A lot of the guys I know ended up running valvoline VR1 20W-50 (A Dino oil, fwiw) because that was the only thing that keeps their rod bearings alive for more then a couple of weekends. Switching from thinner oil to that made the difference between changing bearings every couple of weekends to once a year.
I've topped off with Castrol Syntec 5/40. The cap says Castrol on it and the manual says to use VW approved synthetic 5/40 so I figure I can't do better than that.
Cost...$9 for filter online, $1/QT for Castrol GTX with rebate...so $15 or so...knowing that everythings done right..priceless!
You probably don't \"need\" syn, but its a darn good idea, esp if you want to run 5000k ocis with urban driving and/or want to keep the car for a long time. If you do stick, with conventional, which i don't recommend, make sure its better stuff like Castrol GTX.
I run either 0w40 castrol full syn or 0w40 pentosyn in all my cars. After changing oil every 1000miles for 5oil changes and ever 3k after that my old corolla looked like a brand new engine inside with 125k on it when I pulled the valve cover to do a t-belt.
I run Castrol's Syntec 5W 50 in my TD... it's CD and CF rated so fine for IDI TDs like yours... great in the extreme cold but thick enough for the summer.
My VW dealer uses Castrol Syntec 5W-40 that meets the VW 502 standard.
I use castrol
For some odd reason it seems that mobil 1 iron numbers are a bit higher in the 1.8T. I switched to Castrol Syntec 0w-30 and my iron numbers went down.
castrol 5w40 is what vw puts in the new passat. just did my 5k oil change the other day. i used a original vw oil filter also.
Write your review
Help others - share your experience with this part.
