20-07-13, 02:13 PM
As I was oot in the garage there, I thought I'd check the spec of the bike oil that I'm paying a pretty penny for.
In the bike at the mo is Fuchs Silkolene Super 4 (semi synth) 10/40 The API spec is SF and SG.
In the bike last year was Fuchs Silkolene Comp 4 (fully synth - dunno why, shop must have given me fully synth for the price of semi by accident) The API spec is SG,SH and SJ
In the car is Unipart Pro P100 10/40 (I get my bits for the car direct from the Unipart distributer - great prices!). The car is a 2002 VW Bora 2.0 It is not the recommended oil but it's done 70,000 miles so far on it. The spec is API SL/SJ/CF
If we look up the API web site;
Super 4. We can see that SF and SG are obsolete. SF for 1988 and older engines. SG for 1993 and older.
Comp4. SG and SH obsolete. The final spec that it meets is SJ. Hurrah! It meets a current spec, recommended for engines 2001 and older.
Unipart P100 - SL,SJ and CF SL - current for 2004 and older. SJ - current for 2001 and older. CF obsolete 1994 for all road in-direct injection diesel.
So there we have it. The Fuchs motorcycle oils are basic spec lubricants, certainly not the kind of stuff you'd want to put in a modern car.
The cheapest oil here - by a country mile, is the Unipart P100, is the highest spec and ideal for many modern cars.
Now whilst clearly the P100 is a more sophisticated high spec oil than the basic SF/SG muck that I'm currently putting in the bike, well the problem is again that, as we have seen above, putting too high a spec oil in your engine can cause problems. Then there is the issue of the pesky friction modifiers, how can we be sure they are not present?
I would suggest that the usual statement that motorcycle oil is higher quality oil than car oil, well it's another internet myth. The opposite is true.
And yes sadly, to get the cheap basic spec oil we need for our bikes, we have to pay through our nose.
In the bike at the mo is Fuchs Silkolene Super 4 (semi synth) 10/40 The API spec is SF and SG.
In the bike last year was Fuchs Silkolene Comp 4 (fully synth - dunno why, shop must have given me fully synth for the price of semi by accident) The API spec is SG,SH and SJ
In the car is Unipart Pro P100 10/40 (I get my bits for the car direct from the Unipart distributer - great prices!). The car is a 2002 VW Bora 2.0 It is not the recommended oil but it's done 70,000 miles so far on it. The spec is API SL/SJ/CF
If we look up the API web site;
Super 4. We can see that SF and SG are obsolete. SF for 1988 and older engines. SG for 1993 and older.
Comp4. SG and SH obsolete. The final spec that it meets is SJ. Hurrah! It meets a current spec, recommended for engines 2001 and older.
Unipart P100 - SL,SJ and CF SL - current for 2004 and older. SJ - current for 2001 and older. CF obsolete 1994 for all road in-direct injection diesel.
So there we have it. The Fuchs motorcycle oils are basic spec lubricants, certainly not the kind of stuff you'd want to put in a modern car.
The cheapest oil here - by a country mile, is the Unipart P100, is the highest spec and ideal for many modern cars.
Now whilst clearly the P100 is a more sophisticated high spec oil than the basic SF/SG muck that I'm currently putting in the bike, well the problem is again that, as we have seen above, putting too high a spec oil in your engine can cause problems. Then there is the issue of the pesky friction modifiers, how can we be sure they are not present?
I would suggest that the usual statement that motorcycle oil is higher quality oil than car oil, well it's another internet myth. The opposite is true.
And yes sadly, to get the cheap basic spec oil we need for our bikes, we have to pay through our nose.