Hi guys I'm currently driving Mazda 3 skyactiv 2016.Mostly city driving and on weekends go for spirited driving with high revs and twice a month go from KL to ipoh. Should I use expensive oil (300- 400 bucks++)and change at 8 -9 k km interval or use cheaper oil ( 150- 200 ++bucks) and change at 6k km intervals ? Both of the oil categories are fully synthetic. Also any recommendations on 5w30 engine oils. ? Is shell helix hx8 a good choice for 6k km change interval?

I'm using Bold Atas for my 3008. Every 7k will drain together with the filter.

what are the engine oil brands?

fyi, SC for Mazda gives semi synthetic during the free service period but push owners to use for 10k or 6 months.

any proper API SN or newer certified is good for 10k....i'm having the same car as yours and running 0w20 for more than 5 years...perfectly fine as at now at 151k, no oil consumption issue at all.....i almost never used the same oil brands twice since my free service coupon used up....never used anything above rm250....can't really tell much of a difference after driving more than 2k after oil change...cheapest i tried was Bold 0w20 at below RM100....boleh pakai also.....

Don't buy imitation oil filter as there are quite a lot in the market now, original oil filter is always above rm20....

if you haven't replaced your transmission fluid, please get it done along side transmission filter change

This post has been edited by wkc5657: Sep 5 2024, 01:37 PM

Yes just changed my atf fluid + filter in my last service. How is your driving style like? Fully city or got highway?

If use fully synthetic lub you can anytime use it up to 10k km (include idle time engine running). Imagine Merc and BMW service interval is 12k km and VW is 15k km, for normal car using fully synthetic definitely can use for 10k km. Yes, the Shell Helix HX8 is good even for up to 10k km interval.

btw to share some info about lubricant Fully synthetic does not always equal to 100% synthetic oil. In market MOST fully synthetic oil is not 100%. Those lub written is 100% fully synthetic then it is trully 100% synthetic. Many famous brand is up to 90% which is still very high synthetic content while some unknown brand although they are fully synthetic but the content can be only 50%. For semi-synthetic or synthetic oil the content is about 30% usually.

To buy engine lubricant recommended to go workshop or tyre shop to buy. If buy online then choose the official store. Try avoid buying from sparepart shop because genuine oil they sell to workshop or tyre shop while counterfeit one will usually sell to walk in customer.

Seeking advice:
Next year my 2nd car will be parked and only used a few times a year. My estimate is not more than 1000Km per year. The manual only recommends oil viscosity, ie 5/0W 30.

To save cost I'm planning to use mineral oil with 30 viscosity & change once a year. Appreciate feedback, tks.

i don't pamper the throttle, use manual gear shift all the time, don't drive in a leisurely manner, highway average 140, mixed city/highway...

side note, can search in shopee for Fram Tough Guard oil filter series, same price as mazda original (cheaper with shopee coupons/offers), but i personally think this is better quality as it is rated for higher mileage.

depends on luck, the engine top covers gasket seal isn't the best of quality, so may have a bit of oil leakage over time...mine started leaking since year 2 and i thought it was the usual mild oil consumption and didn't claim warranty. Do get it checked first if you notice got oil consumption. I changed mine 5 years back, the new batch seems to be pretty good, no signs of leaks till now

the engine is pretty tough, i had experience a blown vvt gasket (damn bad luck for me, that the SC said my car was the very first among their many thousand of skyactive series sold) and drove a short period of time under oil starvation, was surprised that no overheating and no oil consumption issue after that incident....

synthetic oil is more stable for sure.....

if you're tight on budget, can get those api certified local branded fully synthetic oil...almost similar price as those branded mineral version....Bold brand less than 90 if not mistaken for 4L....up to you la.....

you should be more concerned of flat spotting your tyres because it is moved so infrequently, that will cost you more.....pump the tyre pressure until almost maximum allowable by the tyre spec when you foresee long periods of idling.

I am certain not an expert in oil. Assuming you have to use 0W30, there is no such mineral oil on the market with those viscosity. And the 0W is important for starting from cold. So I would stick to that synthetic 0W30

cold start in oil spec is winter temperature...malaysia run 10/15/20w also fine for our average ambient temperature of "cold" start actually....

New modern engine might have tighter tolerance requiring 0W. Of course, could be for better fuel efficiency also. Since he is changing it once a year, no point saving a few Ringgit.

