Oil change

[Col_T]

With apologies if this has been asked before, but . . . . .

 

I am planning on changing the oil on my Beta BV1505 this weekend, and it has a 7.5 litre oil capacity apparently. For reasons we don't need to go into, I already have 5 litres of API CC rated mineral oil suitable for Diesel engines. You have probably already guessed the following question!

 

Is it okay to mix different brands of API CC rated mineral oil? The oil I already have is a 'generic' product e.g. Rebadged, and I will be unable to obtain additional supplies before I plan to do the change, or should I wait until I've got further supplies of the same??

 

Thanks in advance for any replies, and many thanks to all those that have replied to my other posts during this year. You have all increased my knowledge, so many thanks.

 

Colin T.

[DHutch]

Is it okay to mix different brands of API CC rated mineral oil?

Assuming they both are of equivalent/appropriate grade I can't expect there would be an issue.

 

I am currently running my car on a blend of two brands, one being the winter spec and the other the summer spec, neither being the 'recommended' brand.

 

Daniel

[blackrose]

Personally I'd wait until you can get adequate quantities of the same oil. I doubt there would be a problem mixing two different brands, but you never know. Your engine probably cost in excess of £6,000 or £7,000 so why risk it for the sake of 20 quid?

Edited December 30, 2016 by blackrose

[PaddingtonBear]

Personally I'd wait until you can get adequate quantities of the same oil. I doubt there would be a problem mixing two different brands, but you never know. Your engine probably cost in excess of £6,000 or £7,000 so why risk it for the sake of 20 quid?

What a load of nonesense? And from a usually reliable source at that.

[bigste]

Agree with the bear entirely.

[Bee]

Well its puzzled me as well. I have 5 litres of good diesel lube oil in the shed and I'm not sure about mixing it with another brand. Its the wrong viscosity for the car and not quite enough litres for the boat engine. Can I a) mix it with another brand of the right viscosity for the boat or mix a bit of different viscosity and bung it in the car? Its been there for 3 years now and I reckon it'll still be there when Brexit negotiations are all amicably finished.

[cuthound]

Oils are made to a specification. Providing both oils meet the exact same specification (API CC or whatever) then all will be ok.

[Guest]

I think there was a time when care was needed with mixing oils. Wasn't there something about not mixing that green stuff of days gone by (Duckhams?) with other oils?

Not heard of problems in recent years, but that doesn't mean to say there aren't any.

[Chewbacka]

The manufacturers will all tell you not to mix as they don't know what you will mix it with and if it goes wrong you will blame them and seek compensation. So though the risk is probably tiny, there is no benefit to them in saying so.

Like many I have topped up with a different brand, and when I change I don't flush all the old stuff out so with oil sitting in the bottom of the sump etc there is going to be a small amount of mixing. I have never had a problem doing this.

 

If it is in a plastic container I would not let it get too old in case some of the lighter fractions evaporate and the oil thickens up, but I suspect this will take a few years and will be temperature dependant.

[Flyboy]

With apologies if this has been asked before, but . . . . .

 

I am planning on changing the oil on my Beta BV1505 this weekend, and it has a 7.5 litre oil capacity apparently. For reasons we don't need to go into, I already have 5 litres of API CC rated mineral oil suitable for Diesel engines. You have probably already guessed the following question!

 

Is it okay to mix different brands of API CC rated mineral oil? The oil I already have is a 'generic' product e.g. Rebadged, and I will be unable to obtain additional supplies before I plan to do the change, or should I wait until I've got further supplies of the same??

 

Thanks in advance for any replies, and many thanks to all those that have replied to my other posts during this year. You have all increased my knowledge, so many thanks.

 

Colin T.

There's no problem mixing oils of the same spec. If you are worried about it and have a PRM hydraulic gearbox you could use it in this.

[Guest]

The manufacturers will all tell you not to mix as they don't know what you will mix it with and if it goes wrong you will blame them and seek compensation. So though the risk is probably tiny, there is no benefit to them in saying so.

Like many I have topped up with a different brand, and when I change I don't flush all the old stuff out so with oil sitting in the bottom of the sump etc there is going to be a small amount of mixing. I have never had a problem doing this.

