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MG MGF Technical - ignorant qu: new F's use much oil?

None of my previous cars have really used any oil at all, so I just thought I ought to check that my newish F is behaving according to type.

It's a 2001Y VVC with 9000 miles, and since the 3000 mile service, it must have used about 600ml of oil. It's driving perfect-a-mundo and not dribbling oil anywhere.

That sort of oil use doesn't seem terribly scary, but it's a lot more than I'm used to (Pug 205, 306, Fiestas). Is it o.k.?

A couple of sort-of-related questions:

1. How accurate is the F dipstick? It seems, er, sort of crap, somehow.

2. When's a good time to start using less viscous oil than the recommended 10W stuff? And what to change to - 5W or Mobil 1 0W? Was it Mike Satur who said something slightly concerning a few weeks ago about his experience of engines that'd used Mobil 1?

Anyway, thanks in advance for any advice.
David Bainbridge

>>>That sort of oil use doesn't seem terribly scary<<<

Complete wrong mental approach here methinks. Aprox 7500 miles per pint of oil is to put it bluntly brilliant. Many engines only achieve about 100 to 1500 miles per pint and this is regarded as perfectly acceptable. Engines have to use oil, otjherwise they will sieze up, so the engine that don't use oil are not quite real. Having an engine that doesn't require top ups between servicing is not quite the same thing. Many will have intermediate oil changes which may mask any oil consumption. and indeed better than 7500 miles per pint rates.

The VVC engine can use oil, but this is far from even a faint glimmer of a problem at this rate, and as miles clock up there is every probability of that consumption easing back some more.

The dipstick is one where adding oil will prevent an accurate reading being taken until all the added oil has settled into the sump. It can also have spurious readings if you take several goes at reading the stick, as oil will be left in the narrow dipstick tube which masks the true reading until the oil settles again.

I have no issues with the standrd mineral oils, but if your insistent on going for a synthetic or semi synthetic route you have ieally another 3k miles to go before considering the change. However you may not see that further drop in oil consumption I mention if you do go to synthetic.

Rog
Roger Parker

Ta, that was what I thought - hence my 'not terribly scary' comment.
David Bainbridge

This thread was discussed between 21/10/2001 and 23/10/2001

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