itsubishi Colt Ralliart oil recommendation

[Popsy]

So, after a «cleaning» period with various oils, time has come to some more serious recommendations.
Car is a Colt with 4G15 turbo motor, 150hp. Sump is ridiculously small with a hair more than 3L, car has almost 135000Km, was a bit abused with repeted very long 20000Km OCI, always maintained by the stealership until its 120000Km when I bought it. Oil previously used was Esso Ultron 5W40, and once Motul (don't know which one supposedly 5W40).

Ultron left some varnish (long OCI didn't help), and cold start performance were not good at all. Short OCI helped to clean it a bit but there's still some varnish left.

Car does mostly short city trips but also regular long highway trips (hence its mileage vs age). I can choose between these:

- Motul 300V in all sorts, decent price here
- Motul X-cess in xx40. Don't like this oil much
- Shell helix ultra xx40. 0W40 is decently priced, 5W40 is old formula but still ran smooth
- Mobil 0W40. Sheared fast and quickly made too much noise for my tastes.
- Shell Rimula (lol)
- Castrol in various crazy expensive sorts
- Total, various sorts, some cheap
- various exotic Igol and Yacco products (lol)
- Petronas Syntium 3000 5W40 (actually I only have a jug left and won't have further access to it) which is currently in use. Nothing special about it, run ok.
- various Kendall products if I can get past the grumpy salesman and get the right sort

Manuals calls 0W30-15W50 oil, depending on temp (actually temps here could accomodate all these oils sorts), MB 229.1.
Cold start performance is important, starter motor seem underpowered. Car is not often/never redlined since there's not much above 5000rpm (remind me of long stoke old English motors). Not interested in long OCI, OCI will be done like every 7-8 months. Purflux or Mann oil filter, probably Mann since Purflux tend to stick with heat.

So, what would be your choice? Any suggestions/thoughts?
I'm not sure the Shell 0W40 HTHS is high enough, and Motul 300V may not be detergent enough. Still hesitating...

 

[zeng]

4G15 engines call for SG , and it's easy on oils.

My 1994 4G15 had been using conventional CI-4 A3B4 HDEO at 7000-8000 km

OCI without issues.

Shell 0W40 should do the job fine.

But I would seriously consider Total Ineo/9000/7000 xW40 A3B4/C3 in

your circumstances.

Edit: Winter is coming, why not consider high HTHSv xW30 ?

 

[chrisri]

SHU, but 5w40, not the 0w40 version. Or Valvoline Synpower 5w40. Both meet MB229.5 , and Shell is Ferrari approved. If it's good for a Ferrari...

In all honesty if manufacturer required only 229.1 than any 229.5 will be great.

 

[Jetronic]

Any A3/B4 rated oil would be fine, and if they have the daimler MB229.5 rating it's even better.

Start with the daimler approved oils list for 229.5 and look for what you can get for a good price.

You could use the same oil for the marea and alfa aswell. So consider 20 liter drums if the prices are better

 

[Popsy]

Thank you for the answers.

It looks like the simplest answer is often the best

- I can't get Valvoline products
- Total quartz ineo are low/mid saps (not checked all the sorts). Quartz 9000 is 229.3 only
- Motul X-cess looks like an average oil...
- I don't think the Rimula will do well ?

I've been through many datasheets, wondering to what extend they are reliable. Mobil 1 value regarding HTHS and pour point seem unbelievable, like some Motul claims^^

Shell HU 5W40 looks like the best compromise, as often. Strange thing, they claim a quite low HTHS at 3,68. Nevermind, I'll get my "rimula dealer" order me some "Pure plus" formula.
When my stash will be low from all the "exotics" I bought on sale or were given, I think I'm going to use SHU in all my cars

Edit: no problem with the very small sump? Previous Mitsubishi with this motor had bigger sumps I think?

