10W-40 full synth oil - Smart car

[lynall]

Probably be better to look around for a second hand lump in the meantime now you know theres no rush.




Lynall

 

[SL300-24]

I always run my roadie on Mobil 1 0-40 fully synthetic and seems fine (Cosco £20 for 4 litres). I also do an interim oil and filter change between services so that does 3500 miles between changes. Be careful as it only takes 3.5 litres from full to empty!

 

[wemorgan]

3 months down the line and I had to top up the oil for the first time. Until recently the car was only doing town driving and burning no oil at all. Then the other week I did 600 motorway miles and it burnt ~0.2 litres. I can live with that. I'll keep changing the oil and spark plugs every year (4-5k miles) and hope that's enough.

 

[BlackC55]

Eventually it will need a new lump. Forget about a second hand one. They are probably worn out too.

It will loose compression and start missfiring and eventually running on 2 only.

Let me know if you need a re-built engine.

 

[wemorgan]

I've change the spark plugs and here are the old ones. For those that don't know the Smart car has 3 cylinders with 2 plugs per cylinder. These plugs are roughly 1 year & 6k miles old.

Is it possible that the idiot (me) didn't tighten them up properly? (they seemed hard enough to undo, so I think unlikely)

I've been told that Smart bottom plugs usually soot up more than the top. But all plugs look like oil is burning in the cylinder.

I'll change the oil tomorrow for something thicker (10W40 or 15W40) and see how it goes. But I'm not expecting a positive outcome

Any advice welcome.

Top plugs:

Bottom plugs:

Another year and time to change the spark plugs. Here they are:

ignore the grit on the thread, that was from the floor after removal. I notice that the top plugs have a white residue at the top of the thread and on the HT leads too:

any thoughts what the white residue is?