I almost hate to do this, as this topic is perhaps one of the most over discussed aspects of car maintenance. As in the past, Jaguar seems to recommend a wide range of engine oils for both the V6 and V8 versions of the S-type. This, of course, makes it extra confusing for their customers.

My questions to you involve the following:

How many miles on your car?
What brand do you use?
What weight?

Where do you live? Hot climate (>85 deg) Mild (40-85) or Cold (<40)?
Do you drive your car gently, medium or hard?

How often do you change your oil?

My answers involving my other car ( I haven't changed the Jag oil yet)

171,000 miles
Mobil 1 or Kendall GT1 synthetic
10W30 (switched from 5W30 about a year ago)
Hot climate, hard driving
Every 5-7000 miles.

 

FloridaJag, as for engine oil, use the weight that is listed on the oil cap. In the case of my 03 X-type, it states to use 5W-30. Yours should say either 5W-30 or 5W-20 (dependent on year your car was made). With that being said, you can run 5W-20 with the hope of getting more mileage out of the motor. But, seeing how you live in Florida, I would stick with the 5W-30 unless your oil cap tells you to run 5W-20.

As for what brand oil to use, most oils that you find in the stores these days come off of very few manufacturing lines. For example, Mobil 1 and Halvoline are the same oils, made on the same lines, but the Mobil 1 have a slightly different detergent package. Advance Auto oil is also Halvoline oil. So, you can do some careful looking and get a good quality oil using a different brand name. I have tried Halvoline, Castrol, and Quaker State in my car with no noticeable change in the performance of the car.

As for change interval times, there are many different thoughts when it comes to this. I treat my car to an oil change at ever 4K miles. I figure a few extra oil changes in the cars life is cheap insurance compared to having to replace a motor. I'm sure other people will have additional ideas/recommendations. One word of caution though, Jag has recommended against using Fram oil filters due to past problems with fibers leaving the filter, leading to problems in the engine.

As for the conditions I drive in, I see the whole gambit with my car. I do a lot of travelling and my car sees hot weather of Georgia to the snow regions of PA and OH. But, it spends most of its time in MD which is fairly mild. Granted, the summers get up to 90+ on a routine basis. Not sure how the winter will be.

 

Here is a good article I found about different oils: http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Oils1.html

 

I live in West Virginia. I change oil every 5K miles and use Castrol GTX 5W-30. Guess I drive about medium - with occasional bursts of enthusiasm

Regards:
Oldengineer

 

Both S-types got/get Mobil 5w40 Turbo Diesel Truck or Castrol Syntec 5w40 European formula the "made in Belgium" Castrol only, and I change the oil and filter (only filters that say "made in Germany" or "made in UK")every 10,000 miles.

My old S-type had nearly 100,000 miles and used no oil, the STR has 38,000 miles and uses about a quart every 2000 miles.

I drive em like I stole 'em

As an Aside my wifes '01 Caddy Deville DHS with 99,000 miles gets a steady diet of 0w30 "German" Castrol Syntec (the other European formula!) with Mobil 1 filters whenever the OLM fgoes off.

 

I agree with Jon89 (different post), I use the Jaguar recommended Castrol 5W30, will be changing oil every 6,000 miles along with Purolator filter and air filter.

 

Synthetic for the S-Type anyone?

 

This is going very well. I am surprised I haven't heard more synthetic users.

 

A friend works at Lubrizol and we were speaking about various things automotive recently. He said regular Valvoline oil has all the right amount of additives for good engine lubrication.

Since almost everyone has a different opinion about type of oil and periods of change I don't bother listing mine.

 

Use synthetic 5w-30 (whatever brand is on sale!)
Change every 5k

Live in Ohio so get the full range of temps. Hot humid Summers; sub zero Winters.

She's my daily driver, put about 325 miles on a week.

Drive it hard, mix of heavy stop and go plus bursts up to about 85 on the highway.

I use synthetic since it is supposed to handle thermal issues better and takes longer to breakdown.

I am debating switching to synthetic in the '85 Dodge Turbo. It's a 2.2, gets driven maybe 500 miles a year, all short trips. I'm not sure if I should. It's been used to conventional motor oil for all it's 24 years. It has never had anything opened up on the engine with the exception of a valve cover gasket.

 

I'm sticking with Castrol 5W-30 conventional recommended by Jaguar with a 6,000-mile change interval. I love Valvoline, have used it in all my other vehicles since the mid-70s, but I'll stay with Castrol in the S-Type. I also like Purolator filters and use them in the S-Type. North Carolina is a temperate climate with summer highs pushing 100 degrees and winter lows getting down to 10 degrees or a bit lower. The S-Type currently has 30,600 miles on it. My wife drives it 90% of the time, and she is a very conservative driver. But when I drive it, I really put it through its paces....

 

I went the synthetic route in my daily driver which is a 2000 Dodge Durango R/T, 5.9 Litre, 4x4, some 45,000 miles ago. I currently have 107,000 miles on her. I DRIVE the living poo outta 'er. Would almost put whitestr on training wheels (ha). Anyway my MPGs (12.4) never increased which was the reasoning behind the switch. I still change the lube & filter every 2,500 on this beast. I also made the switch in our Mastercraft Comp Ski boat (320 hp). Only because it holds 3.5 qts of oil and change it once per season. I noticed nothing in it as well. I stick to my guns on Joyces S Type and will stay with what Jaguar recommends.

 

I have heard that synthetic oil supposedly remains on the bearings longer. I can't imagine that it would be bad to change to synthetic on your 85 Dodge.

 

I use extra virgin olive oil, but only the kind imported from greece. Accept no substitutes

In the Range Rover I only use Shell Rotella T 15w-40 diesel 158,000 miles and going strong.

In the XJ6 I use 5-40 Shell Rotella T synthetic 107k, both vehicles get either mobil 1 filters or Wix.

 

Rachael Ray would be all over you. Of course, she also recommends about a pint of 30-weight on your spinach greens....