[Vwdiesel] Synthetic Motor oil

[William J Toensing]

I don't have any info on what synthetic motor oils are available on the European market but it would be interesting to find out.Perhaps our European members could enlighten us on this. In my opinion, Amsoil has too many different blends of synthetic oils & if asked, I can't tell you why one oil would be better than another. I guess each manufacturer has specific variations in their specifications. Ford recommends a 0w-20 oil for my Focus. I have used there top rated & most expensive Series 2000 0w-30 oil for 127,000 miles with the results previously described. Maybe my fuel economy has suffered slightly from using  their 0w-30. One recent post said they use Amsoil Series 2000 20w-50 racing oil. That is good oil & I use it in some of my older cars including my Model A. Henry Ford recommended an oil change every 500 miles for the Model A. However, when the Model A was made, it had no oil or air filter even as optional equipment, & motor oil was of much poorer quality back then. I have run the aforementioned 20w-50 oil in my Model A without any change for 10 years & 6,000 miles & have not had to add any oil. However I am running an Amsoil full flow filter as a bi-pass filter & am using a home made adopter adopting an Amsoil air filter designed for a Briggs & Stratton engine on my Model A. I also periodically test the Amsoil in my cars with a commercially made oil analyzer which tests for acid contamination. It does not test for trace metal or other aspects which a commercial oil analyzer service would provide, which is better. In my '55 Packard, I run a straight 40 weight Amsoil synthetic which they no longer blend. Have had it in the Packard for about 20 years, & still tests good. I was advised to run that oil by a Packard specialist as he said the bearing tolerances were looser 55 years ago than they are now. The Packard is a survivor in original unrestored condition with only 56,000 actual miles & still uses no oil. Please note Amsoil recommends 25,000 or once a year oil changes with a filter change every 12,500 miles or once a year. It never hurts anything to change your oil every year or 3,000 miles, which ever comes first, except damage to your pocket book. In other older cars & my VW diesels I have been running Amsoil's 15w-40 diesel oil as it has a higher additive package to fight acid buildup & as I recall, is recommended for engines that are infrequently used, such as collector cars.
If you will go to Amsoil's website, you may find the answers to some of your questions. Other questions can likely be answered to contacting Amsoil's technical services dept. As to what is different about VW's specifications for their TDI's, I don't know. But I would at least run what oil VW recommends until the warranty expires. Maybe someone else can answer what is special about VW's oil specifications, I can't. However, if I had a late model TDI, I would run what VW recommends.
Bill Toensing