Oil change top up with wrong oil

RED PASSION

The oil was low in my car today so I went to my local motor factor, I asked for 1 litre of 5W 30 engine oil for my Opel parked right outside the window. He gave me a bottle of Valvoline and said this is ok.

I came home topped up the oil approx. 200ml, then later today I read in the service book that engine oil with ACEA A5/B5 rating is expressly forbidden for use in my car.

I read the bottle and it is ACEA A5/B5. Is the car okay to drive, should I ring Opel before driving the car or drain all the oil out and put in new oil correct rating.

Atlantic Dawn

Is the car under warranty? Personally if it was my car and out of warranty and the oil was due to be changed within the next 6 months I would leave it be.

Nino Brown

Personally I'd change the oil, E50, for peace of mind, and 20mins work. But it will probably be grand.

RED PASSION

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Is the car under warranty? Personally if it was my car and out of warranty and the oil was due to be changed within the next 6 months I would leave it be.

Yes the car is out of warranty, thought it was strange to be advised wrongly by motor factors, I did not know what oil to use other than 5w-30 so I asked them.

It is my first time hearing about ACEA, service book says it could cause long term engine damage under certain operating conditions.

porsche boy

it will be fine. drive on

Special Circumstances

RED PASSION wrote: »

thought it was strange to be advised wrongly by motor factors

yeah hahaha....

tbh if you don't have a boggo vw/toyota/ford tis a bit of lucky dip in my experience.

RED PASSION

Will know better in future

creedp

RED PASSION wrote: »

Yes the car is out of warranty, thought it was strange to be advised wrongly by motor factors, I did not know what oil to use other than 5w-30 so I asked them.

It is my first time hearing about ACEA, service book says it could cause long term engine damage under certain operating conditions.

Recently went to buy oil for a 2l tdci and Motor Factor insisted that oil specced for a 1.8tdci Ford is fine as that's what everyone uses (also that's what he had in stock). Maybe it wouldn't do any real harm but decided to buy correct spec from Ford dealer instead

walus

What type of engine are we talking about?

RED PASSION

walus wrote: »

What type of engine are we talking about?

2.0 turbo petrol.

I put in the correct viscosity 5W-30 but the wrong grade. Apparently ACEA A1/B1 & A5/B5 are forbidden in this engine.

walus

I would not worry about the fact that you added 200 ml of a different ACEA grade oil. The main difference between A3 (I suspect this is what is recommended for the engine in question) to A5 (A1 is an old grade effectively superseded by A5) is the HTHS (high temperature high shear viscosity). In A5 it is between 2.9 and 3.5 whereas for A3 it is > 3.5. Higher HTHS oil is more stable against shear and that is why it is recommended for high performance turbo petrol engines. The amount of oil that you have added is so small comparing to the full sump capacity that it virtually has no effect on the overall HTHS of the oil that you have currently in the engine. Therefore will have no negative effect. Drive on and do not worry. There is no need for changing the oil ahead of schedule.