Hi,

I've recently bought a Volvo XC70. It has about136,000 miles on it. It's due for an oil change. A few people have told me I "must" add Lucas additive when I get an oil change, because it will make the car run much better and the oil last longer. I've checked the manual and it says not to use additives, but people have told me I can ignore this. What's your advice? Can I take the car to an oil change place and ask them to add the additive, or is it best not too? I'm a new car owner so this is a bit new for me, any info would be appreciated, thanks for the help.

Best,
Joe

 

Additives generally have extra detergents which can loosen up some deposits. As to making the car run better - not sure how that would be true. Making oil last longer? Oil breaks down with temperature so again not sure how additives will help there other than to make you want to change oil sooner. A more sensible approach would be to use synthetics or synthetic blends for your oil with OEM filters and continue to change per the factory intervals. For older models (ie those that didn't come from the factory with synthetic oil), you may want to consider a high mileage oil which contain a seal softener as an interim change when migrating from dino to synthetic. Take a look inside your oil fill cap - if all you see is some staining (brownish tint on the metal) that's normal. Sludgy deposits would be a cause for pause to consider a further inpection.

 

Thanks, that's helpful. Is there a way to know what type of oil is in there now, so I can tell them to use synthetic or dino?

 

only way to tell is if you have a window sticker or a history from the servicing. You didn't say what year but you should be ok simply using synthetic with your next change. Note that on many newer cars designed around synthetic oil often go 7500 to 10000 miles between oil changes... I wouldn't assume you can do that on an older engine which is likely to have some ring blow by. I would bet your owners manual suggests a proper oil weight for synthetics as well (I think my S40 uses 5-30, My VW CC uses 5-40 and I run synthetic in both)

 

Thanks.

 

You don't have to add anything. Just fill with the proper amount and viscosity of oil.

 

Thanks for the info, everyone