Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hi All,

I'm just wondering what oil you would recommend for a 1989 944 S2. It has a little over 110,000 miles on the clock. I'm currently using Mobil 1 but I can't remember the viscosity off the top of my head.

Cheers,

Ben

Personal & maybe contentious view. Mobil 1 is wasted unless your car is Turbo'd and/or running high mileage between services. Personally I'd go with a good SF or better mineral or semi synth. & change every 3-6K dependent on annual mileage. The middle target seems to be 10/40W but I run 15/50W & it is OK.

As you say without wanting to start another oil war, I always used either Castrol Edge or Mobil 1 0W40 in my S2 with less than 100k miles and had no real problems except maybe slightly noisy tappets on cold start.

However I agree at full price this is a waste particularly when I change it twice as frequently as recommended, but as I got the oil at a much reduced price I did not mind this. Now my cheap oil source has dried up I have reverted back to Castrol Magnatec 10W40 which was on offer in Makro for less than £14/4L so less than £28 for an oil change and some spare for topping up.

My car sounds no quieter, noisier, or runs any better or worse for it so as stated earlier I would base my choice of oil on the age of the engine, any known wear issues, how often it is going to be changed and how you intend to drive it. For a viscosity value I would use something around 5W40 or 10W40 but this is only really relevant when starting from cold as once oil gets up to temperature there is very little difference in the various viscosities between 0W,5W or 10W 40 oil.

Hi,

Thanks for the comments thus far. My '44 is my daily driver covering around 6k miles a year.

Ben

Mine is my daily driver as well covering similar miles to you or sometimes more depending on how often I can get out on the bike and with 101K miles now in a similar situation to you regarding engine condition I presume.

As I said I have reverted back to Castrol Magnatec 10W40 as it was on offer although I was looking for 5W40 but could not find any at a reasonable price. I probably waste my oil, filter and money by changing it too regularly 2x per year but this is what I have always done and find it hard to break the habit.

0W40 was blamed partly for wrecking my last S2 engine. Almost every specialist I have spoken to have said that 0W40 is way too thin for a 944 engine with 5W40 being around the limit it should be taken to, with 10W40 being a good medium. Remember that these cars were built 20 years ago, when tolerances were very different to what they are today.

FWIW, I use 10W40 Semi in my car.

mines been on 15/40 for the 6 years i ve owned it.I too change the oil far more than recommended but its an old engine and occasionally I ask it to perform like a new one . I was using Castrol high mileage but its about due a change so may try another 15/40 but less expensive!

I too run 15w40 in my 'S' . It only gets changed at usual service intervals (ie 12000 miles) and has not given any issues.

edit: just to add it is my dailey driver covering approx 15000 miles per annum

I use Castrol High Mileage in my Turbo. I’ve never noticed any difference from when it used to be on Mobil One.

Maybe I was lucky, but I used 0W40 fully synthetic for 4 years in my 924S (120Kmiles) and for 18months in my S2 90-100K miles and had no problems.

Ok, just to add to this oil debate, I have a 118000 miles 968 which appears to have 5/40 full synthetic every service, I think I will go for 10/40 semi synth on next change just for the fact do they really need full synth top notch oil.
Ok so once we decide on 10/40 then theres the make. Is an unkown make from a motor factors 10/40 semi synth any really different to a brand name as Castrol or Mobil, again is it all a big con like say a pair of Calvin Klein jeans that are 3 times the price of a Madhouse pair? lol

Steve

Steve look at the spec on the pack I think current spec is SM but anything such as SJ or better will be miles better than when it was new. The Valvoline Turbo I use is a mineral 15/50 & that is SJ & I pay 50 quid for 4 x 5L packs.