Oil advice and recommendations here

If an oil has been approved by VAG it has been tested by VAG. While Castrol Edge and Mobil are good, VAG approved oils, there are plenty of others such as Fuchs, Shell, Millers, Motul, Gulf, etc etc etc. They have all been tested by VAG to meet the specifications. Fuchs are actually involved in the factory fill of some VAG cars.
 
Oilman said:
If an oil has been approved by VAG it has been tested by VAG. While Castrol Edge and Mobil are good, VAG approved oils, there are plenty of others such as Fuchs, Shell, Millers, Motul, Gulf, etc etc etc. They have all been tested by VAG to meet the specifications. Fuchs are actually involved in the factory fill of some VAG cars.
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A different opinion -
I have no inside info on Audi practices but when I worked for a diesel engine manufacturer we provided a specification and the Oil companies simply declared which products in their range were compliant. The engine company did not get involved in testing these oils mainly because it was horrifically expensive and time consuming to run field trials and engine durability tests to validate lab results. For internal use we did run oil analysis programmes during field testing of new engine models. We often found that all oils, supposedly to the same spec, were not quite equal.
While I would use any of the oils you mension, I suspect Audi will put significantly more effort into validating oils for use in their own workshops which is why I think they are the No1, money no object, choice.
Regarding 'factory fill'. In the old days of a first oil change at 1000 miles, I read that VW used 'reclaimed' engine oil as it was better for the running -in process. I suspect it would still be better for bedding in piston rings and wonder if that would still be the case if engineers and not marketing ran the show now.

Cheers Spike
 
There are two different things to check for on a can of oil - 'Meets the requirements of' just means that the oil manufacturer thinks it meets the car oil spec, but it has no official approval, so no good for warranties and doesn't necessarily meet the spec.

'Approved by VW/BMW/Mercedes' etc is what you want to see as the car manufacturer has tested the oil and said that it meets or exceeds the requirements. Car manufacturers are happy enough to test oils as it can cost the oil manufacturer up to £50k to test for a specification. The reason Audi push Castrol and Mobil is because they are paid to. These deals where an oil company gets a car company to push their oils are about the best advertising they can get. If an Audi owner is made to think that they should buy a Castrol or Mobil oil, that's guaranteed trade for the oil companies. I think the BMW/Castrol deal is about the best one as so many BMW owners think their cars and bikes will die if they don't use Castrol oils.

Oils will not necessarily be the same even if they meet the same spec as some specs don't really mean a lot. If you look at some of the basic VW specs, there is a complete range from basic to almost top end oils that meet the spec. There are also variations with the later specs as well. Castrol Edge or Mobil ESP are good examples to compare against the VW Quantum stuff. The Edge and ESP meet a range of specifications for several manufacturers, whereas the Quantum is only aimed at making the VW spec as cheaply as possible. That means that the Quantum is as basic as is acceptable in the engine, but the Edge and ESP are likely to exceed the requirements in many areas.

Modern engines are run in before they go in the cars, so most cars now leave the factory with good synthetic oils. I think you've got a good point about letting the engines run in properly as so many cars seem to drink oil now. Good for our business admittedly, but not good for the owners.

Cheers

Tim
 
Oilman,

I am interested in switching to motul 300v 0w20 can you tell me if this is safe to use in my 1.4 petrol (aua code) and if i would notice an improvement in mpg compared to the current 0w40 mobil 1 that im using?

Thanks
Rob
 
Hi Rob

I wouldn't advise it. That engine isn't designed to run on an oil that thin and you may find that any money saved due to increased mpg (which will be absolutely minimal) will be spent on more 300V 0w-20 as it's more likely to burn it off. If you want to try a thinner oil, go for a 0w-30

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/c-652-0w-30.aspx

Despite what some people may say about thinner oils increasing mpg, it really is minimal. The only time you get a noticeable increase is in a car running a poor quality thick oil (mineral based 20w-50 or 20w-60) that is then changed to a top end thin oil (ester 0w-30 or 5w-30).

Cheers

Tim
 
I don’t wish to be pedantic but after reading your list of alternative oils beside £50 Castrol Edge i went over to the Shell site for info and prices. Their oils are priced progressively and they also include a product portfolio/broacher which is a tad confusing.

