What sort of oil are X300 owners using in their cars ? My 1995 XJ6
3.2L with 38,000 miles is serviced by a Jag dealer who uses 5w30
(Castrol TXT Softec), but this seems a little light to me for
Australian summers.
I know that the owner’s manual has its own recommendations, I would
just like to know what others are using. In the October 2003 issue
of Jaguar World Monthly Magazine, the X300 Guide recommends 10w40
Semi Synth for the AJ16.–
Losiho
Melbourne, Australia
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Losiho sent Tue 13 Jan 2004:
Oil discussions involve a lot of personal experience and urban
myth, therefore they are usually interesting. I will fuel the fire
by saying that I always follow the manufacturers recommendation on
road cars. In the case of the X300, in my area of the US (East
Coast), the recommendation is 10W30 and this is what I use. If you
race, you can use whatever suits your fancy, since it is your fault
when it pops on the backstretch! I don’t like 10W-40 oil or any oil
with a real wide vicosity range. The reason is that this range is
created by dumping a bunch of de-kinking polymers in the oil that
are heat sensitive to create the vicosity change. The wide range
oils have more polymers. When these polymers shear during engine
operations, they create crud in the oil (make it black) that works
at cross-purposes in the engine. There are trained Jag techs out
there that like 20W-50 for the X300. I disagree unless you are
running in the desert somewhere. If your engine will not carry good
pressure without 20W-50, it needs a trip to the shop. I could go on
a long time on this but I will give the podium over now.–
The original message included these comments:
What sort of oil are X300 owners using in their cars ? My 1995 XJ6
3.2L with 38,000 miles is serviced by a Jag dealer who uses 5w30
(Castrol TXT Softec), but this seems a little light to me for
Australian summers.
–
Brian Caro
Newport News, VA, United States
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Brian Caro sent Tue 13 Jan 2004:
I forgot to mention something that’s important, a key problem with
wide range viscosities is when the polymers wear and get chopped
up, they gradually fail to perform their task as well, and the
upper viscosity drops, so after awhile, you don’t have 10W-40, you
have closer to 10W! This is one reason the oil guys want the oil
changed often (other than the obvious one!). I will also say that
my discussion is greatly simplified and I can feel all the
petroleum chemists writhing in their computer chairs right now.–
The original message included these comments:
oils have more polymers. When these polymers shear during engine
operations, they create crud in the oil (make it black) that works
at cross-purposes in the engine. There are trained Jag techs out
–
Brian Caro
Newport News, VA, United States
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Losiho sent Tue 13 Jan 2004:
I live in a warm climate (New Orleans) that is very similar to
Houston. Minimal freezing days, in fact few days during the year
in the 30’s. Lots of A/C time and traffic. Locally, the Jaguar
Dealer, the most knowledgable local Jaguar independent I know, as
well as an independent I know with two very succeessful high
volumne facilities in Texas, use exclusively 20-50 in 6 cyl
Jaguars. So do I. None use synthetic, and are divided between
Castrol and Valvoline as brand of choice.
I am now on my second high mileage Jaguar (130K+ Miles) and have
had no oil consumption or pressure problems on either engine.
Changes have been on average about every 4K miles. When I do go
over 4K, I sometimes have to add about 1/2 qt.
I do agree with Brian, that in a cooler climate, I would go a bit
thinner. I don;t think I would go as low as 5W.–
uncle
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Losiho sent Tue 13 Jan 2004:
I use 10/40 semi-synthetic in my 95 XJR-6 and change the oil &
filter every 10,000 miles
To date my XJR has covered 184,000 U.K Miles
Derek
95XJR 184+k
Dorset
U.K–
The original message included these comments:
What sort of oil are X300 owners using in their cars ? My 1995 XJ6
3.2L with 38,000 miles is serviced by a Jag dealer who uses 5w30
(Castrol TXT Softec), but this seems a little light to me for
I know that the owner’s manual has its own recommendations, I would
just like to know what others are using. In the October 2003 issue
of Jaguar World Monthly Magazine, the X300 Guide recommends 10w40
Semi Synth for the AJ16.
