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Don't miss out on Opie Oils BANK HOLIDAY FREE SHIPPING offer which ends midnight Tuesday 31st August.



All you need to do is order £25 or more on products from www.opieoils.co.uk and enter the below voucher code at the checkout to receive free shipping on your order:

BHFREE

Products we have to offer;

Oils from Castrol, Silkolene, Fuchs, Mobil, Millers, Amsoil, Redline, Motul and Gulf.
Oil, air, cabin and fuel filters from Mahle and UFI.
Spark and Glow Plugs from NGK and Denso.
Cleaning products from Meguiars, Muc Off, Bilt Hamber and Dodo Juice.
Full range of products from K&N including filters, induction kits and upgrade parts.
Trico wiper blades, standard & top of the range beamblades.
More than 20,000 top branded oil and filter service kits.
 
So why not take advantage of our BANK HOLIDAY FREE SHIPPING offer today.

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T&C's (the boring bit)
* Voucher code BHFREE cannot be used CLEARANCE products.
* Offer for UK mainland (incl Highlands) orders only.
* Not applicable to Trade Orders.

[Oils and Fluids for Cars, Bikes and more....]

Did you know that you are entitled to great discounts on TOP Brand products at www.opieoils.co.uk
 
We offer discounts on all the products that we stock from the following TOP Brands. Delivered to your door!
 
Oils and Fluids for Cars, Bikes and more....
Amsoil, Castrol, Fuchs, Gulf Competition, Millers, Mobil, Motul, Redline and Silkolene
 
Filters for Cars, Bikes and more....
K&N, Mahle and UFI
 
Spark Plugs/Glow Plugs for Cars, Bikes and more....
Denso and NGK
 
Cleaning, Detailing and Polishing Products
Bilt Hamber Clays, Dodo Juice, Meguiars and Muc-Off
 
We also sell Trico wiper blades and Oil Safe workshop products.
 
To obtain your discounts, register via the link below selecting your Club or the Opie Oils Loyalty Club when prompted and all of your orders will be automatically discounted in future.
 
https://www.opieoils.co.uk/createaccount-short.aspx
 
Registration is free so why not start saving today.....take a look at what we have to offer whilst you're there.
 
Don't forget to add yourself to our mailing list, when registering for advice of any additional offers that we are running to save you even more money.
 
Thanks for reading.
 
The opieoils.co.uk Team.
 

What are the most important substances added to the refined base oils and
what do they do?

In the Dark Ages cars and bikes used blends of refined mineral oils 'straight' with nothing added. The trouble was, even in the slow-revving engines of 80 years ago the oil didn't last very long, and the engines didn't either. Black sludge and corrosion were the killers, and both were tackled in the 1950s with detergent and antioxidant chemicals. The detergents washed the carbon from fuel combustion off the bores and out of the ring grooves, and at the same time reduced bore and piston ring corrosion. The antioxidants stopped the oil reacting with oxygen in the air, which cut acid sludge formation which in turn reduced corrosion and oilway blockages.

Some antioxidants had the useful side-effect of reducing wear as well. This added up to longer oil and engine life, both improving about three times. (Straight oil had to be changed every 1000miles, and even lightly-stressed engines running on it were ready for a full overhaul at 15-20,000.)

Later came dispersant compounds which held the carbon as tiny particles in the oil which didn't settle out anywhere, and slipped through the oil filter as if it wasn't there.(Solid bits in well-used modern oil are about 1/1000mm across; the pores in an oil filter are at least 15 times bigger.)

 The other big problem with oil used to be cold starting. It was usual to have SAE 20 Winter or 'W' grades, and SAE 30 or 40 Summer grades, and even the so-called Winter types would defeat the starter in serious cold weather. Unfortunately, oil is very thick when it's cold, and very thin when it's hot. To have an oil thick enough to look after a hard working engine, you had to use a grade which was too thick when it was cold. The answer was (and is) multigrade! What was needed was an oil that behaved like a 20 'W' grade in the cold, but only thinned down to a SAE 40 or 50 when really hot; yes, 20W/50! This can be done by mixing thin oil with thick polymers based on plastics and synthetic rubbers; these don't do much in the cold, but as the oil warms up they unwind and thicken it up to some extent. The oil still thins down, but not as quickly as a polymer-free or monograde type. Multigrades started to catch on around 1960, but these pioneer types were easily ruined by mechanical shear effects, more so in gearboxes than engines. These days the better quality polymers resist shear even in combined engine/transmissions, so it is essential to use good quality shear-resistant types in a performance car or motorcycle, which gives its oil a hard time in both engine and gearbox.