The broacher lists the oils available by age of the vehicle in question, in my case a 2002 tdi. In doing this Shell are excluded the use of their oils meeting VW’s latest specifications 507 (Helix Ultra) and instead recommending Helix H7 a 10/40w oil which meets the 505 VW spec.

Firstly is 10/40w ok? As your site doesn’t have a 10/40 available for my car, and does this Shell infomation effectively mean that oil specified to the latest 507 VW spec is actually useless in earlier cars that weren’t built to use it in the first place?

Great thread by the way.
 
Due to the amount of data our site has to hold (remember, unlike the Shell, Castrol and Mobil look ups, we have several brands to cover, rather than just the one, plus we also have service packs, filters etc), we have to do a block recommendation for several years of cars, using the latest VW specs. The site is basically listing oils that are higher spec than needed in some cars, but that is better than underspeccing the oil. We're working on giving different options for the different VW specs, but all of these things take time.

If you want an oil meeting a certain VW spec, the best way is to use this link.

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/c-742-vw-engine-oil.aspx

It also works out cheaper to buy the oil and filter seperately rather than in a service pack at the moment, due to the sale.

Cheers

Tim
 
Thanks Oil man that page pretty much explains every single aspect of the confusing Audi oil preferences, esp as my local car spares shop owner was adamant that a pack of AC-DELCO oil would be absolutely fine with it’s 505.0 specification. I think his words were “bang the same as Castrol E at half the price mate, all our VAG customers are well happy with it”

Now i'm looking at only Castrol E for my TDI as it's readily available where i live. Thanks again.
 
Although two oils may sound the same, eg both are 5w-40 sythetics, they can be hugely different. The problem is a lot of people just see 5w-40 synthetic and decide it's the same, so therefore the expensive one is overpriced, even though they don't really know what they are talking about.
 
oil help

hi, ive got a 2003 53 plate 1.4 tdi 75bhp, what oil can i use?
5w40 or 5w30, i will prob be changing the oil every 10k.

please help

cheers

craig
 
I've run my 1.4 TDi on 5w40 Castrol Edge Turbo diesel oil for the last 30k miles as I couldn't find 5w30 locally. What's the difference in the two?
 
Blue Two said:
I've run my 1.4 TDi on 5w40 Castrol Edge Turbo diesel oil for the last 30k miles as I couldn't find 5w30 locally. What's the difference in the two?
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On our Audi PD engines the injectors are activated by a camshaft. Loading on the camshaft is high compared to a normal diesel engine so an oil to the specific VW specs is required to prevent long term cam wear. I'm sure there will be other considerations but the camshaft issue is a known problem if you use the wrong spec oil long term.

Cheers Spike
 
PD engines need a VW505.01 or 507.00 spec oil. The 505.01 spec oils tend to be a 5w-40 and the 507.00 are 5w-30. That doesn't mean that any 5w-40 or 5w-30 can be used, they need to meet those specs or there will be excessive cam wear.

Cheers

Tim
 
Ah, ok according to Castrol, the Edge Turbo Diesel 5w40 meets 505 01

"Specialist product for VW PD engines requiring the VW 505 01 specification"

http://datasheets.bp.com/bpglis/FusionPDS.nsf/0/EC9CF891BB3F884E802577270055BE52/$file/BPXE-85KN52_0.pdf

Lovely.
 
Hi , in your expert opinion which oil is the best quality mobil 5/30 or castrol 5/30 ? Thanks.
 
 
Hello,

I'm about to change the oil on my 1.4 TDI SE, 2001 with about 110k on the clock. Previously, I used Titan SuperSyn Longlife plus 0w-30 (from Opie oils) as it was recommended for the long interval service: and then I changed the oil every year with an increment of probably 5000 miles or so (in the hope that my engine will last for ever!). I'm wondering now, since the change of recommendation by Audi to a 5w-30 if I should change too. Also, on your Opie oils site I read that the SuperSyn Longlife plus 0w-30 isn't as popular as it was. Would you recommend moving to the new viscosity? My initial thought was to continue with the Titan product but perhaps there are issues with this low viscosity oil running away from parts of the engine when cold...... or perhaps I'm talking rubbish! Any comments appreciated! Thanks, Mark.
 
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