Mazda skyactiv need very good quality engine oil, due to high compression and a lot of modern technology (direct injection, VVT) infuse with the engine, especially low rpm a lot of knocking or so knew as LSPI (Low-speed pre-ignition), a lot of Mazda owners dont admit it but especially cold weather and low rpm driving (Below 2000rpm) can feel a lot of vibration and rpm keep on going up and down, that is the knocking/pre-ignition happening at low-speed. Besides from knocking, carbon built up in intake also another issue due to direct injection, using good quality oil also can reduce the carbon built up at a lower pace.

Please read your car manual book and search for the requirement of the oil grade and viscosity and stick to it.

This post has been edited by littlefire: Sep 6 2024, 01:49 PM

Use cheap api certified fully synthetic oil like Bold fully. Its only like rm55 for 4L..
Always change your oil max 1 year even if u use it very less. Anyway cars that are underutilized like yours will have reduced lifetime..

If you are keeping the car for more than 9 years...I dont recommend changing it every 10k.
Some info i got with general driving conditions (not include racing and track days) from engine builders and professional modern mechanics are:

1. If you plan to keep your car 5-9 years, its ok to change at 10k km intervals with fully synthetic.
2. If u plan to keep your car over 10 years or over 300k km, change your semi oil every 5000km. If you are fully synthetic change it every 6.5k km.

Generally most car manufacturers recommended specs, they calculated it for cars lifespan around 5-9 years. Business best choice, not best car lifetime choice.

My car i change every 5000km using various fully synthetic. Na engine, k20a type r modded with 260 hp dynoed last year, compression ratio 11.5 (high compression engine).
Now using bold fully 5w40 and used for around 7 cycles now, so far so good. I bought the car second hand with around 210k km mileage and it was having engine oil consumptions around 1L per 5000km initially (max take in oil 4.7L). Now the oil consumption reduced to around 500ml per 5000km with current mileage of 265k km. I think changing the oil more frequently slowly clean the harden sludge around the piston rings.
My driving style quite aggressive and hit redline quite often. Around 40:60 highway:city drive.
I plan to change to another local engine oil brand hipro soon tho. This brand has their own oil manufacturing factory instead of bold without their own factory.

Besides from the lub itself, oil filtering system also another concern. Continentals oil filter usually are larger/longer in size compare to Japanese rides thus they can filter the oil at a longer intervals. Japanese cars if you look at most like Honda/Mazda/Toyota all oil filter size almost 50% smaller compare to conti's oil filter, how you expect the oil to last longer in Japs ride?

LSPI mostly happen for turbo cars, NA cars not too bad...

I put in reader a few times, no codes showing major knock....

vibration terrible --> go change the engine mounts, mine now smooth as butter after changing it earlier of the year...before that really clunky

if hear the knocking sound --> check the belt tensioner first, after i changed that, no more "knocking" sound at low rpm...if got extra budget and time, go do the air cond compressor oil flushing, air cond colder and "smoother" running....

rpm up down a lot? you sure not because the car driving at the edge of its gear shift zone? I hated the automatic shift patterns, so i manual shift all the time...the latter years models seems to have better shift logic for the same gearbox, but heck, i manual shift at the rpm zone that i feel it will be smooth

carbon builduo, DI cars all same problem unless got both direct and indirect injection....i did carbon removal also, got noticeable improvements towards throttle response, but before that also no knocking issue

This post has been edited by wkc5657: Sep 6 2024, 03:33 PM

understand your pointers.....changing oil earlier definitely always help.....and also the planned obsolescence part of car makes....

i can take my chances of continuous 10k, usually i look for high VI oils that are likely more shear stable.....those are not expensive also for original oils....

i don't baby the throttle, but i don't pedal to the metal frequently....i'm happy to deal with the shift logic by manual shift instead of using pedal to overwrite the shift patterns if i need a boost....no power mods for my car also....

interesting about that hipro brand that you mentioned...but pricing is like 50% more than bold....

how about Motion brand? Heard of it?

May i know which high VI oils are you using? How much is it?

Reason why im going hipro oils.
1) A lot of good reviews on they oils especially the motorcycle oils at Bangladesh market. The environment there are even harsher and dustier than here.
2) hipro got organize and sponser races track days with their oils.
3) hipro honest with me so far. I asked them if their maxclyn oil have certain specs that has in the Bangladesh market (example a3 b4 spec), but not written in malaysia market. Hipro told me dont have, and they will inform related parties about it.
4) cheap. Hipro fully maxclyn is only rm62.50. their best is V9 but much more expensive at rm128. Still cheaper than branded fully.

I heard about motion but did not research on it though. U found anythg interesting about this oil?