Have a new old 2003 XK8 that needs an oil change. was wondering if it is a ford motor and if at 116,000 mi I could use Valvoline high mileage synthetic oil.

 

Please avoid posting the same questions in duplicate!! It gets confusing answering question all over the site.

bob

 

first of all, 116,000 is NOT high mileage. 316,000 is getting there, but 116,000, NO. You do you not "need" a high mileage oil of any kind. These engines, and ANY modernly engineered engine with average maintenance will last 400,000 miles EASY. Jeez, American V-8 engines in the 1960's were routinely lasting 300,000 miles before you had to remove even the valve covers.

What you should be using is any quality full synthetic oil in the weight appropriate for your climate. I'm using Mobil 1 0w-40. That will cover me nicely year round with my areas lows in the winters of 0 to +10 F to summer temps of 100-110+ F.

Z

 

I would say start by taking a hard look at what is there already. If you have old nasty dark oil in there, you might want to start with a filter change, then maybe a run of cheap conventional oil for a short bit until things cleanup. Then possibly move on to some form of synthetic oil. The point is that you do not want to dislodge too much nasty stuff too quickly and clog something critical. If the oil is already fairly clean and you bought a well maintained car, then buy whatever you want. I have been using synthetic extended interval oil to ease a bit on the maintenance schedule. On the flip side, several members of this forum have bought car that seemingly had never seen an oil change (but there was oil left!), and managed to bring these engines back to life, one cleaning at a time, so that is another data point. From a hard data perspective, Jaguar's maintenance schedule refers to conventional oil, I believe, so some swear by that. Oil debates are many and generally exhausting to follow...

 

Any oil being offered today will meet the manufactuers specs. I buy K&N Filters on Ebay in 3 packs for $36.00. You can't go wrong