Heating up the list - oil for our older Audis

[harchris]

Most new car oil recommendations are 10W30 for moderate conditions. If you use
the car year round with the same oil, then it has to be designed to flow when
cold and have a high viscosity when hot. The most wear on the engine is when
you first start it up since the oil isn't up to pressure yet and the oil has
had a chance to drain down.

You really haven't given enough information for a good recommendation, but
let's assume you are making mostly short trips with lots of startups year
round, and that you live in moderate temperatures with freezing temps in
winter and 90-100 F tops in summer. You will want the widest range of numbers.
For example 10W30 means that when cold, the oil flows like a 10 weight and
when hot it has the viscosity of a 30 weight. 

I live in Ontario and use synthetic ( Castrol ) 0w50 year round. The oil
should flow easily (0W) even in winter, and the 50 weight viscosity when hot
should be good enough even for my 340,000+ km 5000 CD TQ.

Cheers
George

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 08:56:02 -0600, Kunz, Bob wrote
> A short article in September's European Car discussed how ELF is
> bringing their products to the US market. Low and behold our own Dan
> Simoes is on their distributor list. But that's for my newer Audi. What
> about my '86 5ks that has lived its life on Mobil 1 15w-50 since it's
> second oil change?
> 
> Mobil decided to move their 15w-50 into the extended group and
> discontinue it out of the regular Mobil 1 lineup. I've been changing 
> the oil and filter every 5k miles. This car now has 145K on it (a 
> youngin') and of course still runs great. I have a few noisy lifters 
> but nothing else.
> 
> I used 15w-50 because that's a weight in the owner's manual that covers
> my temp range (20 to 110 degrees) and this car usually goes a year
> between changes so it sees all of those temps. What about 10w-30? 5w-
> 40? Your recommendation?
> 
> I would say not to use the 0w-40 (I use that in the TT since it's 502.00
> and 505.00 approved) cause it's too thin in this older engine.
> 
> Opiniions?
> 
> --bob
> 
> '86 5ks avant
> 
> '02 TTQR
> 
> '06 A4 2.0T (soon)
> 
> _______________________________________________