Seat Cupra oil type mismatch

[matthab]

Hi all,

When I bought my Cupra it wasn't using that much oil. When it finally got to about 1/4 of the way down I filled it with 5w-30 as per the book. Since then it's started using more and more. I.e 250 mile trip down to Kent it used 1/4 of a dipstick. This finished my can up.

So I rang my dealer and I asked what was in it before I got it. They said it was 10w-40. So I asked what should I be putting in my car and he said 10w-40 is fine.

I'm now not so sure this is correct. What should be going in my car?

Seeing as the car now has 2 types floating around am I in my rights to ask my dealer to empty the car and put the correct oil in?

Matt

 

[adamb87]

i use 10/40 in mine which was what my dealer told me and dont have any oil issues. hardly uses anything.

 

[wegi]

I'm the exact same, I was keeping an eye on oil levels since buying the car and everything was good. It dropped a tiny bit so I sloshed a bit of 5w30 in and ever since it's been guzzling through the oil. After topping it up after about 1500 miles it was almost bone dry.

 

[NathB]

Bit of a slim chance that the 5w is a bit too viscous? Might be slow but steadily causing a leak from a seal if you've not checked might be worth a look up top and under

 

[Rob-Cupra]

Why are the dealers recomending a different type of oil to what is in the book ?? I'm very confused , I put 5w 30 in mine and havnt noticed any real oil consumtion but I haven't had it to long. What do the numb
ers mean in oil types anyway ?

 

[NathB]

The numbers are the classification or grade of oil, known as the SAE is how viscous: how thick or thin the oil is. The higher the SAE, the thicker the oil is at a certain temperature. But most cars now run on multi grade oil that is rated how it acts when hot and cold. Eg: 10w/40 is rated 10 when cold, and the "w" stands for winter so when it's cold it will still be runny and as it heats (the 40 part) up it gets a but thicker to resist the heat change in the engine turning it into water. That's how I understand it?

 

[matthab]

So now I've gathered 10w-40 is fine. What do I do with the 1ltr of 5w-30 currently in the car.

Do I keep topping it up with 10w-40 till it hopefully stops drinking oil?

 

[NathB]

I'm not too sure on this on, basically you've got one litre of oil in there that's thinner which can cause engine wear but you've most likely got about 4 litres or so of the right stuff in there. How much difference 1 litre will make I'm not sure. Its up to you, do you know if the car is leaking at all it could be something as easy as a sump plug leaking.

 

[matthab]

Well according to seat I've put the right stuff in but the dealers have put different. Even according to my cars service papers its had 5w-40 in too at some point.

The car isn't leaking it as there's no drip marks on my drive or work car parking spot.

Abit of googling says I should be fine mixing. It just makes it a funny number, so off the top of me head 7w-37. I'll top up from now on with 10w-40.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dale-T]

I use that

No Problems

 

[wegi]

I always thought oil was oil. As long as it lubricates moving parts it's doing it's job. I really don't see how putting different temp. grades would affect consumption...

 

[adamb87]

i used to put 0/30 in my civic type r and that was really thin. oh and used it faster in the old vtec play times

 

[matthab]

Ok my head really hurts.

Just looking on the net for oil. Which 10w-40 do I need to buy? Castrol magnatec is the only one they do and that's part synthetic?

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[Rob-Cupra]

If the book says 5w 30 than that's what you should put in . The manufacturers are the ones who know what oil worked best for the engine although 10w 40 won't do any harm at all. The number before the W is how thin the oil is when the engine is cold , the thinner the better at this point so the 5w is better here. And the number after the W is how thick the oil is a higher temps, so basically the perfect oil is one that is thin at low temps and stays thicker at high temps e.g 0w40 BUT there is a downside the bigger the difference between the first and second number the faster the oil tends to go bad ( black and sludgy )

 

[matthab]

So my original question is, is it worth me buying more 5w30 or going to the dealers and carry on putting in what theyve put in?

Bearing in mind my car has used more oil since put 5w30 in strangely.

 

[Rob-Cupra]

How old is the car is it under warrenty ? I doubt what type of oil you use is causing the problem as its a known problem with these engines the problem can crop up at any time. So if its under warrenty take it to seat and get them to do an oil usage test . If not I suppose you will still have to take it to seat and get the engine breather pipe fitted along with new piston rings or whatever it is they do to fix it but pay for it .

 

[matthab]

The cars still in warranty so I don't have any issues with doing that. But I need to make sure it's using it constantly so it fails for the new bits to be added.

So I'll keep adding 5w-30 as that's what seat/vw recommend.

 

[Rob-Cupra]

Yeh I would carry on putting 5w30 in then you've followed seats guidlines to the letter . What year reg is it ?

 

[matthab]

A september 60 plate.

 

[duzza90]

I wouldn't take the dealers advise mate, if you type your reg in on Castrol's website the only oil they recommend is 5w30 Fully synthetic. I speak to quite a lot of people involved in Motorsport through work and they all recommend either Millers or Red line oil brand-wise.
I contacted Millers and told them that the dealers in all their wisdom had put 10w40 semi in my car when they serviced it, and was told that oil is no good for these engines, I also told him its been remapped and I have plans to further increase the power and torque and he sent my the data sheet for their highest quality 5w30 fully synthetic oil which he 100% recommends for these engines especially if the re-mapped. My uncle runs a chain of motor factors and I've asked him to order some in but they have to buy a minimum of 4 as that's how many come in a box, so next week I will be doing an oil change for the good stuff, but will have 3 full gallon bottles remaining if anyone else is interested, if so pm me.
I'll post any results on here after I've changed it.

Jack.