My First Service

[Guest]

Good Monring All,

After spending the best part of 2 days tcutting the layer upon layer if polish/oxidation from the paintwork of my 944 its now almost mirror like - not so good when I look in it []. Next weekend is a another big weekend in the life of my 944. I managed to get hold of some rear 3 point seat belts and a slotted valance yesterday which will be fitted after making a start on the cars latest service. I am a little lost as to what oil to put in when I change the filter. The previous owner says I should be using Shell 5w40. That seems to be the only grade not listed in the owners manual. Can anyine shed some light on this? Any tips on the rest of the usual serviceing parts (plugs,leads,filters etc) would be very gratefully received.

Regards

 

[Diver944]

I should call Bert at www.berlyn-services.co.uk he can sell you a complete service kit and also any extras like leads, distributor cap etc

As for oil, my 1988 manual does list 5w40 but as a fuel economy oil that protects down to temperatures as low as -30 C. The more usual oil would be 10w40 which protects down to -25 C and will not be so viscous when cold so you should not burn so much.

 

[sawood12]

If you use the search function you will find loads of posts on oil and despite the vast amounts of discussion that regularly occurs on all forums there doesn't seem to be any one golden rule about what oil to use. I personally think that you should go for a fully synthetic Ester oil (i.e. a clingy oil like Magnatec but Magnatec is a semi-synthetic oil) and I don't think it ultimately matters if you use 5w40 or 10w40 unless you do alot of track use or drive in countries where you might experience extremes of temperatures. I personally use 5w40 Silkolene Pro from Oilman and i've had no problems with it whatsoever - although it is quite expensive, however when you put things into perspective it's only an extra tenner per oil change, so in the grand scheme of things it's nothing.

 

[944turboS]

It's not realy worth putting a fully synthetic oil in a N/A car, semi-synthetic will be all that's required.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for that Guys - I really should learn to use the search facility more (Not a good advert for someone who works in IT []). Have got loads of info from previous threads along with what you've told me.

Ill order the oil and a filter tomorrow. so its here for next weekend.

 

[Guest]

I've always found Castrol GTX high mileage oil to be perfectly adequate in my 1983 - 5 cars - one of which had something like 350,000 on the clock and still walked the emissions test of the MOT. Sadly she was totalled by a drunk driver otherwise I reckon she still had plenty of years worth of use left in her.

I tried Magnatec for a while but found I was having to top up the level more frequently than with good old GTX (at that time with only 65,000 on her).

When the earlier cars were built they were designed to use the likes of GTX in them (top of the range performance oil at the time) - all these fancy pants oils weren't around and yet the cars still managed to be around twenty + years later. That's good enough for me.

Hi-performance synthetics are only worth bothering with if you're planning on nailing around a track. My pedestrain flirtations with 80 - 100 mph don't warrant the expense of all the fandango potions at around £50 per oil change - no matter how much I flatter my sporty driving.