Volvo Drive-E / VEA Engine Oil

[Bailes1992]

My Volvo specifies a 0w20 oil that meets RBSO-2AE. The car takes 5.2 liters of oil from empty and manufacturer OCI is 1 year or 18000miles although intend on halving this.

Does anyone have any experience in using thicker oils in the Drive-E engines?

My two concerns are the variable oil pump and the variable timing. What does the oil pump 'vary' on? Is it RPM, load or oil pressure?

I'm a bit of a Fuchs fan, the majority of their oils are really keenly priced and they like their manufacturers approvals which to me mean a lot more than "Meets or Exceeds".

My current fill Fuchs GT1 Pro V 0w20 is £9.87/litre making an oil change £51.32 plus oil filter.

I run Fuchs GT1 XTL 5w40 in the other 7 cars I look after, it's a great 'universal' PCMO. It's an ACEA C3 lube with Dexos2, LL04, 502/505.01, 229.5, 229.31, RN0710 and Porsche A40 thrown in for good measure. It also costs me just £5.13/litre making an oil change just £26.68/litre plus oil filter which is much more reasonable.

RBSO-2AE are mid-saps oil and they all seem to have a HTHS of 2.9 which is very high for a 0w20 oil.

I'm thinking of doing 2x 9000mile/6 month OCI's with the 5w40 and getting an analysis done and seeing what it looks like.

Anyone got any reasons I shouldn't give it a try?

 

[weasley]

Is it petrol or diesel?

 

[Bailes1992]

Originally Posted by weasley
Is it petrol or diesel?


It's a D3 so 2.0 single turbo diesel with 150bhp. Also, an auto, if that even makes a difference.

 

[Lolvoguy]

Lemme get this straight, you wanna go from running a rather new car that's specc'd for 0w20, to 5w40

Ya, no. That's not a good idea. Especially since it's probably still under warranty.
If you run it, you'll run the risk of voiding your warranty.

I never understood why ppl. would neglect this critical aspect of ownership (running costs).
If your not comfortable with paying the price for the Volvo specc'd oils/fluids, then you've clearly chosen the wrong vehicle.

 

[Bailes1992]

Originally Posted by Lolvoguy
Lemme get this straight, you wanna go from running a rather new car that's specc'd for 0w20, to 5w40

Ya, no. That's not a good idea. Especially since it's probably still under warranty.
If you run it, you'll run the risk of voiding your warranty.

I never understood why ppl. would neglect this critical aspect of ownership (running costs).
If your not comfortable with paying the price for the Volvo specc'd oils/fluids, then you've clearly chosen the wrong vehicle.


I'm a thick oil guy, so admittedly this is more about wanting to run a thicker oil and simplifying my oil buying than trying to save money. RBSO-2AE is pretty expensive oil however.

If it was an engine with a fixed capacity oil pump and no variable timing I would have thrown the 5w40 in without a 2nd thought.

I'm looking for factual issues that I may run into running a 5w40 in my engine with a variable oil pump and variable timing.

 

[weasley]

There's probably little chance you'll find an answer to that, so you can always be a pioneer and try it yourself. I wouldn't recommend it - running an engine designed from the outset (including the pump and other control systems) to run a 0W-20 oil on a 5W-40...? Besides, our D4 isn't even that economic on the 0W-20!

 

[Bailes1992]

Originally Posted by weasley
There's probably little chance you'll find an answer to that, so you can always be a pioneer and try it yourself. I wouldn't recommend it - running an engine designed from the outset (including the pump and other control systems) to run a 0W-20 oil on a 5W-40...? Besides, our D4 isn't even that economic on the 0W-20!


I'm averaging 56.8mpg on my 25mile commute every day. 12 miles up the M4 then 12 miles down the A4232 into Cardiff all at 60-70mph. Mines the older 6 speed auto, not the newer 8 speed too! Really impressed with it overall. My Wife had a Golf GTD estate for a few weeks while her car was having some work done at Renault and I had no issues keeping up with her until we got into silly speeds.

I have 5 litres of Castrol Edge 0w30 Dexos2 in the garage. May try that as a half-way trial, if it flags any codes, errors or doesn't run or sound right I can swap it out for the correct oil.