I’m sure this will get ignored by most, but I’ll throw it out there anyway. I ran my last oil change 9,300 miles/15,000km. It was on the factory recommended Castrol Edge Professional 5w30 ACEA C1 with a Mahle oil filter. The oil change was part of changing the timing belt and oil pump. During this last change I replaced the oil cooler and am now running Ravenol FLJ 5w30 ACEA C1 with a Mahle filter. When I drained the Castrol oil I pulled a sample and sent it off to Blackstone Labs back in the US. I got the report a few weeks later and I had opted for the TBN test as well. Glad I did, the additives package was nearly spent. This brings to question how can JLR say you can go 16,000 miles on their recommended oil between oil changes? Why is the ROW oil change interval half that and coincides better with when the additives package will still have some life? Very curious. Next oil change will be at the ROW interval of 8,000 miles/13,000km and will be getting oil analysis on the Ravenol to see how it held up. At that point I’ll switch to LiquiMoly Top Tec 4500 5w30 ACEA C1 and get it tested. Then I’ll decide between the three based on the results. That is unless somebody has another oil I should try.

 2011 RRS HSE Luxury 3.0 TDV6 Fuji White on Ebony/Ivory
Born and raised in So Cal. Moved to the UK in 2018 for a few years. Now in Poland and looking at moving back to the UK.

Don't you need to know the TAN too in order to determine whether the oil is capable of dealing with the acid levels?

Europe has higher service intervals because Europe has much lower sulphur levels in fuel than many other parts of the world - sulphur is the main source of acid in the oil. If you design an engine for a 15,000mile service interval with 15ppm sulphur fuel, you need to reduce the service intervals where fuels have 100 or 1000 times that amount of sulphur.

I get my RRS serviced as per the book's schedule. My RRS was serviced today with c148k miles on it. No idea whether it'll do another 148k miles or even 14k miles. No way of knowing without opening it up and having a look at the internals. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

I have always worked on the basis a Gallon of Oil and a Filter are cheaper than a New Engine.

Cheers
Col

True enough, they are.

Last RRS was sold with 175k miles on it and is still going with c200k miles on it. Was serviced (in my care) at book intervals. Current one has 148k miles on it and is serviced at book intervals (time or mileage, whichever is first so could be sooner or 12 months with fewer miles as appropriate). 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

RRSTDV8 wrote:

No idea whether it'll do another 148k miles or even 14k miles. No way of knowing without opening it up and having a look at the internals.

Col wrote:

I have always worked on the basis a Gallon of Oil and a Filter are cheaper than a New Engine.

Yep, that's why I do oil changes every 6 months/10,000km on my Puma, since our sulphur content is 50ppm in ZA.

RRS is petrol, so gets it annually.

I barely do 5,000km in either, but an oil change is cheaper than an engine, as you say  --
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RRSTDV8 wrote:

Don't you need to know the TAN too in order to determine whether the oil is capable of dealing with the acid levels?

Having watched LR time I am now running 10w40 Always listen to old people or when they die you will live on in ignorance.
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NoExpert wrote:

RRSTDV8 wrote:

Don't you need to know the TAN too in order to determine whether the oil is capable of dealing with the acid levels?

TBN is the number you want for engine oil, it tells you the oil’s capability of dealing with acid and keeping the engine clean. TAN tells you the acid level in the oil. When the TBN gets too low corrosion and build up can occur.

Quote:

Total acid number, or TAN, is a measure of the concentration of acidic constituents in an oil. In used engine oil, an increase in TAN can be an indication of oxidation and an increase in the level of degradation of the oil. Along with oxidation comes an increase in viscosity. So, while TBN indicates how much base reserve remains in the oil, TAN can provide a more complete picture of the actual operating conditions within your engine.

An additional note about TAN: the test method has very good test repeatability but compared to other test methods it has a poorer reproducibility. What does this mean? Best practice is to have tests run at the same lab; results from tests run across different labs may be harder to interpret.

Oxidation is a permanent chemical change that takes place in oil molecules as they react with oxygen in the presence of heat and can be exacerbated when contaminants such as metals are present. It’s important because it can lead to a host of problems within the engine oil including sludge and deposit formation, increased viscosity (which causes in a significant reduction in fuel efficiency) and depletion of additives. All these result in an acceleration in the degradation of the engine oil and a subsequent need to change the oil more frequently.

The lower TBN values we are seeing in the field today are not a reflection of overall health of the oil. Rather they are a result in the change in engine oil formulating strategy, combined with longer drain intervals being set by OEMs – without TBN as a sole condemning criterion.

Much like the battery of blood tests you get when visiting the doctor, no one parameter alone can provide a complete picture of health. Likewise, a more comprehensive mix of indicators is needed to determine oil health and performance, including TAN, wear metals, oxidation and viscosity.

https://www.chevronlubricants.com/en_us/ho...s-tan.html

Elsewhere on that page they also talk about the test done to check TBN and that it can give low answers depending on which test is carried out.

Of course, changing oil early won't do any harm so it's owner's choice.  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

I was fighting the urge to go to 5w40 in mine. The problem I have is mine has a DPF and 5w40 oils are pretty much all ACEA C3 (higher SAPS as well as HTHS). If I didn’t have a DPF I probably wouldn’t worry about it, but for now I’m sticking with 5w30 ACEA C1 oils. 2011 RRS HSE Luxury 3.0 TDV6 Fuji White on Ebony/Ivory
Born and raised in So Cal. Moved to the UK in 2018 for a few years. Now in Poland and looking at moving back to the UK.

You could always chance your arm and use Castrol Vecton 10w40 Long Drain Oil that's supposed to last up to 120,000kms. in Merc, Daf, Volvo, Trucks etc.

Cheers
Col

What about adding two-stroke oil? That was a big thing for a while. https://www.rrsport.co.uk/forum/topic19868...=twostroke

 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Eh up all,

I’m an advocate of annual oil And filter changes, my E90 has 176000 miles on it and runs sweet but do it every 10,000 miles or 12 months.

In terms of my SDV6 what’s the words of wisdom re oil choice and intervals - 10k and 12 month minimum.

I’ll aim to do it every 12 months as I am to be doing circa 6000 miles per annum

I agree oil and filter cheaper than engine, regardless of the ridiculous price they are wanting now for oil !!

Cheers all

It's horses for courses. My SDV6 gets serviced annually or on miles whichever comes first. Serviced yesterday at 148k miles (and passed the MOT with a totally clean sheet, yippee!). It's in to its second service record book now.

I would ask those that oil change the engine every 6k whether they also change the gearbox oil at shorter intervals? What about transfer box and diffs?

The gearbox is 150k by LR, half that by ZF themselves. I go by ZF's recommendations so mine has had a couple of fluid changes (I had to have the gearbox recon'd in my TDV8 at less than 120k). Transfer box and diffs I get done as recommended in the service sheet as I haven't seen anything contrary to that. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Eh up

RRSTDV8 - thanks for that will be doing a gearbox oil change early next year, diffs and transfer will look at also, mines got 100k on the clock.


Cheers