revtothelimit - motorbike forum

v8-powered wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 12:52 pm One of the kids has a Shitroen C3 with the 3-cylinder Puretech engine, I reckon that easily does a litre of oil in 1000miles, if not more!

They're the ones with the wet timing belt, aren't they?

mangocrazy wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 1:06 pm

v8-powered wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 12:52 pm One of the kids has a Shitroen C3 with the 3-cylinder Puretech engine, I reckon that easily does a litre of oil in 1000miles, if not more!

They're the ones with the wet timing belt, aren't they?

Yep - timebomb! I've recently had to remove and clean the VVT actuators as full of belt fibres

v8-powered wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 1:48 pm

mangocrazy wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 1:06 pm

v8-powered wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 12:52 pm One of the kids has a Shitroen C3 with the 3-cylinder Puretech engine, I reckon that easily does a litre of oil in 1000miles, if not more!

They're the ones with the wet timing belt, aren't they?

Yep - timebomb! I've recently had to remove and clean the VVT actuators as full of belt fibres

Eek! I'd be thinking about quietly moving that on in the near future before Bad Things Happen...

FWIW I'm pretty sure that checking the oil is on the driving test you know. Or at least, it's one of those things they might ask.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... -questions

Equally FWIW I can't remember the last time I needed to top up the oil in a car. They might say a litre every 1000 miles but that's not been my experience. The only car I can recall burning oil in any serious way was Mrs. D's old Civic Type-R, which ironically has a famously very good engine!

My last 2 cars have been brand new and I took precisely zero care to run them in (even the dealer said "don't worry about it"). Neither have burned even a tiny bit of oil so far as I can work out, but I check electrically not with a dipstick.

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 2:13 pm My last 2 cars have been brand new and I took precisely zero care to run them in (even the dealer said "don't worry about it"). Neither have burned even a tiny bit of oil so far as I can work out, but I check electrically not with a dipstick.

As has already been mentioned, babying an engine during running in is probably the worst thing you can do. Boot them from the get-go and the rings will bed in properly to the cylinder walls and all will be well.

Yeah I've heard that story loads too. My main takeaway is always that most people don't get what the honing on a cylinder is actually supposed to do.

I didn't boot it from scratch either TBF, I just drove normally. They were auto too, so you'd have to go out of your way to rag 'em against the rev line or anything like that. S'also a >300bhp car so there aren't that many chances to hoof it in southern England at rush hour, which is when I drive the car.

My anecdotal evidence is from when I bought my 690 Duke in 2017. As soon as I got it, I dumped the oil, changed the filters and put running-in oil in the engine, then revved the engine 'briskly'. I didn't red line it, but gave it plenty of revs in the lower gears. By the time it went in for its first service (where they filled it with top spec 10w60 fully synth) it was effectively run in. It doesn't use any oil between services, which is unusual for Duke 690s, I've been told.

Jody wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:26 am It's not lazy imo, it's a lack of understanding. The car works, they are not interested in cars, so they just carry on.
Do you know how to service your washing machine and how often to change the filters and belts..... or are you a lazy feckless tosser ??

Add in lack of confidence and fear of making the problem worse and I think that contributes to why a lot of people don't do things themselves.

We want to brick pave the back garden. I've watched several Youtube videos on it but am still shying away from attempting the job myself in case I fuck it up and it costs me more to put right.

Beancounter wrote: Thu Jun 19, 2025 11:38 am

Jody wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:26 am It's not lazy imo, it's a lack of understanding. The car works, they are not interested in cars, so they just carry on.
Do you know how to service your washing machine and how often to change the filters and belts..... or are you a lazy feckless tosser ??

Add in lack of confidence and fear of making the problem worse and I think that contributes to why a lot of people don't do things themselves.

We want to brick pave the back garden. I've watched several Youtube videos on it but am still shying away from attempting the job myself in case I fuck it up and it costs me more to put right.

Yup, it's why I'm taking the JAPton crank to a specialist. In paper it looks possibly doable, but I'd really hate to make a rookie mistake with it.

And don't forget tooth sucking professionals making everything sound much more complex and or risky than it is.

cheb wrote: Thu Jun 19, 2025 1:35 pm And don't forget tooth sucking professionals making everything sound much more complex and or risky than it is.

Yes, a lot do play on customers' fears/need for validation.

And it has to be said that opening the bonnet on a modern car all you will see are acres of plastic, with virtually all the components hidden/out of sight. Not exactly encoraging to any would-be rookie mechanic.

mangocrazy wrote: Sun Jun 22, 2025 12:18 pm And it has to be said that opening the bonnet on a modern car all you will see are acres of plastic, with virtually all the components hidden/out of sight. Not exactly encoraging to any would-be rookie mechanic.

You can polish the plastic nicely.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't check the oil in my car from when I bought it until the oil warning (not light, a message ) came on last week

It's done 12,000kms since January but mostly booting up and down a mountain (approx 1400m altitude) but I was still a bit surprised.

Have topped it up and now waiting for a time when everything is properly cold and I can dip it again - cos even when it dipped it when it hadn't been running, the outside temps were 35 degrees, so I wasn't sure that was a good thing either !!!

mangocrazy wrote: Sun Jun 22, 2025 12:18 pm And it has to be said that opening the bonnet on a modern car all you will see are acres of plastic, with virtually all the components hidden/out of sight. Not exactly encoraging to any would-be rookie mechanic.

NVH covers. Gets surprisingly louder when you take them off!

The important stuff is usually yellow or blue so obvious to check.
And checking the oil has been part of the test for a while so should be being taught by instructors if the parents haven't

Have topped it up and now waiting for a time when everything is properly cold and I can dip it again - cos even when it dipped it when it hadn't been running, the outside temps were 35 degrees, so I wasn't sure that was a good thing either !!!

Check your book, some should be checked hot after a journey.

MrLongbeard wrote: Sun Jun 22, 2025 4:54 pm

Have topped it up and now waiting for a time when everything is properly cold and I can dip it again - cos even when it dipped it when it hadn't been running, the outside temps were 35 degrees, so I wasn't sure that was a good thing either !!!

Check your book, some should be checked hot after a journey.

I will do that. I've never heard of that before, but would make it easier to check here !!!!

(Never been very good with RTFM!!)

Yeah it was a new one on me a while back, after 2 civics, 1 mini and 1 Harley it's second nature to rtfm and check if it should be done hot

Does a 2008 Clio Campus count as modern? My other vehicles are respectively 59 and 68 years old...



any hoos...the 120,000 mile campus use no oil even after 85mph abuse on one of the hottest days of the year...and it's a 1,2 petrol....