Volvo 850 2.0 T5 oil recommendation

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Hello everyone,
I got Volvo 850 2.0 turbo (155kw) italian T5, and I am planning to change the oil, it has ~450k km on odometer, and as far as I know previous owner used 10W40 semi synthetic oil for quite some time. I read on several forums that it would be better to use fully synthetic oil in turbo engine, so I would like to switch to synthetic, and want to know if it's worth for such pretty high mileage car. It doesn't seem to leak oil now, maybe just a little from oil cooler lines, which I am planning to replace. I replaced all 4 camshaft seals a month ago, when I was replacing timing belt, and turbo drain tube seal, those were leaking. So the only old seals remaining in this engine is RMS one and front crankshaft seal. I live in Lithuania, temperature at summer rises up to around 30 C sometimes and drops to -25 C or little more at winter. So I guess 5w40 oil would be a good choice if I can switch to synthetic, or I should stay with 10W40 oil? What about Total quartz energy 5w40 or Total quartz 5w40 or shell helix ultra 5w40? Castrol gtx 10w40?
 
Mobil 1 FS 0W-40
Shell Helix Ultra 0W-40/5W-40

Can't go wrong with either. Shell Helix Ultra ECT 0W-30 is a rather nice oil for cold climates, MRV @ -40 only 18900cP and 204VI.
 
Check the crankcase pressure.
Either affix a balloon tightly over the dipstick tube or a rubber glove tightly over the oil filler neck.
Either way, you do not want to see the balloon or glove expand.

If your balloon or glove expands, you have to service the PCV system. It sounds like the car was serviced well but at your mileage anything is possible.
 
Shell helix ultra...it is GTL based in comparison with your other choices...

It must have "pure plus" written on a sticker to be GTL...othervise it is just an old grp. III stock!
shell-pure-plus.png
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the replies everyone. I will try to check the crankcase preasure, just want to be sure - I got to test it after I start the car, when the engine is still cold or wait (drive) a little bit till it warms up and then test it? I should test it on idle or the glove/balloon shouldn't expand even when I push the throttle pedal? And it seems that previous owner serviced the pcv system before me, just don't know how well he did it, did he clean all the tubes and holes in the engine block or not. I already did pcv job twice on another volvo, it's my second Volvo 850, just this time it's turbo, and this one is in better shape than previous one.
 
Any quality full or semi syn oil a little on the thicker side will work fine for reasonable intervals. The 10/40 has done well for all those years, Id stick with something similar.
 
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