HOW IS AN ENGINE OIL MADE?

There are two main components that all engine oils are made of, basestocks and the additive package. The base fluid typically makes up the bulk of the oil (70-95%). Additive chemicals are then added to enhance the positive qualities of the basestocks and to overcome whatever negative qualities there may be.

There are two main types of basestocks, petroleum and synthetic.

Petroleum basestocks are a purified form of crude oil and have been used as the base for automotive lubricants since motor oils were first developed.

Synthetic basestocks, on the other hand, are chemically engineered in a lab specifically for the purpose of lubrication. They are engineered from pure compounds that contain no contaminants which must be removed via purification. Synthetic basestocks have been around since the early 1900's but were not widely used in automotive type applications until the 70's.

PETROLEUM BASESTOCKS

Petroleum basestocks are refined from crude oil, it must be run through a series of
purification steps to improve the following desirable lubrication qualities:

Viscosity Index
A measure of an oil's ability to maintain its viscosity over a wide temperature range. The higher the number, the less change in viscosity with a change in temperature. Better oils will generally have higher viscosity indexes.

Low Temperature Performance
The better an oil will flow at low temperatures, the better its low temperature performance. Better low temperature performance provides more immediate engine protection at start-up in cold weather climates.

High Temperature Performance
How well does an oil hold together under extremely hot conditions. Will it burn off easily? Will it allow metal to metal contact under hot conditions as a result of viscosity loss (shear)? Obviously, better oils will hold together more effectively under extreme heat.

Oxidation Resistance
Oxidation occurs when oxygen reacts with the components of an oil to form sludge and other engine deposits. Oxidation leads to increased oil viscosity making the engine work harder to pump the oil through its system. An oil should be able to resist oxidation.

“HYDROCRACKED” (HC) or MOLECULARLY CONVERTED (MC) BASESTOCKS

There are many petroleum oils available on the market that are so pure and refined, they can now be passed off as synthetics.
They are not made from true synthetic basestocks (at least not in the way that synthetics have traditionally been defined), but they have so little in common with traditional
petroleum basestocks, it is really somewhat silly to classify them as petroleum oils.
Petroleum oil basestocks can be put through a super-extreme refining process called
“hydrocracking”. In some cases, as in the case of one particular name-brand "synthetic" oil, these highly refined petroleum basestocks can actually be termed and sold as "synthetic".
It is completely legal for lubricants manufacturers to label these oils as "synthetic".

These are extremely high performance petroleum basestocks, but they are not truly synthetic the way that most people understand the term and will not necessarily perform to the same level as a premium synthetic oil like PAO (poly alfa olefins) or Esters.

Hydrocracking involves changing the actual structure of many of the oil basestock molecules by breaking and fragmenting different molecular structures into far more stable ones. This results in a basestock which has far better thermal and oxidative stability as well as a better ability to maintain proper viscosity through a wide temperature range - when compared to a typical petroleum basestock.

Although contaminants are still present, and these are still petroleum basestocks, contamination is minimal and performance characteristics are high. This process also can turn a wider range of crude oil stock into well-performing petroleum lubricant basestocks.

SYNTHETIC BASESTOCKS

Synthetic oil basestocks have very little in common with their petroleum "cousins". They are used for a similar purpose. But, while one is designed specifically for the purpose of lubrication (built brick by brick), the other has been simply transformed into something that will adequately do the job.

In the case of synthetic basestocks the first step is the most important. The lubricant manufacturer first decides what the final lubricant is going to be used for. Once that is determined, research is done to determine what lubricant characteristics will be best suited to that particular application. Only then is manufacture of the actual lubricant basestocks begun.

