Going to take advantage of halfrauds Easter offer and buy some oil for my car. Tempted by the Magnatec stuff as its basically half the price of castrol edge? But is it a no go?
Castrol Magnatec...yay or nay?
- Thread starter ayacoub92
- Start date
30% off all oils until tuesday. Decided not to be a cheapskate and bought castrol edge 5w30. Usually it's £46.99, but it's down to £32.99 right now!
Magnatec is good for engines from the 80's and maybe early 90's - but times and engines have moved on!
this is something that had been brought up before, tbh I dont really think there is a right and wrong answer to this. I think the conclusion was, yes, the cars will probably run fine on this oil, however it says it wants edge and its weather or not its really worth saving £10 or £20 over for a lower quality product. My personal choice is edge, because thats what it says it wants.
yeah thats what i went with in the end. a few of my friends run their vauxhalls on magnatec so that's why i was tempted. if anything goes wrong with my car though, i don't want it being sent away for seat to then come back and say that i've been using a non-recommended oil. would just give them ammunition to void your warranty.
Strange that, it was a VX CAV GSI 4X4 that is the only car I ever used Magnetec on - maybe the reason for this is that VX suggest an oil of the "default" magnetic "weight" that many places sell. Castrol is a quality oil supplier and it used to be claimed that they only used virgin "oil" oil while others just used virgin and recycled "base" oils. Now with the fully synthetic oils being used, it does not matter where the "stuff" comes from as it is the end product that is what goes into the engine - the clue is in the name "fully synthetic", this is not cleaned up mineral oil, its a manufactured fluid that is suitable for lubricating and cooling moving machinary parts, though it is noramally refered to as "oil".
From what I read Castrol Magnetec C3 5W/30 and C3 5w/40 meet VAG spec. 502.00 but not 504.00. That makes them suitable for petrol engines on fixed interval servicing but not for those on longlife/variable interval servicing.
If you use an oil that meets the appropriate VAG spec. then there is no way you could held responsible if anything goes wrong with the engine.
If you use an oil that meets the appropriate VAG spec. then there is no way you could held responsible if anything goes wrong with the engine.
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The only problem with that way of thinking is, and this is not from experience, but "forum inferred knowledge", is that while it is not illegal to claim "meets or exceeds BLAH BLAH", there is never any referance of actual certification via a test house etc as to if this statement is true and proved to be true, or just a "design intention" by the company that decants what they have bought in - into the final packaging. If you are buying a "proper" brand then we are hoping that they have done this, I would not like VAG to go and issue a statement to the opposite when you request some warranty support. Maybe better for them to provide a list of locally available oil that they confirm meets their "exacting" criteria - as VAG just don't make oils, they sell products that require oils.
Fully Synthetic ester based oils are the best, there is far too much science that goes into oils to give a proper asnwer, id advise reading up on shear rates and so forth though as its useful to know. Plus the whole magnetec ploy is crap anyway, the content that it claims sticks to engine parts is so minimal in content you would never notice it.
My advice is allways buy the best you can thats in your budget, i would never be skimping on engine oil.
This is just based on research and findings so obviously its not gospel but thats what i think anyway.
My advice is allways buy the best you can thats in your budget, i would never be skimping on engine oil.
This is just based on research and findings so obviously its not gospel but thats what i think anyway.
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