tried to purchase the good stuff only to be told by the dealer they "don't carry it because what they use is just as good/doesn't matter." They just use the regular Castrol stuff.

 

The issue relates to problems unique to direct injection engines. I had an Audi RS4 w/ direct injection that had some major issues with engine deposits at about 20K miles. The real question is whether the JLR special formulation is necessary to keep such engines clean?

Link below:

Pros and Cons of Direct Injection Engines - Consumer Reports

 

I had it looked into by an oil expert, it indeed has very low sulfur, one of the probs with DI. He also commented that the shear strength was unmatched by the rest.

Here is a good demonstration

 

P.s. Thank you for the link. I was already using nothing but the best gasoline, good hear that BMW has issued a TSB for just that.

 

Not really. It basically just tells you if the additives package is still sufficiently intact to protect the engine or whether excessive wear (rings, bearings, etc.) is occurring.

 

My dealer prints on the invoice which oil they used - it's never been the magic Castrol, but other Castrols.

 

Curious, has anyone installed an 'oil catch can' re: the before mentioned article?
Lawrence

 

When I told people to avoid fuel with ethanol, I got my head bit off by unnamed S-type owners. Now there is even a TSB stating as much.

 

Sin,

I think the main issue there is that most of us CAN'T avoid ethanol. Gasoline w/o ethanol is like "unobtainium" in virtually all of the U.S.