On the surface, the manufacture of synthetic basestocks may seem far more simplistic than the manufacture of a petroleum oil. In the case of synthetics, materials of low molecular weight are chemically reacted with each other to produce materials of higher molecular weight with very specific lubricating properties.
There is no need to separate the basestocks into fractions of differing molecular weight because the intended molecular weight is formed at the start. There is no need to extract contaminants or transform them into something useful because there are no contaminants to begin with. 
Nevertheless, it is important to understand that the particular materials used for chemical reaction and the methods used for those reactions will result in synthetic basestocks of varying quality. Experience is essential to proper manufacture of a quality synthetic basestocks.

Synthetic basestocks manufactured in this way will have the following basic benefits over their petroleum basestock counterparts: improved low and high temperature performance, improved oxidative and thermal stability, enhanced frictional characteristics and longer lubricant life.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ADDITIVE PACKAGE

Although the basestock of an oil will be a major determining factor in the lubrication quality of an oil, chemical additives play a major part in making sure that it does all that it is supposed to do. The chemical additive package of an oil is just as important to insuring the quality of a lubricant as is the particular basestock used.
The chemical additive package of an oil is designed to perform a number of tasks and each task is performed by a particular type of chemical. The quality of the chemicals used and the manner in which they are blended plays a large part in determining how well the additive package does its job.

As the quality of the additive chemicals increases, so does the price. In addition, proper blending takes a great deal of research. This requires much time and, again, money.
Therefore, manufacturers will, of course, charge more for motor oils which contain a high quality additive package than those with lower quality additive packages. They simply can't afford not to.

Each chemical within an oils additive package plays a different role in boosting the beneficial properties of it's host lubricant (basestock).

This is something different but well worth reading. It was written by our learned friend in Stoke and we think is of interest to any car or bike owner.

Well…………! In The Beginning there was Carbon and Hydrogen.

These got together in accordance with rules forged in the Big Bang (yes, really!) to make methane, one carbon atom with 4 hydrogens stuck on.

A bit later, (only 4000 million years) other atoms started getting together and finally came up with Life, a self-reproducing chemical mix. The reproducing bit was quite fun, but after 600 million years even that gets boring.

So, a more or less intelligent life-form invented The Car and the Motorcycle, the ultimate boredom cure. This was, and is, powered by the Internal Combustion Engine, which must have fuel.

Methane is a fuel, which means it burns in air to produce energy, but unfortunately it’s a gas; a tank-full would propel a Honda 50 for about half a mile.

But! Methane had not been idle since the formation of planet Earth, and had joined up with more carbons and hydrogens to make chains called ‘hydrocarbons’. Well, they weren’t called that at the time. They had to wait for a life-form to evolve that liked giving things names, and a hundred and 20-odd years ago chemists had to learn Latin, so they called the one with five carbons ‘pentane’, the 6-carbon one ‘hexane’, then ‘heptane’ then ….wait for it…. the 8-carbon one ‘octane’ and so on. (If we were naming them now the last one would be called ‘eightane’ so you would need 95 minimum REN for your engine.)

All these things were liquids, very thin and volatile, and pure concentrated energy. The Hildebrand and Wolfmuller (rough 1894 equivalent of the Honda 50) now did 100 miles to the tank full.

Unlike water, these liquids don’t stand around in lakes. They are hidden underground in porous rock so you have to drill for them. The old name was ‘petroleum’ meaning ‘rock oil’ but this was soon shortened to ‘petrol’. The petrol came out of the wells mixed with heavy oil, so it had to be distilled off in an oil refinery.

Early on, the pale coloured stuff that evaporated easily and caught fire very easily was sold as internal combustion engine fuel. It was a simple as that. ‘Octane Number’ hadn’t been invented, but in modern terms this ‘light petroleum fraction’ was about 50 Octane. Now we all know that in the GCSE Science engine The Piston squeezes the air/fuel mixture, then The Spark Plug ignites it to produce The Power Stroke.

The trouble is, with 50 octane fuel if The Piston squeezes too much the heat generated by compression makes the stuff Go Bang prematurely before The Spark Plug gets a look in, giving a Power Stroke with as much push as a fairy’s fart. This is why early engines couldn’t use compression ratios above 4 : 1, and 10BHP per litre was seen as hot stuff.

