Garages & Repair Centers Using Cheap Oil

by Andy Published on Friday, March 13th, 2015

There is a “cheap oil” endemic, and I am concerned for the consumer.

As suppliers of various lubricants, one of our tasks is to demonstrate to automatic transmission and gearbox rebuild specialists the benefits of using OE (original equipment) oils or at least lubricants that meet the required manufacturer’s specifications. This is much more difficult than you might think.

I am concerned about the percentage of repair shops that choose to use low-quality, or in many cases, the cheapest oils available. A customer can easily spend £1500, £3000, or even £5000+ on more complex automatic gearbox overhauls, and yet, the garage performing the work will use oil that costs them around £1.50 to £2.00 per liter. And their response when they are asked why they choose such cheap oil? Their answer is generally this: “As long as it lasts the twelve-month warranty period, it is fine.”

This raises an interesting concern, not just in the transmission rebuilding market but also with engine oil changes. I believe that as a consumer, you are perfectly within your rights to question and challenge the oil being installed in your vehicle, whether it’s the transmission fluid, engine oil, or any other fluid.

In virtually all cases, franchised dealers will use OE oils. That’s what your money is paying for and how they justify their excessive prices. While not always the best value or the highest quality, at least you receive an accepted and approved level of quality.

Our greatest concern is with some independent garages and repair centers. Too many garages still insist on “cheapest” and, in some cases oils that simply do not meet the specifications for your vehicle. For example, they use mid or high SAPS (sulfated ash, phosphorus, sulfur, etc.) oil with engines that are only designed to run on low SAPS oils. This is concerning because of the potential harm to the emission control components, such as the DPFs (Diesel Particulate Filter) and so on. There have even been instances of an oil distributor selling recycled oil to their dealers, only for the dealers to discover that the engines were starting to burn and consume more oil! The base stock and additive pack were not good enough, and the oil deteriorated very quickly to the degree that the oil bypassed the piston rings and the engines began to consume it.

If you are paying for a service, repair work, or a complete overhaul of the transmission or engine in your vehicle, you are quite in your right to enquire about the fluids being used and request high-quality ones. When paying substantial money for a repair, it makes sense to use OE quality as an absolute minimum. If your vehicle is modified and the engine produces more horsepower, then it is advisable to use oils that exceed the manufacturer’s specifications or at least change them more regularly.

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3 thoughts on “Garages & Repair Centers Using Cheap Oil”

Steve Shaw says:

March 11, 2018 at 12:33 pm

opieoils stock the Castrol Edge Titanium.

I have a Discovery Sport Ingenium which uses an oil that is also a nightmare to get hold of, but then I found that Petronas made a 0W/30 that was to the same specification and Halfords of all people stocked it! £30 for 5ltrs plus £7 for a filter, I do it every 6mths and then get Landrover to do the over-priced oil service when it’s scheduled to keep my service history.

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David Ridley says:

May 14, 2017 at 3:18 pm

Great article & site so much useful information.
Taking up your comment on franchise dealers, Jaguar wanted £480 to service my 13 plate XJ 3 litre diesel. One of the justification is their using Castrol Edge Titanium 5w30 C1 oil. Yes quite right cos it cannot be bought from anywhere other than a Jag stealer! Now that’s not right surely. How much does the stuff really cost & what’s so special about it?
They’ll sell 1 litre bottles at nearly 20 quid a piece! Don’t even think it’s a group 4 or 5 fully synthetic for the oil on retail in the U.K. Have been told that the C1 in Germany is fully synthetic due to labelling law there. Moreover it can be bought from German retailers through eBay. Is there a better alternative?

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1. Andy says:
  
  May 18, 2017 at 1:20 pm
  
  Most fully synthetic oils are GIII and I am not aware of any C1 oil that contains group IV or V base stocks. In Germany the law prohibits this and oils must contain a certain percentage of IV and/or V and/or VI. In most cases there are alternatives but I understand Infineum produce a custom certified package for Jaguar only. This is rare but does happen.
  
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