We purchased a 04' X-Type 3.0 and I'm planning to do an oil change on it. It has 94k on it and the previous owner doesn't know if they used regular or synthetic oil in it. Which should I use?

 

As long as it is the correct viscosity and you use a name brand use whatever you want and you will be fine. If you are really bored do a search on here regarding the merits or not of synthetic vs. dino oils on here. A thread pops up on here every so often and it always ends up there is no right or wrong answer. Use a quality brand, the right viscosity and change it regularly and call it a day.

 

I would personally do at least a part synthetic like Castrol GTX, it's pretty affordable and Jag recommends Castrol. I'm going to be changing mine here soon and will probably go with the GTX because it's a good performance oil but not as expensive as a full synthetic. If I feel like splurging I may go with Royal Purple or the full synthetic Castrol, not sure yet. Just put something good in it. Remember it's a Jaguar, you don't want to skimp on it with cheap fluids and fuel. If you change the oil yourself, the good oil is about the same price as what a shop would charge for the standard oil. Also I've heard you don't want to go back to regular oil from synthetic, so if they've been using synthetic which is a good probability, you would want to do at least a part-synthetic...

 

Great answer.

Use whatever oil YOU like best- the car couldn't care less.

 

I bought some Castrol Edge 5w-30 full synthetic. I was able to find out where the previous owner took the car and that dealer said they use a Castrol Synthetic Blend. I've heard that switching to full synthetic can cause problems such as oil usage or leaks. Every car seems to react different when switching and I was curious as to how Jaguars did when switching. The oil filler cap and owners manual recommends Castrol so I bought the best I could find.

 

Jaguar has a marketing agreement with Castrol, that's why you see the name here and there. It's not magically better.

Rumour about leaks when switching are mostly just that, rumours.

 

See response #1. I stand by that. No need to overthink this. You are doing just fine by your car.

 

Will use the Castrol Edge and see how it goes. Just need to wait for it to warm up! It been too cold here lately to work on it. This morning

It's still -3 right now.

 

wytype, the reasoning behind why a full synthetic will "leak" more than a dino oil is why people believe that a full synthetic oil is better. The oil molecule (yes, we are talking down to that small of a thing) for a full synthetic oil is much smaller than that for the same weight dino oil. Therefore, with things being smaller, they can make it through smaller holes. You are not creating any new holes, it is just that the old holes were too small to let the dino oil out. This works a bit to the advantage of engine wear as the full synthetic oil can leak into more places and find places to lubricate that the dino oil can not reach. You may also notice a slight uptick in the amount of oil lost between oil changes as more oil will leak by the rings on an older engine because even the rings are not perfectly sealed.

Is this something to loose sleep over. NO!!!!!!!!! But, as you change any part of how the car works, you are going to have pros and cons to it.

 

One other advantage to full synthetic is you don't have to change oil quite as often. Does anyone here use the high mileage stuff or just the regular synthetic? I put a fuel additive in mine when I got it called HyperLube because the oil was a little low, it's sort of along the same lines as the Lucas oil stabilizer. I need to change my oil in the next month or two when I get a chance and I was thinking of going with Castrol GTX because it's pretty reasonable, but that is a part-synthetic so maybe I should go with full synthetic if that's what they recommend. Figured GTX would probably be good enough though.

 

Only the most expensive oil in nice bottles with bright labels should be used for Jaguars.
Almost forgot! Oil should be bought from a dealer! I am not sure from Jaguar dealer or Ford, because my 2.5 has "Ford" casting.

 

The owner's manual for my 2002 X-type states synthetic is not recommended. Why would that be? Jaguar knows we'll be spending enough on repairs and is trying to save us some pennies??

 

Anglofool, back in 2002, that was when full synthetics were just coming out and back then, they had no idea of what it would do to the engine. So, to protect themselves, they simply added a statement to the owners manual that says not to use full synthetic. It has since been proven that using full synthetic is not a problem. Stick with the same weight of oil that you would have used in dino oil and you will be good. You start changing viscousities and it is hard to say what may or may not happen.

 

Thanks Thermo, I thought it may have been something like that.

 

Thermo is right synthetic will leak ,waste of money i use dollar general oil and my VDP HAS 225,000 miles on it purring like a cat ,i change it every 5 000 with the cheapest oil i can find

 

I think the leak story is a myth which dates back to the bad old days when the change from straight none detergent oils was taking place. I have personal experience of this and worked for a company REDEX which wrecked many engines.