I’m one of the wide-viscosity guys. I use 5W-50 Castrol Syntec
(Synthetic) and change the oil and filter every 5000 miles. Being in the
desert, we have a wide temperature swings, from freezing the coldest
nights in the winter to the high 110s (near 50C) in the summer. Go up to
the mountains two hours away and sub-zero (F, -20C) temps are not
unusual in winter. What I look at in cars with real oil pressure gauges
is the pressure at startup and at operating temperature. As I understand
it, if you max out on oil pressure at startup, some of the oil bypasses
the filter. By the same token, if the oil’s too thin, you’ll drop below
recommended pressures at operating temps. So I try to balance those two
parameters with oil leakage (thicker) and fuel mileage (thinner).
I am correct about the oil pressure gauge being a fancy idiot light,
right? Has anyone attempted to change it to something that actually
measures pressure. If there’s no circuitry at the gauge end, I’m
probably out of luck, but if it’s just that there’s a switch with a
resistor (to give the middle-of-the-dial reading) at the sender end it
seems that it would just be a matter of finding a sender with similar
outputs.
“Mark 1” Mark Stephenson
1952 XK120 Roadster S673129 / 1959 Mark 1
1984 XJ6 / 1985,6,7 & 1995 XJ6 VDP
Jaguar Club of Central Arizona (www.jcca.us)-----Original Message-----
From: owner-x300@jag-lovers.org [mailto:owner-x300@jag-lovers.org] On
Behalf Of Losiho
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 5:31 AM
To: x300@jag-lovers.org
Subject: [x300] AJ16 Oil Viscosity
What sort of oil are X300 owners using in their cars ? My 1995 XJ6 3.2L
with 38,000 miles is serviced by a Jag dealer who uses 5w30 (Castrol TXT
Softec), but this seems a little light to me for Australian summers.
I know that the owner’s manual has its own recommendations, I would just
like to know what others are using. In the October 2003 issue of Jaguar
World Monthly Magazine, the X300 Guide recommends 10w40 Semi Synth for
the AJ16.
Losiho
Melbourne, Australia
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Losiho sent Tue 13 Jan 2004:
I belive that in manual Jaguar states that you can put oil of your
choice depends on climate. Also they advice to use 20X50 in hot
weather zones and 5X30 in cold weather zones.
I agree that 20X50 it’s not very good for engine and step down to
10X40 in summer ( temp around 30C) and 5X30 winter( temp -10+10C)–
Alex
Lake Bluff, United States
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from AGIMELMAN sent Tue 13 Jan 2004:
‘‘Syntec’’…hmmm, is that ‘‘real’’ Synthetic Mark ? The Castrol
range in Oz is the Formula Synthetic R (same oils/viscosities).
Where I live in Melbourne, the overnight temps in winter can go as
low as zero C in the outer suburbs (the car stays in a garage every
night) and as high as 45 C in summer. I still think a 10w30 / 10w40
is more appropriate than a 5w30. The ski resorts are a 3 hr drive
away, but my Subaru Outback makes that trip, not the Jag !
I’ve spent some time over at the Bobistheoilguy website. I always
assumed that wider multigrade oils (specifically, 5w50, 10w60,
0w40) were more prone to shearing - I thought 10w40 should be ok. I
also gathered that shearing was more of a problem with turbo
engines rather than n/a engines.–
Losiho
Melbourne, Australia
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Brian Caro sent Tue 13 Jan 2004:
Do you mean the ‘tribologists’ ie oil men in white coats who are
experts in friction and lubrication. They continue the great debate
re changing dirty oil or cleaning it with extra finer filters
instead. Many truckers use an OEM filter plus a secondary ‘oil
cleaning’ low pressure bypass 10 microns in size.
And the engine wear came from abrasive particles which were–
The original message included these comments:
have closer to 10W! This is one reason the oil guys want the oil
changed often (other than the obvious one!). I will also say that
my discussion is greatly simplified and I can feel all the
petroleum chemists writhing in their computer chairs right now.
