Is diesel car engine oil and truck engine oil the same
Not always, especially if you run something with a VW PD engine in.
Your car due for a ‘cheap’ service? 
lee mat:
Is diesel car engine oil and truck engine oil the same
Some high performance diesel cars & certain manufacturers specify fully synthetic ‘fancy dan’ specific oils, but to all intents & purposes yes, we run our trucks on semi-synthetic & we use the same oil in our cars & vans, just be careful if changing from a fully to a semi-synthetic. I’ve heard some horror stories (which I struggle to understand & believe) about catastrophic engine failures following this change, but I wouldn’t hesitate to run my car on the same oil we run in our Iveco’s, Volvo’s & DAF’s. I say wouldn’t because I actually run a petrol engined car!!
Ross.
Many cars are on 5W oils and most truck oil is 10w or 15w, also careful if it has a DPF as you need a low ash oil an E9.
Its for the trucks garage puts in 15 / 40 semi synthetic on service and components place only sell it in 5 gallon drums a lil to big for sittin it in next to the mud guard only oil you see for sale in forecourts says cars and vans especially where I fuel which is mostly supermarkets
lee mat:
Its for the trucks garage puts in 15 / 40 semi synthetic on service and components place only sell it in 5 gallon drums a lil to big for sittin it in next to the mud guard only oil you see for sale in forecourts says cars and vans especially where I fuel which is mostly supermarkets
Answer, an empty 5 litre container and 5 litres out of the 5 gallons of your firms oil in it?
Regards,
Nick.
The short answer is no. Oils are quite specialist these days as are engines. Follow your manufacturers advice tight arse!
44 Tonne Ton:
The short answer is no. Oils are quite specialist these days as are engines. Follow your manufacturers advice tight arse!
There are specialist oils and like washing machine manufacturers are paid by detergent manufacturers to promote their product, so are they.
Mineral Oil
Semi Synthetic
Fully Synthetic
By my reckoning as long as the viscosity is correct for the temperature and the oil is compatible, the “free” oil is fine.
SAE 5w30
SAE 10w30
SAE 20w50
A low number indicates increased engine efficiency and protection from cold. That is shown by the first number, and denotes thinness or lower viscosity.
The second larger number denotes viscosity at engine operating temperatures, these are known as multi-grade oils.
You are certainly not going to do any harm by putting some oil from another make into your engine, any oil is better than no oil whatever the make
So the answer is yes then thanks for that where the hell do you get tight arse from asking this question
I made an assumption for comic effect that you were getting some cough cheap oil! 
Oil is the single most important thing your engine benefits from. ALWAYS use the best you can on a decent motor that is the correct spec (spec’ing up can be as bad as spec’ing down). OK, an old smoker and you can empty the chip pan in it, but the difference between one motor that has regular oil changes with a good quality oil and one that has less changes or uses cheap oil is amazing.
If you buy a new motor, after the running in oil has done it’s job, go fully synth and the engine will get better the longer you keep it.
DoYouMeanMe?:
If you buy a new motor, after the running in oil has done it’s job, go fully synth and the engine will get better the longer you keep it.
I’d love to know how that works, “get better the longer you keep it” Surely not possible?
Ross.
Oh come on Ross, you of all people should know.
Take a brand new motor, the cylinder sides may look smooth, but under a magnified cross section would look more like an ECG trace with high spots etc. The mains and big ends are nice and tight, but you are trying to pump hundreds of gallons of oil a minute through them which stalls the pump, again reducing power output. The cams and followers are tight and rubbing. After an engine has run for a while, it knocks the high spots down and makes all the surfaces rub past each other easier. Blue printing an engine is making sure all the bits fit together as well as poss, time does this anyway. An engine usually runs at it’s best just before it goes bang (in racing) and gearboxes usually take even more time to bed-in. Take Ten Kate, he used to build a qualifying engine for one lap when vermin was riding 600’s. It was sooo well worn it wouldn’t have made two fast laps. Even getting back to the pits was touch and go after a fast lap, but it worked, he got poles in WSS that would have put him near the fromt in WSB.
Back to cars etc, I used to look after the fleet of a big insurance company. One local guy had a Volvo 460,I looked after that from new apart from it’s first service. At 3 yrs, it had done 160,000 miles and I had it off them. It had run on full synth from 1500mls and when I used to take that for MOT, the exhaust gasses were the lowest the garage saw anytime of the year. At 200,000 it was something like 8-11 ppm and just too really pee the owner off, we did his Audi’s, VW’s etc All 15-20K motors and all were double or more.