Wow when did engine oil get so expensive

Mr Bump

Mr Bump

From under the bridge
Messages
9,624
Name
Paul
Edit My Images
Yes
just had an MOT and quick oil change for the C3 snail and wow

I looked it up .

oi.jpg
 
When it basically became common to use fully synthetic blends, with plenty of additives in. Mostly to meet the specifications for economy and emissions.
 
robj20 said:
When it basically became common to use fully synthetic blends, with plenty of additives in. Mostly to meet the specifications for economy and emissions.
Click to expand...
This,
The days of slapping any old brown greasy stuff in there are long gone. How much was that stuff?
 
Before I stopped working (2 years) the garage I worked in did oil and filter changes for £30, quality low ash oil (Total) and aftermarket filter, often only a small profit but it got people in through the door, some places take the mickey when charging £15 a litre when they bulk buy, 5litre cans can be expensive depending where you get it from.
 
AJQS said:
This,
The days of slapping any old brown greasy stuff in there are long gone. How much was that stuff?
Click to expand...

basic service and MOT with oil change and new filter, check and adjust rear brakes, pollen filter, air filter and they filled my squirtees was £139
according to google the oil is £65 for 5 litres to me (dont know trade)
 
I get mine from Eurocarparts. Castrol GTX stop start and a filter about £35 now. The one that boils my wee is buying a single litre bottle and in some cases being charged £16. Oil mostly comes in 4ltr packs now but my Focus 1.8 takes 5ltr, it does y nut.
I got some Castrol GTX from Asda a few years ago that they where selling cheap. 4lr jugs for £15. I bought 10 jugs and I'm now down to 1 left :(
 
Mr Bump said:
basic service and MOT with oil change and new filter, check and adjust rear brakes, pollen filter, air filter and they filled my squirtees was £139
according to google the oil is £65 for 5 litres to me (dont know trade)
Click to expand...

I'd say that's a pretty good price all in, but that oil at £65 is a joke. Same grade available for £28 (retail) elsewhere. To be honest, trade prices aren't what they used to be - you can get pretty close (or even better than!) from plenty of online retailers these days, Autodoc for example - although you can expect a long wait for delivery (and probably now a VAT bill too as it comes from Germany).
 
I can't remember exactly but sure that when working my last bulk oil order was sub £1.50 per litre when I ordered in 1000l delivery, not any good to anyone here but shows what mark up is out there.
 
mj4456 said:
I can't remember exactly but sure that when working my last bulk oil order was sub £1.50 per litre when I ordered in 1000l delivery, not any good to anyone here but shows what mark up is out there.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised. In most cases it's just a cheap mix of hydrocarbons or esters (a waste from another process?) with trace amount of organometallic complexes thrown in. Once you eventually graduate to fully synthetic formula of a single high purity lubricant like silicone or perfluoro derivatives you can expect to pay orders of magnitude more. Look up specialist Dupont lubricants to give you some idea. Friction can be much lower and longevity better but it looks like it's not economic proposition.
Electric engines don't need this stuff, and the bits that do likely won't need the change during the life of the car so perhaps you won't need to pay these prices as service items
 
I remember the days I used to change my own oil and filter. I used to be able to do it all in for under a tenner. Yes, this was going back a few years. :)
 
jonbeeza said:
I remember the days I used to change my own oil and filter. I used to be able to do it all in for under a tenner. Yes, this was going back a few years. :)
Click to expand...

Yep gone are the days, spark plugs in the oven and WD 40 on the plug leads on a wet morning and on your back under the car with a grease gun every week, and the blessings of gun gum , radweld, and plastic putty -happy days ( not)
 
A tenner covered plugs, points, oil and filter!
 
I still change my own oils and filters on my 3 cars and the van.
costs maybe £40-60 for the bits and the oil, but still a darn site cheaper than paying a mechanic for it.
My cars arent all that new though and don’t require fancy oil. Just bog standard 5w-30 that I buy in 25l drums.
 
troutfisher said:
Yep gone are the days, spark plugs in the oven and WD 40 on the plug leads on a wet morning and on your back under the car with a grease gun every week, and the blessings of gun gum , radweld, and plastic putty -happy days ( not)
Click to expand...

The days when most of us fellas worked on our cars at the weekend. Possibly sometime in the 70s, I got a quote for a timing chain repair on my avenger of £60. I did it myself one afternoon, chain tensioner cost about three pound odd. Ahh, the good old days.
 
It's when your spanners and allen keys become redundant because they dont fit the nuts and bolts any more that annoys me. Drain bolts with funny star shaped and knurled edges? What's that all about? (Some funny shaped internally too! Polydrive??). Try getting those off after 10 years of rust and salt. My Irwin rounded bolt removers will really come in handy then!
Here you go:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives#Polydrive
 
Last edited:
Was charged £5 per half litre for engine oil during a service once about 20 years ago. Needless to say I took my custom elsewhere after that.
 
A couple years ago I bought a Litre of oil for £15 but when it arrived I just put it away, not paid anything attention and later I noticed “this is a bit big?”, I got 5L for the price of 1.
 
I had a pal who used to put his used oil through a series of micro filters and re-use it! You would be amazed how clean it looked after the treatment. I never had the bottle to do it but he said that he had seen it done on a commercial basis and just copied the principle!

I've seen something like these used on commercials with excellent reults.
 
Last edited:
Pixbarmy said:
I had a pal who used to put his used oil through a series of micro filters and re-use it! You would be amazed how clean it looked after the treatment. I never had the bottle to do it but he said that he had seen it done on a commercial basis and just copied the principle!

I've seen something like these used on commercials with excellent reults.
Click to expand...

