hi im currently using 20/50 or whatever it says in haynes manual but gonna do oil change next sat and was wondering if anyone else thinks or knows exactly what oil is best for the 8v digi engine?
Pretty sure recommended oil is 15W-40 (Castrol GTX High milage oil is good on these old timers). I've tried magnatec 10W-40 and it blew the rear crankshaft seal, plus the car used to use noticably more oil and smoke plumes under acceleration. Reverted back to thicker oil and the smoking stopped.
Yes, the recommended oil is 15W-40 and Quantum do that as well, a 15W-40 Multigrade. A very high percentage of people on this forum run 10W-40 synta tho with no probs, I used to on my old 8v and my 16v too. Cheers, Joe
yep, thats pretty much the options - quantum synta (multivalve / recent recon) - quantum mulitgrade (old timers) either way, always get a genuine filter ps: quantum is the vag branded genuine oil...
I have a VR6 - Synta Silver is used by the dealers for that so i dont see why it wouldnt be any good for the GTi.
I thought it was more: synta silver for old timers, synta gold for newer engines/recon engines, & multigrade for cheapskates. I always use synta silver anyway.
gold is for very very new, low mileage engines...such as 1.8T's. i got a q about this 'use genuine oil filter' thing...its cause of a piston or something...is this for all vag cars? my girlies mkIV polo has just come back from its service and it sounds much rougher, i'm wondering if they haven't used a decent filter.
A lot of cheaper filters don't have an anti-drainback valve, so on a start the engine has to fill the oil filter etc. before the oil gets near any moving parts. Unlikely to be the prob with the polo, unless it's only rougher on startup....
yep..is on start up...but not sure if it has the valve...the vr6 doesn't does it, cause its just the element?
You should try WD-40 for rusty/squeaky garage door hinges and GTX in high mileage engines coz there's less chance of oil leaking past old engine seals causing unwanted leaks, compared to using a thinner oil. The VAG handbook states the correct oil is 15W-40 for a Mk2 8V (and that was when new). As an engine racks up the miles it is advisable to use slightly thicker oil, not thinner oil.
It wasn't the 15/40 that's the problem - it's the "Castrol". They don't exactly have an outstanding reputation as far as their range of oils go. As in, it's shit oil.
I wouldn't put Castrol in my lawn-mower. If your engine is going to leak oil past the seals then the seals are knackered and it will leak regardless of what grade you use. VAG specified 15W40 mineral oil before semi-synthetic and synthetic oils became practical and affordable.
You might be better off changing the filter then, just to rule it out - it could well be the cause. Not sure about the VR6 engine TBH!
A well balanced opinion (it's Castrol so it's rubbish). You've probably never used GTX high-mileage because it's made by Castrol, so don't judge it. Plus, it's news to me that Castrol had a rubbish reputation for engine oil. Skoda and Seat had a crap reputation but now it's all VAG technology, but your reasoning dictates they're still crap. Hence, it folows that VAG technology is crap also.
Err, it's very well known amongst people who know about cars that Castrol oil is generally crap. They are also well known for making misleading claims about the content of their oils, and have been taken to court for it. Here's just one mention, by Bob Drake, an ex-VW tuner - The EPC billet also has two flavors. The standard billet that everybody gets, and one made specially for Drake. The Drake version was initiated at my request - due to the failure rate of the ordinary billet. The ordinary billet would sometimes "go flat" on about 5% of the cars. We noticed this problem years ago, and most users had CASTROL GTX in common. It turned out that Castol GTX is missing Zinc-disulphide -- a chemical needed to protect the integrity of this billet. (Valvoline Racing has it.) Thus most failures were related to Castrol. I could find you plenty more.......
I didn't tell anyone to put Castrol in their lawn mower; I've never put oil in lawnmower so couldn't comment anyway. Engine oil seals are manufactured with a certain viscosity of oil in mind. If you put too thin oil in an engine, or overfill an engine then even with new seals (and piston rings etc) may leak. As I mentioned in my first post, from MY experience, putting 10W-40, caused me problems with smoking, which stopped when the recommended oil was used.
Engine oil seals aren't specified with a certain viscosity of oil in mind. Bearings are, but seals aren't. Your oil leaks/burning stopped when you put in a thicker oil because it was too thick to seep past your worn seals and piston rings. Edited by: TheSecondComing
