Opel without GM: dexos or Stellantis approvals?

“Opel is GM, and GM means dexos.” With this simple logic plenty of Opel owners go out to buy oil, and the seller is happy to take a can with the dexos logo off the shelf. For a car built in the early 2010s that choice is most likely right. For a newer Opel it is far from certain. The point is that Opel has not belonged to General Motors for a long time, and under the bonnet of many Opels sits an engine from a different group altogether.

Let me say it once more: oil is chosen for the requirements of a particular engine, not for the badge on the bonnet. A manufacturer approval is a narrow specialisation of an oil for certain engines (more on this in the article what oil approvals are), and when a make changes hands, the approvals change along with the engines.

From GM-LL to dexos

The old Opel approvals were covered in the article which oil to use in an Opel: there were only two of them, GM-LL-A-025 for petrol engines and GM-LL-B-025 for diesels. From the 2010 model year in Europe both were replaced by a single dexos2, a General Motors standard for petrol and diesel engines alike, including those with a particulate filter. The petrol dexos1 was first introduced by GM for North America (the arrival of both is covered in the news item on the dexos specifications). Later Opel’s petrol engines moved to the second generation of dexos1, and for some of the newer GM-designed engines, petrol and diesel, Opel introduced an approval of its own, OV 040 1547 — and there dexos1 will no longer do.

So for an Opel designed back in the GM days the rule is simple: whatever your service book says — GM-LL, dexos1, dexos2 or OV 040 1547 — that is what you pour in. An oil licensed for dexos2 will, as a rule, also do where the book still says GM-LL-A-025 or GM-LL-B-025: replacing them is exactly what the standard was created for.

Now about a mix-up you may hear even from the people behind the counter. GM is gradually dropping dexos2 and moving its American engines to new standards of its own: dexosD for diesels and dexosR for high-performance petrol engines. That is GM’s internal business, not “the successors of dexos2 for Opel”: they were not developed for European Opels, and Opel does not require them. So if you are offered dexosR as “the new dexos for your Opel”, say thank you and check your service book.

And if oil with dexos2 becomes harder to find over time, what to replace it with in your Opel is for the service book or an official dealer to decide, not the seller.

What changed after 2017

On 1 August 2017 the French group PSA completed its purchase of Opel from GM, and on 16 January 2021 PSA merged with FCA (Fiat Chrysler) to form Stellantis. Since then Opel has been a neighbour of Peugeot, Citroën, DS and Fiat, and newer Opels get PSA engines: the 1.2 PureTech petrol or the 1.5 BlueHDi diesel, for example. These engines need oils with PSA/Stellantis approvals, not dexos — the GM standard simply does not apply to them.

There is one trap here: the model year on its own guarantees nothing, because models developed under GM did not necessarily get the new engines straight away. The badge on the bonnet is like the sign over a shop: the owner has changed, the sign is still the same, and what is inside you have to go and look.

A good example is the Opel Combo. The Combo that came out on the basis of the Fiat Doblo van was in essence a Fiat. In 2018 it was replaced by a generation on the PSA platform, shared with the Citroën Berlingo and the Peugeot Partner. One name, completely different hardware under the bonnet, and so different oil requirements too.

Stellantis approvals: B71 and FPW 9.55535

PSA had its own approvals, coded B71 plus four digits. Here are three an owner should know about: PSA B71 2290 — a 5W-30 oil, PSA B71 2312 — a 0W-30 oil, PSA B71 2010 — a 0W-20 oil.

Once Stellantis was formed, the group began bringing the norms of all its makes — PSA B71, Fiat’s 9.55535 and the dexos that Opel used to require — into one system, FPW 9.55535, in which the approval is identified by the number after the slash:

FPW 9.55535/01 — a low-ash 0W-20 oil for engines with a particulate filter (petrol or diesel); it replaced B71 2010.

FPW 9.55535/02 — a 0W-30 oil, replacing B71 2312.

FPW 9.55535/03 — a 5W-30 oil, roughly where B71 2290 used to be.

Fiat’s lettered approvals (9.55535-S1, S2, N2, G2, D2 and others) are being moved into the same numbering, although the old codes still turn up on plenty of cans. Which new code corresponds to the old one for your engine, the dealer will tell you.

Note: viscosity is part of the approval. /01 and /02 are not a “better” and a “worse” oil, but different oils for different engines, and you must not swap one for the other as you see fit. And wording such as “meets the requirements of PSA B71 2312” or “recommended where FPW 9.55535/02 is required” means that the oil maker has awarded the approval to itself. For sensitive engines — and the 1.2 PureTech, with its timing belt running in oil, is exactly that — look for an oil with a genuine approval confirmed by the carmaker. Why there is no single approval “for all PureTech engines” is explained in the article on timing belts that run in oil.

How to find out which oil your car needs

So first find out whose engine you have, and only then choose a can.

1. Open the service book or the owner’s manual and find the approval code — not the name of an oil, but the code itself. GM-LL, dexos1, dexos2 or OV 040 1547 means a GM-designed engine. B71 or FPW 9.55535 means a PSA/Stellantis engine. 9.55535 with letters (S1, N2 and so on) is a Fiat requirement.

2. Look at the engine code, not the engine name. Peugeot and Citroën write PureTech or BlueHDi, but Opel, as a rule, does not call its PSA engines that: the documents and price lists simply say “1.2 Turbo” or “1.5 Diesel”, and the engine cover carries the same Opel lightning bolt. Besides, a “1.2 Turbo” has also turned up in Opels with a GM engine, so the name settles nothing. What settles it is the engine code: it is stamped on the cylinder block, and a dealer or a garage can find it from the VIN — and that code shows at once whose engine it is, whatever emblem sits on the grille.

3. No service book? Ask a dealer, with the VIN. The make’s official representative will tell you which engine the car has and which oil the manufacturer requires for it today. That last point matters: the group sometimes revises its requirements even for cars already sold — for some 1.2 PureTech engines, for example, they were later tightened.

The same logic works for Opel’s “relatives” within the group: older Peugeots and Citroëns have B71, Fiats have 9.55535 with letters, newer cars as a rule have FPW 9.55535. The first step is always the same, and it is the subject of the article on the manufacturer’s recommendations.

In short, a dexos logo on a can says nothing on its own about whether that oil suits your particular Opel — only the service book or a dealer can tell you that. And a seller who confidently advises “for an Opel, take dexos” can be asked one simple question: “And whose engine have I got?”