I think you would still have an issue of diesel contamination for diesel engines. You'd have to distill and and I doubt it is worth going so far. Last 5L of VW / Quantum 507.00 cost me £20 + £5 for filter. It's not such a big expense to risk your engine.
 
i don't know why you would want to "cheap out" on oil. it's basically the life blood of your engine!
had a GT3 customer in a few weeks back for first MOT. car had never been serviced, never had an oil change & didn't want one!
Yes it was quite low minleage but its crazy really as a GT3 engine is over £60K just for the part.
Plus £195+vat an hour to get it in there. It would be an xpensive lesson if the guy had to learn the hard way....
 
I've just had my old Mitsubishi off-roader serviced, and the engine oil alone was £60 with another £47 for other consumables and £80 for labour. It's what it is, servicing is essential and is a tiny part of the overall cost of keeping a car on the road.
 
I currently have 15 vehicles.... & an understanding wife..
13 motorcycles & 2 cars

Needless to say, I service them.
 
Diving Pete said:
I currently have 15 vehicles.... & an understanding wife..
13 motorcycles & 2 cars

Needless to say, I service them.
Click to expand...
13 bikes - I wish I had just one . . .
I had a go on a Kawasaki 600 (I think) a few weeks ago, and it was great, even though the gearchange is on the wrong side:) That was the first time I'd been on a bike for over 40 years and I was surprised at its performance and the fact that I still had some grasp of the basics, until that point I'd assumed that although my licence says that I can ride anything, I really can't.

But, I'm too old, have nowhere to keep one and don't need one.
 
But do you WANT one? ;)

I reckon you'd probably like one of the 650 Royal Enfields. Not hugely fast but handle well (for the type) and look like "proper" motorbikes.
 
Nod said:
But do you WANT one? ;)

I reckon you'd probably like one of the 650 Royal Enfields. Not hugely fast but handle well (for the type) and look like "proper" motorbikes.
Click to expand...
Yes, a 650 RE would probably suit me down to the ground. My best ever bike was a Norton 650 and my worst ever (by a long way) was the 1000 cc Aerial square four, which dates me:)
But I repeat, I'm too old to fall off a bike, and have nowhere to keep it safe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nod
Garry Edwards said:
Yes, a 650 RE would probably suit me down to the ground. My best ever bike was a Norton 650 and my worst ever (by a long way) was the 1000 cc Aerial square four, which dates me:)
But I repeat, I'm too old to fall off a bike, and have nowhere to keep it safe.
Click to expand...

Thought you lived on a farm - always somewhere to put a bike - lol
Honestly, 99% of people will never 'need' more than about 60hp on a bike...
Thats enough to get to 60 in about 4secs & the wrong side of 100

Everyone is too old to fall off...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nod
I live in a flat in a village with no private parking. I spend quite a lot of time on the farm but don't actually live there, and when I am there I'm busy and don't have the time or energy, it's a good arrangement but not for this.
 
Lots of cheap deals on oil at the moment as suppliers are chockablock with stock (I'm a poet and I don't know it!).
 
I don't use engine oil in my vehicle
 
Pixbarmy said:
I had a pal who used to put his used oil through a series of micro filters and re-use it! You would be amazed how clean it looked after the treatment. I never had the bottle to do it but he said that he had seen it done on a commercial basis and just copied the principle!

I've seen something like these used on commercials with excellent reults.
Click to expand...

Large users of diesel engines such as the Railway system very rarely change the oil. After so many hours of running a sample of the oil is sent to their laboratory (It used to be in Derby) The oil is subject a detailed analysis where they find out if there are any 'nasties' floating about such as bearing metal and if they do that is notified to the company and they take action to rectify any wear. When you think that a large diesel engined Locomotive can take anything between 50 and 75 gallons of oil for a full change you can see the savings by not having oil changes at set intervals
 
Diving Pete said:
Thought you lived on a farm - always somewhere to put a bike - lol
Honestly, 99% of people will never 'need' more than about 60hp on a bike...
Thats enough to get to 60 in about 4secs & the wrong side of 100

Everyone is too old to fall off...
Click to expand...

I agree with you on the power output of bikes. You can get a quite decent car for the price of a new BMW tourer with 120BHP (£15k upwards) I like BM's and have 2 1986 k75 water cooled triples (75bhp each) and at different times they have taken me all over Europe without a problem (except getting knocked off by a myopic Dutch driver in Italy) The high passes in the alps are an absolute breeze for these bikes and the Continentals take a much more relaxed viewpoint to motorcyclists.

I can ride the Autobahns at a steady 65mph and still get a little over 60mpg. Who actually needs to go faster except the great braindead who are mostly in the sky.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
darkroom12 said:
I can ride the Autobahns at a steady 65mph and still get a little over 60mpg. Who actually needs to go faster except the great braindead who are mostly in the sky.
Click to expand...

I have done a few trips around europe & only on sports bikes... A Gpx600r in 88, Fireblade in 99, CBR600rr7 in 2009.. Now also have a VFR800 with all the panniers & went to IOM in 2016. I met a guy on my first trip who toured europe on a RG500 @!@!@!@!. After that I have never worried what bike you are on, just that you are on one...
 
darkroom12 said:
Large users of diesel engines such as the Railway system very rarely change the oil. After so many hours of running a sample of the oil is sent to their laboratory (It used to be in Derby) The oil is subject a detailed analysis where they find out if there are any 'nasties' floating about such as bearing metal and if they do that is notified to the company and they take action to rectify any wear. When you think that a large diesel engined Locomotive can take anything between 50 and 75 gallons of oil for a full change you can see the savings by not having oil changes at set intervals
Click to expand...
I worked in the mining industry and all plant was debris tested in the later years, not only cost savings but machine downtime was greatly reduced, as well as manshift savings.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top