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Halfords' own brand 10W/40 semi-synthetic is £9.49 for 5 litres in the sale - is this a good price and a decent product?
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Yes, made by Comma, good stuff, I bought 15 ltrs a year ago when it was about £10.50 / 5 ltrs in the sale, I use it in the wife's Clio my Kawasaki ZRX1100 and my Honda mower. I was told by a guy at Comma that the 10/40 Semi Synth (green packaging) and 10/40 MotorCycle Semi Synth (reddish brown packaging) are effectively the same product. Might get some more at that price.
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I've run various cars on Halfords oils over the years and never had a problem.
The Mondeo has currently done 6k on a sumpful of their 5W/40 fully synthetic brew. The level has barely budged and it still runs fine.
There's not much wrong with Halfords oil in my experience.
Cheers
DP
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That's less than half the price I recently paid for Vauxhall's *own* brand 10w/40 semi synth.
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I was reading one of the magazine's this month, which recommended pitching up at a main dealers having booked a service, with a boot full of oil to be used for the oil change rather than paying the prices they charged as part of the service. They suggested you should agree this with the dealer first, but do people actually do this?
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Yes, done it once or twice on my (out of warranty) BMW. Just arrived with the car and told them the oil was in the boot, giving them the required amount of Halfords fully synth, bought on a 2 for price of one offer, so avoiding their usual £10/litre plus VAT charge. They just said 'OK sir'. The oil meets the required spec. so I see no reason why it can't be done in warranty too. Now get the car serviced more reasonably at an indy, so don't bother.
JS
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Interesting idea - I wonder how far you would get if you pitched up at your local restaurant with your own steak for them to cook?
Also, if you engine blows up shortly after its oil service, and you provided the oil, would you still expect the garage to take some responsibility?
Number_Cruncher
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> Interesting idea - I wonder how far you would get if you pitched up at your local restaurant with your own steak for them to cook?
Good idea, but not quite right, as the restaurant does not provide you with a fully itemised bill at the end of the meal saying 12 ozs steak @ £10.00/lb, 8 oz potatoes at 40p/lb, 1 oz garlic at ....and then add labour at £60.00/hour, and then have the nerve to charge you £5.00 for emptying your ashtray.
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do people actually do this?
Yep - do it on my Merc. Dealer charges £12.95/L +VAT so pretty well £100 for the 6.5L my car needs. I bought 10L of MB specific Motul 229.5 oil from Opie Oils (comes by courier, which worked fine).
I've recently bought 8L of Mobil 1 from Costco for £46.
Buying a bit extra means I'm not caught out having to buy 1L for £10+ at a filling station for top-ups.
Considering the dealer is giving up perhaps £70 in profit they seemed surprisingly delighted to use my own oil. I expected there to be an oil disposal charge for the old oil but there wasn't.
Regarding warranty etc, as long as it's (in my case) an MB approved oil then the dealer said there was no issue.
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I remember about 10 years ago buying of the hydraulics lecture at college a new sealed 25 litre drum of a BP semi synthetic oil ( think it was Visco 3000 ) that hadn't even found its way onto the forecourts for £47 all in.
£1.88 a litre was cheap.
lecturer left the college shortly after & took a better job as a sales agent for BP oils.
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>>Good idea, but not quite right, ...
Yes, it's odd how garages which are often villified are more open and transparent in their pricing. I suspect the mark up on food isn't too different to the mark up garages place on their wares - it just isn't as visible.
I know exactly how far customers who might have arrived at my father's garage, and those might arrive at my cousin's garage bearing their own oil would get!!!!
Number_Cruncher
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Also, if you engine blows up shortly after its oil service, and you provided the oil, would you still expect the garage to take some responsibility?
If I'd provided oil which met the vehicle manufacturer's specs, I would hold the garage responsible. If a main agent can charge £150 to perform a job which I can do at home on the driveway for under £20, can you really blame anyone for trying to reduce the extortion to a slightly more acceptable level?
Incidentally, if OE-spec oil and filters are used, most manufactuers allow servicing to be done anywhere, as long as the garage is VAT-registered and stamps the book. My local garage will do an oil-service for £40 and a full service for £100 (including wheel-balancing), without voiding the new car warranty. I only visit a main dealer to buy filters, which are often very reasonably priced (often significantly cheaper than Halfords).
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Ched, I bought Halford's 10/40 motorcycle oil a few years ago (reddish brown pack), but then I didn't see it and assumed it had been discontinued. Do you happen to know if it's still available - or is the current nearest thing the 10/40 in green pack? Thanks.
PS It's for a Suzuki GS500E.
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I used to get a discount on parts at my local dealer when my car was serviced but the dealer would only give me the discount off a can of oli,not off the bulk supply.
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Halford's 10/40 motorcycle oil a few years ago (reddish brown pack), but then I didn't see it and assumed it had been discontinued. Do you happen to know if it's still available - or is the current nearest thing the 10/40 in green pack? >>
As I say I was told by a guy at Comma that the 10/40 Semi Synth (green packaging) and 10/40 MotorCycle Semi Synth (reddish brown packaging) are effectively the same product, perhaps now they have discontinued the latter.
Motorcycles generally have a "wet" clutch and some car spec low viscocity synthetic oils have been said to cause clutch slip if used in certain superbikes hence some motorcycle spec synthetic oils are apparently a slightly different formulation, this is not the case with 10w-40 semi-synths.
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Thanks, Ched, I suspected that suitability would be influenced by the clutch type - but wasn't sure where 'technical necessity' met 'marketing hype'.
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I think it's also the shearing of the oil in a bikes gearbox that reduces it's life as well. Although I've been using halfords fully syn stuff, bought when of offer, and the R1's at 80,000 miles with no problems so far.
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I dont see the problem with the customer providing oil or any other parts.
I just inform them that if any warranty problem occurs then they have to pay me to sort the job, for which i will give them a detailed bill, and they can take the matter up with the supplying people of the parts/oils used. Part of any markup on parts and lubes i use is as an allowance towards any warranty cover!
Some people decide to accept and others dont.
But I have never had a problem with oil; but have always insisted the oil supplied is of a quality/type I /they consider as suitable for the vehicle concerned. For instance I will never put 10/40 into old style fiesta ohv engines. If they want it then they go somewhere else !
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As I say I was told by a guy at Comma that the 10/40 Semi Synth (green packaging) and 10/40 MotorCycle Semi Synth (reddish brown packaging) are effectively the same product, perhaps now they have discontinued the latter.
I was in their Beverley branch yesterday to see what was going cheap and noticed the 10/40 dark redish motorcycle oil was still there - at just short of £20.
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Useful price comparison page for oil at the major French hypermarkets:
www.quiestlemoinscher.com/recherche.asp?motcle=hui...r
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