 

If it is in a plastic container I would not let it get too old in case some of the lighter fractions evaporate and the oil thickens up, but I suspect this will take a few years and will be temperature dependant.

That is a good point that the last drop of oil never comes out (in my case anyway) so i have unintentionally mixed oils many times.

I hate that flushing stuff after my Ford car was "flushed" at an oil change. It has used oil ever since.

There's no problem mixing oils of the same spec. If you are worried about it and have a PRM hydraulic gearbox you could use it in this.

Or lob it in the diesel tank?

[bizzard]

Years ago and not so long ago when vehicles tended to use a drop of oil and whilst on a journey one would stop for perhaps petrol and to top up the oil at the same time. The oil could be of any old make in an emergency and often of a different grade. Before self service stations came along, loose oil poured in from a measure by the pump attendant, pumped from an oil bin cabinet. These forecourt oil bin cabinets didn't always contain the type oil that was displayed on the cabinets or the measures. Castolite, Castrol XL and XXL, Shell X100, to name but a few, but often contained various grades of cheap re claimed engine oils often used by many dispicable greedy garage proprietors. I once worked for two and they both bunged Smiths re-claimed oils of Stratford into their oil cabinets and sold as the genuine stuff. It was delivered in 40 gal drums and stored out of sight and transferred to the forecourt cabinets out of hours. The prudent car owner often asked for genuine oil from sealed tins to put in by the pump attendant or bought themselves to put in.

[Col_T]

Thanks for the comments, chaps.

 

Personally I'd wait until you can get adequate quantities of the same oil. I doubt there would be a problem mixing two different brands, but you never know. Your engine probably cost in excess of £6,000 or £7,000 so why risk it for the sake of 20 quid?

FWIW, I have no problem with Blackrose's comment as it merely states a more cautious approach.

 

Thanks for the help, and here's wishing you all an enjoyable 2017.

[Guest]

Years ago and not so long ago when vehicles tended to use a drop of oil and whilst on a journey one would stop for perhaps petrol and to top up the oil at the same time. The oil could be of any old make in an emergency and often of a different grade. Before self service stations came along, loose oil poured in from a measure by the pump attendant, pumped from an oil bin cabinet. These forecourt oil bin cabinets didn't always contain the type oil that was displayed on the cabinets or the measures. Castolite, Castrol XL and XXL, Shell X100, to name but a few, but often contained various grades of cheap re claimed engine oils often used by many dispicable greedy garage proprietors. I once worked for two and they both bunged Smiths re-claimed oils of Stratford into their oil cabinets and sold as the genuine stuff. It was delivered in 40 gal drums and stored out of sight and transferred to the forecourt cabinets out of hours. The prudent car owner often asked for genuine oil from sealed tins to put in by the pump attendant or bought themselves to put in.

Reminds me of my wife's accounts of working for hairdressers who cut fancy bottles of shampoo/hair conditioner with cheapo stuff from the wholesalers. Still smelled like the genuine stuff but a tenth of the price. They of course charged full whack to paste it on somebody's head. They used fabric conditioner sometimes.

[bizzard]

Reminds me of my wife's accounts of working for hairdressers who cut fancy bottles of shampoo/hair conditioner with cheapo stuff from the wholesalers. Still smelled like the genuine stuff but a tenth of the price. They of course charged full whack to paste it on somebody's head. They used fabric conditioner sometimes.

Yes, and dodgy publicans filling their named optic spirit bottles with cheapo stuff too,AND watering it down, to boot. But they always kept bottles of the proper good stuff in case anyone complained and would quickly without question replace the drink with the good stuff.

[RAB]

Generally topping up / mixing small amounts of "equivalent" oils in small Diesel engines, that are regularly maintained shouldnt cause issues, as per the many years of experience in previous replies have stated.

However don't believe comparable oils are all the same. So called equivalent oils vary more today than they ever have in the past and this can cause major issues in other types of machinery (e.g industrial gas turbines). One cause of this is that there use to be just a couple of sources of the base oil stock in the uk, that different manufactures use to use. Nowadays the base stock (or final product) comes from all over the world and the properties do vary slightly. Mixing oils changes the overall properties and can cause for example entrained contaminates to drop out, or increase/remove laquering, foaming, water holding capacity to change etc. It appears that Understanding modern oils is turning into a black art!