 

[Jetronic]

We have one as a courtesy car, but I'm sure it has a bigger sump. close to 5 litres IIRC, maybe even over. We're using Castrol Magnatec OE 5w40, which is a low SAPS oil (mid-saps to some). ACEA C3 anyway. I'm not a huge fan of this oil especially in petrol applications. 10.000km is the longest I'd keep it in, or you're likely to get sludge and varnish on the dipstick. Diesels don't suffer from this and could go maybe 15,000.

So, with the smaller sump in yours I'd half the interval again. 5000 km with a low saps oil, 10,000 with a full saps and go from there. Check for deposits on the dipstick, in the filler hole etc... and for noises indicating shear or fuel dilution.

The reason it's our courtesy car is that we had it in stock but it never sold so we had to register it when the euro emmisions changed.

We all figured the car would be totaled within months, but surprisingly it hasn't had any accidents...

 

[zeng]

Yep the smaller sump shall affect interval reduction .

Jet, I'm afraid low SAPs C3 oil can offer similar interval as full SAPs A3B4 right?

 

[Thebimmerfan]

Hi, I think all the choices yo named will do great for this application, I think you can't be mistaken with some Motul 300V Power 5W-40 (especially if sporty driven), also Motul X-cess 5W-40 would be correct. Having in mind winter is coming Mobil 1 0W-40 would be great also.
I see you've mentioned Yacco oils - I use Yacco products in my track dedicated BMW for everything - engine, LSD, gearbox, brake fluid, power steering with great results, I think it's a top-end brand which unfortunately is not very famous. It seems freanch brands are quite good - I have excellent results using Motul 300V also, but Motul is quite a renown brand, while Yacco is not very common out of France (where I live a few people know it), can you share some information about the popularity this brand has in France, is it considered a "boutique" oil as it's considered here?
Regards and excuse me for my English.

 

[Popsy]

As far as I can tell, Yacco is a "two face" oil here.

You have the cheap/ordinary Yacco products, used often in bulk by small/cheap garages, small garages with just a few employees. You can see the Yacco sign and sometimes big Yacco jugs. I noticed some big dealerships turned from Total to Yacco recently (one Peugeot and two big Citroën dealership I know, not the same owner). I hope they use adapted products, but I'm afraid C2/C3 oils are used in all vehicule they maintain...

And then you have the Yacco "sports fluids", boutique fluids, only found online and in sport oriented garages. Quite expensive.

@Jetronic: the two Mitsubishi/Porsche delership that I know also use Colt for courtesy car, probably the same reasons as yours!

I'm still hesitating with M1 0W40, especially since I just bought 10L very cheap (dated 2010), but I think it will shear too quickly. Also winters are not too cold here (we barely see -5°C)...I'll probably stay with SHU anyway

 

[chrisri]

Popsy, you shouldn't hesitate with using M1 0w40. It's a great oil, only downfall is the price in EU. For European climate there's no need for 0w cold performance, except in Scandinavia.

Personally I would use this 2010 stash without any doubt in performance. I wouldn't buy M1 with normal prices in Europe, but in your case absolutely.

 

[Thebimmerfan]

Here It's very difficult to find Yacco oils in bulks, I have seen it mainly in jugs and it's used mostly by people involved in racing. The Yacco engine oils I have used were VX600 5W-40 which wasn't bad and later I've done some oil changes with Yacco Galaxie 15W-50 and Galaxie 10W-60 (both group 5 ester-based oils) with very positive results, quite stout oils with supreme cold start performance also - Galaxie 15W-50 has a pour point of -46 degrees Celsius!
Nevertheless I think you have nothing to worry about using Mobil 1 0W-40 in european winter conditions, I have used it in much warmer climate (Spain) with no problems, it never sheared in excess for me. Regards.

 

[Popsy]

VX600 5W40 is available at around 17€/2L, and sure the Galaxie competition looks nice, but it is almost the same price as 300V (around 10€/L, which is the price of 300V and M1 0W40).

I'll use my M1 stash, then I'll see. I've done so many OC for friends recently that my stash is at the lowest!