I work at a dealership
Hello Pete. Working at a dealership perhaps you can comment on the following: Do you use the same oil irrespective of the vehicle type, is fresh flushing oil used each time or many times over, and since both Landrover and BMW state a dry engine will take 6.8 litres but an oil change will take 6 litres at most, as the oil cooler etc holds 0.8 approximately, how do you flush/empty out the 0.8 litres of flushing oil ?
Hi Jon
We keep about 4 or 5 different types of engine oil in stock which covers most of the vehicles we usually see. for example at the moment we have in stock
Shell Helix Ultra 5w-40
Shell Helix Ultra VX
Shell Helix Plus 10w-40
Shell Helix F 5w-30
Motul VW specific 5w-40
these oils cover most of the cars we see and each one of these oils covers many different cars.
we don't use flushing oil as it would add too much labour time to each job as you have to drain the old oil out then refill it with the flushing oil and then get it out of the workshop so that it can idle outside for a while. You would have to pass that extra cost onto the customer which is also not so good as it bumps their bill up. The best flush to use is a detergent flush you put into the old oil and let it idle whilst the technician is doing the other service checks. This way the customer only pays for the can of flush and it's a new can each time.
The flush thins the oil during the flushing phase which is why it's important not to drive it whilst it is flushing. What we have noticed that because of this more oil comes out. On engines that have an element oil filter thats held inside a housing it's always best to undo this before dropping the oil out so that no oil is held in here and leave it to drain for a good while. Our techs like to leave it draining for as long as poss and for our early morning customers, we get them in at 8am, stick a flush in them and leave them idling until the techs turn up, techs don't start 8.30 lucky buggers!. They tend to do all the underbody checks with it draining and when finished exchange the oil drainer for a bucket, lower it down and do everything else, leaving the oil fill to very last thing. The reason they do this is half the time, they hear a load of oil fall out long after the oil has slowed to a drip from the drain hole, presumably from the oil cooler etc.
We service a couple of freelander TD4's and always have to put about 6.8ltrs in. The last service on one was 6.7 ltrs so i think BMW have got it about right.
best regards
Pete