Which oil for my 1.4S?

[Seat_Ibiza]

Hi all - relatively an oldie (2 years) on this forum but haven't really posted much.

Recently bought an Ibiza 2004 1.4s and was wondering which oil to use, part or fully synthetic?

Went to Halfords , the 2003 ibiza uses part synthetic, the 2004 recommendation is 5w 30 fully synthetic, I'm confused and so were the guys at Halfords..I was hoping to purchase the usual 10W 40 or even the 5w 30 part synthetic oil...fully synthetic is well expensive but if it is what the car needs, then I have no choice..

Please help.

 

[RUM4MO]

I'd go for the fully synthetic oil and maybe check the Fuchs oil website - you can buy that cheaply at GSF. In my book using part sythetic oils but just paying top price will always be worse than using fully synthetic oils and buying them where they are cheaper. This is probably OTT for this engine - but at least you are trying to extend its useful workig life - which can't be bad. All my cars use fully synthetic oil - but just out of choice and they get changed every 12 months or 10,000 miles which ever comes up first.

 

[Skisbp]

I bought my 2004 Ibiza 1.4-16v 100hp Sport back at the end of 2003. At the time the local importer was still using Mineral-Oil. As that's what came in the cars from the factory, sometime between then & 2005 they switched to Fully Synthetic. As the factory had done the same. Once Synthetic-Oil is used in an engine it is very inadvisable to switch back to Mineral based Oils including partial Synthetic. As they are prone to cause massive leaking from the seals mainly Head-Gasket!!!

 

[RUM4MO]

I will not dispute what you have said as it is well known that you should stick to fully synthetic after you have made the change or the car came out of the engine plant with fully synthetic oil, but I just wonder about some of these urban mythes as when these car get older they will end up being loaded with cheap supermarket mineral oils, then the truth will come out. I'd be surprised is an oil type change could blamed on gasket failures as all the materials used in modern cars will have been extensively tested on mineral oils and all other variants. Also the chemistry in fully synthetic oils will have been checked to be similar to any oils that they are expected to be backwards compatible with. The gains in fuel economy and extended engine life would normally be a good enough reward for using synthetic oil.

 

[Seat_Ibiza]

Thank for your help guys, just to clarify, It would be okay for me to use part synthetic oil in my engine but fully synthetic is recommended right ?