–
Ant
Bristol UK, United Kingdom
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
I use Mobil 1 15w50 and change out fluid and filter every 3,000-
3,500 because of the intense use I put my poor car through (canyon,
track events, LOTS of power band driving).
Why not switch out racing oil for events? They happen too often
and using Mobil 1 was a fine compromise.
Sunny–
Sunny Garofalo, '97 XJ6 Anthracite
San Diego, CA, United States
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Sunny Garofalo sent Wed 14 Jan 2004:
I like this! Brian knew he was going to open Pandora’s box when
expressed his opinions regarding wide viscosity oil.
Jaguar revised (see ALLDATA for TSB) the oil specifications for
X300 after the owners manuals were printed. 20w X 50W is now
specified for climate temperature ranges between 30 degrees F and
100+ degrees F.–
Larry Snowden, '96 X300 + '00 S-Type
Boca Raton, Florida, United States
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Losiho sent Tue 13 Jan 2004:
Losiho,
In Wollongong NSW I run my 95 XJR on Castrol Magnatec 10w40 oil.
No problems with oil pressure hot or cold. I change oil every
5000km.
Might do 8000km a year if lucky.
Arthur Cunningham–
The original message included these comments:
What sort of oil are X300 owners using in their cars ? My 1995 XJ6
3.2L with 38,000 miles is serviced by a Jag dealer who uses 5w30
(Castrol TXT Softec), but this seems a little light to me for
Australian summers.
I know that the owner’s manual has its own recommendations, I would
just like to know what others are using. In the October 2003 issue
of Jaguar World Monthly Magazine, the X300 Guide recommends 10w40
Semi Synth for the AJ16.
In reply to a message from Losiho sent Tue 13 Jan 2004:
I live in Scotland & change the oil in my 35000 ml 1995 Sovereign
4.0 Auto every 4000 mls,I use DX3 10W/40 (this is a UniPart Brand &
is recommended for Jaguars) & a Coopers filter Z509A.
The air filter is Unipart GFE 2048,the fuel filter is Powertrain
PMFI 11.
These items are available from Partco & Brown Brothers branches–
JDA
Glasgow, United Kingdom
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Brian Caro sent Tue 13 Jan 2004:
I just had a discussion with the guy that wrote the book at Amzoil
about a few things I needed to know. Passing some of it along
here… Full synthetics do not need Viscosity Improvers (VI’s)
such as the polymers I mentioned earlier. This is one of the big
improvements of synthetics over mineral multi-viscosity oils. This
is why synthetics are so much more stable over teh viscosity range.
There is a downloadable book available at this address:
It has always been my opinion that synthetics are the best engine
oil you can use. They will extend the life of the engine
measureably beyond that of mineral oils. There is an explanation of
why folks claim synthetics cause leaks. The discussion is in depth
for a chemical engineer but it gets down to an ester balance that
was wrong in early synthetics. This has been fixed for years. If
you really care about the best, use synthetic engine oil. I use
synthetics for every lubrication situation in all my cars and
motorcycles, the only reason not to is that it cost too much for
you, which is a good reason. The comments about other grades
recommended by Jag are correct. If you run hot climates, 20W-50 is
needed and if you live in Vermont, 5W-30 is needed and so on. I
love oil threads!–
The original message included these comments:
I forgot to mention something that’s important, a key problem with
wide range viscosities is when the polymers wear and get chopped
up, they gradually fail to perform their task as well, and the
upper viscosity drops, so after awhile, you don’t have 10W-40, you
have closer to 10W! This is one reason the oil guys want the oil
–
Brian Caro
Newport News, VA, United States
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Brian Caro sent Wed 14 Jan 2004:
Finally after all this discussions will agree that jaguar leave up
to the dealership what oil to use depends on weather climate etc.
I know that new cars ( not Jaguars ) required 10X20 and it is
written on oil cap on the engine.
I have seen it.–
Alex
Lake Bluff, United States
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
I am purchasing a 1997 XJ6L with 181,000 miles on the clock. Should I keep using the dealer recommended 5W-20W synthetic, (of course) or should I consider changing to another viscosity range?
The Castrol
Jaguar engineers already did the hard work.