[dean.l.rowden]

I noticed the other day the oil in my TS was pretty black and know from the service book it was last serviced around 5,000 miles ago - June 2009.

I was wondering what's included in a general service form a garage? I've only ever had old diesels before and would change the oil and filter on those myself.

I want to get the oil changed asap as I'm not sure what's in there (brand not amount) but all else is running fine so don't want to spent money unnecessarily. At the same time I want to maintain the full services history and get the stamp in the service book.

What should I do? (shut up and book it in for a service I'd imagine!)

 

[Spider95]

If it received the full monthly service to schedule last June then all you need is an oil/filter change and perhaps a checkover. Good idea to change oil/filter every 6months/6,000 miles on these engines - the variator for one doesn't like dirty oil. Make sure it's a good 10w/40 oil, or if you really want to a synthetic 5W/40.

Hope that helps.

 

[msgtv]

Probably best to take it to an alfa specialist (not dealer), they understand the quirks of the breed and can advise you on other aspects of the car whilst your there, had my oil changed at alfa technico, he uses shell helix ultra fully synthetic 5/40, with the hood up the engine sounded mechanically quieter, thought i was imagining it but later read on the forum that others have noticed the same, a good quality 10/40 is good enough but for the small difference in price i'd go fully synthetic, gets to the variator quicker in cold conditions and is more resiliant to heat (3k oil change is preferable but not essential).