Fortunately it doesn't really seem to affect small diesels, providing were sensible with what we do.

[Guest]

Generally topping up / mixing small amounts of "equivalent" oils in small Diesel engines, that are regularly maintained shouldnt cause issues, as per the many years of experience in previous replies have stated.

However don't believe comparable oils are all the same. So called equivalent oils vary more today than they ever have in the past and this can cause major issues in other types of machinery (e.g industrial gas turbines). One cause of this is that there use to be just a couple of sources of the base oil stock in the uk, that different manufactures use to use. Nowadays the base stock (or final product) comes from all over the world and the properties do vary slightly. Mixing oils changes the overall properties and can cause for example entrained contaminates to drop out, or increase/remove laquering, foaming, water holding capacity to change etc. It appears that Understanding modern oils is turning into a black art!

Fortunately it doesn't really seem to affect small diesels, providing were sensible with what we do.

Especially with the choices of mineral/smei/synth etc. Vetus tell me I can use any of these oils in my engine, whilst diehard canal people often say NEVER use semi or synth in a canal engine. I have always stuck with mineral, though must say the choice of same is less now, and may have to consider using semi more.

[Bee]

Years ago and not so long ago when vehicles tended to use a drop of oil and whilst on a journey one would stop for perhaps petrol and to top up the oil at the same time. The oil could be of any old make in an emergency and often of a different grade. Before self service stations came along, loose oil poured in from a measure by the pump attendant, pumped from an oil bin cabinet. These forecourt oil bin cabinets didn't always contain the type oil that was displayed on the cabinets or the measures. Castolite, Castrol XL and XXL, Shell X100, to name but a few, but often contained various grades of cheap re claimed engine oils often used by many dispicable greedy garage proprietors. I once worked for two and they both bunged Smiths re-claimed oils of Stratford into their oil cabinets and sold as the genuine stuff. It was delivered in 40 gal drums and stored out of sight and transferred to the forecourt cabinets out of hours. The prudent car owner often asked for genuine oil from sealed tins to put in by the pump attendant or bought themselves to put in.

Probably what finished off the bottom end of my Hillman Minx.

[ditchcrawler]

The manufacturers will all tell you not to mix as they don't know what you will mix it with and if it goes wrong you will blame them and seek compensation. So though the risk is probably tiny, there is no benefit to them in saying so.

Like many I have topped up with a different brand, and when I change I don't flush all the old stuff out so with oil sitting in the bottom of the sump etc there is going to be a small amount of mixing. I have never had a problem doing this.

 

If it is in a plastic container I would not let it get too old in case some of the lighter fractions evaporate and the oil thickens up, but I suspect this will take a few years and will be temperature dependant.

Even if you flush then after both changes you will have a mix, First change will have some old oil and lots of flushing oil. second change will have some flushing oil, trace of old oil and new oil. How empty is your engine when you drain it?

[mross]

With modern detergent oils the advice is to not top up with more than 10% of the engine's capacity at a time, even when adding the same oil. I'm used to working with engines that contain 15 tonnes of oil. If too much detergency is added suddenly it can lead to a sudden scourging of deposits which can block filters. So to mix two grades by adding two litres of one oil to five litres of another oil is not recommended. But I have to say that larger additions were made without any consequences.

[Celestine]

API CC refers to the performance of the oil, the oil has passed a series of lab and engine tests to meet the API spec. This doesn't mean that all oils that meet this spec are the same. Each marketed (brand) oil uses additives to meet the performance level. There are 4 additive companies, this was the case a few years ago, that develop products for these oils. Each one uses different types of chemistry in order to achieve the same API performance. This can cause some compatibility problems if large quantities are mixed. I would not mix different brands of oil unless it was a last resort.

 

The same applies to mixing oils with the same API SPEC but with different viscosity grades.

 

The reason for the additive companies using different chemistry are, patents. Unfortunately the oil marketer does not put the additive manufacturers name on their products so it's not possible to compare one oil companies product with another.

I worked for one additive company for thirty years and we were always told by the oil companies, " you supply a component to our finished product", so our name, Lubrizol, never appears on the finished product.

 

Hope that helps.