Engines improved but petrol didn’t and even some time after WW 1 a touring 1000cc engine only turned out about 25BHP, and a hot-shot Sport version with the latest overhead valves would need a good tuner to get 50BHP.
 
So finally some effort was made to stop primitive petrol going bang too soon, and a variable compression engine was invented for research. (The ‘CFR’ engine, as used for finding Research and Motor Octane Numbers, RON and MON, to this very day.) Early on researchers found that the bung in the CFR head could be really screwed down if a heavy liquid called ‘TEL’ (tetra ethyl lead) was added. This was really effective and cheap, and allowed the ‘straight’ petrol to be upped to 90 or even 100 octane, and a whole load of exciting high-power engines were designed around these fuels.

This leaded fuel survived into the late 1990s, but much earlier an amazing discovery had been made. The shape of the petrol molecules was very important. ‘Octane’ if the ‘straight eight’ version with 8 carbons in a row had an ‘octane number’ of 25. It was only the mutant octane with 5 carbons down the middle and the others sticking out from the sides that gave the best results at high compression. (This special octane is still used as a standard for 100 octane. Proper name is 2,2,4-trimethyl pentane.)

Today, ‘petrol’ is really a synthetic fluid built up from oil industry feedstocks. Very little of it is unmodified distillate from crude oil. It is tailor made to include the best compression-resisting molecules so that no poisonous and polluting lead compounds are needed to reach 95 or even 98 octane. Nothing much is added, apart from a touch of detergent to keep the engine top end clean. Quite a lot of petrol now has 5% ‘renewable’ alcohol as a planet-saving gesture, but this also improves the octane number (by about 1 ) so there’s nothing wrong with that.

Anyway, if you have a motoring holiday instead of flying ComaJet, you are keeping that carbon footprint down….and paying too much tax as well…..but that’s another story.

Fascinating stuff.

Cheers
Tim

Hi, I have a 96 1.4 polo eng code AEX, I have just replaced the front disc's and while doing this I found that the spacer tube for the mounting bolts were a bit corroded and that the white plastic sleeve around the tube was a bit mangled, I cleaned them up and used plenty of coppaslip and refitted them. I went to my local dealership in Milton Keynes to try to get replacement parts, I was quoted £75+vat for the four spacer tubes, four bolts and four plastic liners. Does anyone know of a cheaper source? I have tried Eurocarparts & GSF but no luck as it seems my car was made at a change over time for the caliper mounting method?? and they do not carry the spares!

Thank You

[25% OFF]

Don't miss out on Opie Oils summer sale.
 
At Opie Oils we are giving up to 25% OFF (including members discounts) on EVERYTHING on our website*.
 
To get your additional 15% off (on top of members discounts) use the offer code below:
 
SUMMERSALE

Simply insert the above code into the offer code box at the www.opieoils.co.uk checkout to recieve your additional 15% saving.


 
Why not start saving money on top quality products and brands by placing your order at Opie Oils today.

Cheers,
The Opie Oils Team.

PS.Don't forget to register as a Club Member or a Loyalty Club Member to get your 10% Members discount!
 
T&C's (the boring bit)
* Our summer sale offer does not apply to CLEARANCE products.
* Our summer sale offer does not apply to Brembo products.
* Not applicable to Trade Orders.

[25% OFF]

The chance to Win Opie Oils fantastic Dodo Juice give away is now closed, and the lucky winner is Tristan Perrin who is a member of MX5Nutz.com.

If you missed out on our Dodo Juice announcement, then dont worry as Opie Oils have just started the Summer Sale, in which we are giving 25% OFF (including members discounts) on EVERYTHING on our website*.

For more details of this fantastic saving, click the image below:

 
 
Why not start saving money on top quality products and brands by placing your order at Opie Oils today.

Cheers,
The Opie Oils Team.

PS.Don't forget to register as a Club Member or a Loyalty Club Member to get your 10% Members discount!
 
T&C's (the boring bit)
* Our summer sale offer does not apply to CLEARANCE products.
* Our summer sale offer does not apply to Brembo products.
* Not applicable to Trade Orders.

is this an easy thng to do on a 1.6 8v polo 6n?

just having a few ideas for car goin through me head

is there a meet in the north east? like middlesbrough area