I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __Oil choice
So I had my MX-5 with a Mazda dealer for a year 2 service today. I enquired what oil it had been filled with so any top up would be with the correct/same oil.
I was told Castrol RN17 5W30 (developed for Renault - they are also a Renault dealer) had been used. And the receipt I now notice says Castrol C4 5W30.
Neither, as far as I can tell, are an equivalent to API SN or higher, or ACEA A5/B5 as stated as required in the Mazda user manual, but I’m not an expert.
I’ve now emailed the dealer as well as Mazda UK to see what their responses are. Dealers are audited by Mazda to ensure things they do don’t compromise warranty etc., so it should be ok, but doesn’t sound right
Off for a 1500 mile road trip to Ireland next week. Grrr.
Will let folk know the outcome and name the dealer if all is not right.
Indeed, and can always be changed ahead of schedule or sooner if appropriate. I’m not tracking the car, so doesn’t have the hardest life, though the last service was indicated by the car 6800 miles and less than a year since the first service (rather than max 12500 miles), so not used in ‘perfect’ conditions, clearly.
So the dealer just replied verbally to say the oil type (C4) on the invoice is ‘just how it comes out on the invoice’ and it was filled with RN17. And that so long as I top up with 5W30, that’s the most important thing (not that the car burns oil currently!). Really? Hmm…
I bought a car from a dealer once who couldn’t tell me what oil was put in, they serviced it before I collected it. It wasn’t an MX-5 but the reply the gave me was, err not sure, it comes out of a big drum. Shortly afterwards I changed the oil for the correct spec stuff.
Sloped drive etc makes checking levels a pain for me. Suppose I could just suck the engine oil out (get most of it) leave the new filter as-is and replace with ‘correct’ oil. At least most of it will be correct, for peace of mind.
I get it that Mazda OEM their oil from whomever, but really odd the ACEA specs don’t seem to align. You’d think they would/should.
Interesting one. As far as I’m aware RN17 is a fairly specific blend, to meet Renault/Alpine requirements. I believe the only industry standard it meets is ACEA C3.
If you wanted an independent view on this I’d drop a question to Opie Oils: sales@opieoils.co.uk
I’ve always had really good, sensible, knowledgeable advice from them over the years.
My gut feel is I’d be getting that drained and swapped with something which matched the Mazda requirements. But see what their view is.
Who wants this sort of headache when you go and hand someone a few hundred pounds of your own money. It’s a curse sometimes, being into something so much, when 99% of other people wanting the same thing (a service) don’t give a jack.
The thing is though, many, many an owner have had their ND (or whatever) serviced and I’d imagine in many an occasion the print out says ‘5w-30 oil’ or likewise. And they paid their money and lived happily ever after. Who knows what the ‘5w-30 oil was’, was it SN a3, a5, c4, this spec or that etc etc etc. Same thing at many a ‘trusty independent’, I@d guess what goes in there is the same fully synthetic (if you’re lucky) 5w or 0w that goes in all the cars.
In my humble, and entirely unqualified opinion, given the amount of research done in the last 100+ years, unless you’re redlining your MX-5 around a racetrack for hours on end any modern synthetic 5W-30 from a reputable supplier will be perfectly fine.
Ha yes, I think that’s the dealer’s opinion… Not that anything would likely happen within warranty anyway, and having been serviced by ‘Mazda’ anyway, I just don’t want to have to ‘negotiate’ should the oil used be a factor in some claim in future. In fact any issue would actually more likely occur far in the future.
Anyway there’s now a record of the ‘issue’ at Mazda UK, so all good, hopefully.
Opie just said use 0W20 synthetic that meets API SN or newer. No oil listed on their site at all for my car
But also:
Yes, it can also use 5w-30. RN17 is based around ACEA C3 so a strange choice from the dealer, as it is aimed at Renault’s! But in reality is fine to use… ACEA C3 is related to API SN, so fine to use from a specification point of view… Fine to use till next service. No issues there.
Mobil oil checker say use their 0w 20 oil in the ND, mines a ND1 1.5.
Castrol oil checker use say 5w 30 oil.
I know it’s got 0w 20 Castrol Edge from the previous owner, he bought the oil from Opie.
It’s handy because my daily driver uses 0w 20 too, I put Castrol Edge in that referencing the handbook specs.
If there are any warranty issues then you will find it easier to get it sorted if it’s been serviced by Mazda with the wrong oil rather than being serviced elsewhere with the right oil…
I don’t think the OP had 2 year engine oil in his car. He said he went for his second service. I mean, I had my 7th service on my ND in April, but that don’t mean I’ve had the oil in there for 7 years lol, it’s the seventh time it’s been done!
You might be right. I’m reading it differently, but the only resolution will be the OP telling us lol
I had either a year 7 service or a 7th year service. Semantics on steroids. All I know is the oil has been changed on every one of them.
It is clear to me that he had the ‘year 2 service’ because the car is two years old, no where does he say it was the first time it had been serviced. I would suggest that your point does NOT stand unless he has told you that he did not bother with the first service.
