Engine oil PENNZOIL or MOTUL

I just changed the oil with 2,960 on the odometer. This is the car's first oil change. Used zero oil since new. New Mann filter and Motul 5-40. Can't prove it but I swear it runs better.

Initially I used Mobil 1 0w-40 for the first few oil changes... Engine Idle was sort of noisy for a car that had less than 50k miles. What made me switch was when I opened up my oil cap on 2 different occasion to see smoke come out. After that I switched to Motul. With motul the power deliver was more smooth, less aggressive. Engine idle was quieter. The car felt slower but the engine overall seemed healthier. Most importantly i havn't exxperince smoke after opening the oil cap since switching over.

It might be due to a difference in oil viscosity. With usage the Motul oil has sheared down to 30 weight which makes the engine run more freely and cooler as compared to fresh Castrol which has not accumulated enough hours to lose viscosity. It's been well documented that a viscosity decrease lowers oil temperature.

I run Pennzoil Platinum in mine (same engine) which is another popular oil. 5w-30 btw.

I use Castrol or Pennzoil most of the time (N/A engine or I'd use Rotella) haven't had any issues with it.

The 8100 X-Cess. It has actually improved my fuel economy!

Well the oil change itself is unbelievably easy and clean. The Motul oil works well for me.

I have been driving for upwards of 50 years and have always had good luck with Pennzoil products. Pennzoil makes a 5W-40 full synthetic Platinum Euro which meets the VW 502 spec and has gotten good reviews from GTI owners.

I run Motul in the Subaru with a bunch of track days and it has had no oil related problems and does not burn excessive amounts of oil with almost 75,000 miles.

Have you given the Motul Specific 502.00/505.00/505.01 a try? I switched to it years ago on my mk5 rabbit (140k miles or so over the past 5.5 years across 3 cars) with excellent results. It is a mid SAPS oil like the x-clean as well.