Car is in need of an oil change and I want to prep it for Stealth at the end of the month (my first rolling road day!!) - I am thinking of treating her to fully synthetic, especially as I read a thread on here recently about fully synthetic oil helping to keep temps down. What should I go for? 5w40 fully synth? Fuchs/GSF oil ok for this?
Fuch's stuff is fine, but Quantrum isn't too expensive I thought as that's 5w40 anyway. vwspares sell it for 20 inc vat for a 5L bottle (exc P&P)
fuchs is fine but so is quantum platinum and its a lot cheaper. youll see a noticable oil temp drop with quantum platinum too. 20L for 59+vat
I might grab some quantum at vw aylesbury then, its nearer to me than the GSF! Is it a 5l bottle I need for the ABF (I will look this up later, but for ease...?) Anything in particular I need to know before oil changing an ABF engine? It hasnt been done since ive had it last October, so if there are any pitfalls I need to know? Oil filter seems easy enough to access..?
I use Fuchs 10-40 (15% members discount at GSF - shabba!) and my running temps are never over 92 degrees. I don't think there is much point in running full synth in a mk3, but thats just my opinion. Some useful tips: Get a new o ring for sump plug (you don't have to but VW used to give me these for free) Put the new oil filter on at finger tight and rub a little oil round the top of the filter(as this will make it easy to remove next time) Give the oil a good time to fully drain through and out of the plug. Have a good look at the oil when its out. It should be dark black and smelly with no bits in it If you have lots of shrapnel or mayo residue in the oil you got engine issues (very unlikely) - but as the oils out you may as well have an inspection Fill the oil back in stages so you can get an idea of how much you've put in. Over filling is a pain in the anus.
quantum platinum ftw.... good stuff. oil temps were ([:^(]) around 92-94 av... 96-98 motorway.... 100-102 when gunning it a lot on the motorway. if the car is jacked up on one side when you are draining the oil make sure you put it back down again at some stage or you will get old stuff left one side of the sump plug.
Well job done today! Went to VW in Aylesbury, got 5w40 synta fully synthetic, a filter and a new drain plug - I asked the parts guy if they gave owners club discounts and he gave me 20%!!!! Couldnt believe it, never had a discount from VW before, I was well chuffed! My temps always sit around late 80s, never really above 94-96 when thrashing, I went for a spirited drive afterwards and couldnt seem to get it above 88 degrees - so if thats typical, im pleased! Will know more on a longer run!
Whats the reason for wanting to reduce oil temps by a couple of degrees? None of the figures above are outside of the operating temperature of Fuchs Titan 10w40 which is about 13 from GSF and will be absolutely fine in a road going MK3. Surely the ABF is meant to be run on semi anyway? I thought the only advantage to fully synth is longer service intervals (in newer motors) and higher temp ranges (for use in race cars) Will the engine run better on fully synthetic?
a couple years back i took mine to the ring. i was using 10w40 semi fuchs titan. that weekend i saw 122* and water temps went up too. between semi and fully synth (in particular platinum) the temps drop. after a damn good thrashing theyll go upto 96-98 the most. presumably due to less friction. less heat, less plastic flanges warping, i dont see a down side and its far from dear
The way I see it, my engine seems a little quieter - could be a placebo effect, but to me it does. The heat transfer seems to happen quicker, ie temps will go up a little quicker, but then seem to fall a little quicker, but dont rise as far and as Matt82 says, I dont see a down side. It cant really do any harm, Synta platinum is an excellent oil, and I got a discount!! Keeping temps down can hardly be a bad thing, as long as my temps are still within a good range and not too low, which they are, its a positive!
OK thanks for clearing that up Matt, have you done any more track days on fully synth in yours for a track day temp comparison? 122* is extremely hot!!! I would have thought that 10w40 semi is useless at that temperature, did you change it out straight after. Does it ruin the oil once it has reached that sort of temperature, or does it recover when it cools? as we only use ours as a family wagon, I'll stick with the semi as I rarely see temperatures past 90*, and I change it every 5k miles, might get some for the BMW though as that does run quite hot.
