Buying Oil, Some Basic Advice From Opie Oils

[oilman]

If you follow this link there is a list of the VW specs and what they mean

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

As your car has a PD engine, you must use an oil that meets the VW505.01, 506.01 or 507.00 spec as the oil has to deal with a lot harsher conditions than in many other engines. 505.01 is the normal service schedule oil for a PD engine, 506.01 was the original long life service oil for a PD and the 507.00 is the latest VW longlife oil, suitable for both the VW PD engines and the later common rail diesels. In general, apart from some oddities like the V10 Touregs, 507.00 is suitable for all earlier VW engines.

If you look at the oils via the links on the VW page, you'll see that the 505.01 oils are mainly 5w-30, the 506.01 is 0w-30 and the 507.00 is 5w-30. As there is a range of viscosities that are suitable for the same engine, it shows that the engines are not overly fussy about viscosity, as long as the oil spec is met. It's more important that the oil has the correct VW spec on it rather than a certain viscosity.

In response to your other questions:

1. Almost all oils (other than a couple of industrial diesel oils) are suitable for diesel and petrol engines. If you look on the can, there will be an ACEA A and B spec, the A refers to petrol and the B to diesel. Normally the numbers following the letters are the same or close, meaning that the oil meets the equivalent petrol and diesel specs. VW oils are a good example for that, their 507.00 oils are the latest ones for diesel engines, but all the oils that meet the 507.00 spec all meet the 504.00 spec, their latest petrol one.

2. As it's a PD engine, the oil needs to meet 505.01, 506.01 or 507.00, if it's changed annually, it doesn't matter which one. It doesn't have to be a 5w-40, a 0w-30 and 5w-30, as long as they meet those specs, will be fine.

3. Your garage is wrong, to my knowledge there are no PD suitable oils that are 10w-40. It seems that a lot of VW garage are now using a bog-standard 10w-40 to save them some money, but it is incorrect. The oil needs to meet one of the PD suitable specs to prevent excessive cam wear (and a bonus to them if the cam gets worn as that's either an expensive garage bill or a new car). You are fine to mix any of the PD suitable oils in a PD engine, and realistically there would be no harm in topping up a PD suitable oil with a drop of 10w-40, but it is not suitable to use a 10w-40 for an oil change. Unless they can provide some evidence (not just them saying it's suitable, but a spec sheet for the oil or the label on the can) I'd make them change it.

4. Yes, your car is pre-DPF so no need to worry about that.

Cheers

Tim

[nudger2000]

Thank you very much.

Very comprehensive reply that answered all of my questions. Thanks again.

[rugby85]

This is fantastic - it is great to see all this info in one helpful post saves me haveing to trawl all over the web for it. Thanks again

[oilman]

Glad the info is useful.

Cheers

Tim

[t211]

Great post Opie - as a previous and repeat customer I can't recommend you highly enough!

[oilman]

Thanks for your custom, much appreciated

Cheers

Guy

[f2raf]

I recently purchased the Gulf Tec Plus SAE 10W - 40 vw 505.00. Its on clearance in a chainstore for £9.99 I used it in a 1.4 golf and must admit its feels brilliant, although the opie website doesnt recommend this one, it does however recommend it for the audi A6 2.5 tdi I have, so 8 litres for £20 is a bargain. Although the manual suggests that for higher mileage cars (176k plus now on mine) you should use vw 506.00 Would you agree?

[oilman]

The Gulf is good stuff, you will have no problem with it.

No need to move to 506.01 for high mileage.

Cheers

Guy

[analyst]

Is the forum discount code no longer applicable, as it made no effect on the order I just placed with Opie Oils?

[oilman]

Is the forum discount code no longer applicable, as it made no effect on the order I just placed with Opie Oils?

Sorry for the confusion, the prices that you are currently getting are the discounted prices, we have had to change the way in which the prices are displayed and accessed as many members were not understanding how they got our best prices. We have not taken the discounts away they are just easier to get!

Andrew
Opie Oils