Which oil would you use?

cycledude02

Active member
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Location
Minneapolis, MN
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2005 Passat GLS TDI
Hello All,

I don't want to spark the great Amsoil debate here, but I'd like to get some input on which oil folks would choose between Amsoil AFL and the new Castrol SLX Longlife III 507 that's available at dealers. I believe I can get them both for about the same pricepoint, but I'm curious to hear what people think about which one is best for my 2005 Passat TDI. I know Amsoil is a full synthetic, but what about Castrol. Also, is the 5W-30 507 going to protect my engine as well as the heavier 5W-40?

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks!
John
 

bhtooefr

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Hmm, an oil from a pyramid scheme, or an oil that in Europe, is rated to go as far as 31,000 miles without a problem.

I know which oil I'd choose. And I'll give you a hint. It's not the one from the pyramid scheme. :p

Of course, you could have found this if you actually did this:

 
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robzuk

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bhtooefr said:
Hmm, an oil from a pyramid scheme, or an oil that in Europe, is rated to go as far as 31,000 miles without a problem.

I know which oil I'd choose. And I'll give you a hint. It's not the one from the pyramid scheme. :p
Which is why I only use ELF or Schaeffer.
 

scurvy

Good Ol' Boy
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Location
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certified oil, i choo choo CHOOSE you! it even has a picture of a train on it!

cycledude02 said:
I don't want to spark the great Amsoil debate here
THEN DON'T! :mad:

cycledude02 said:
I'd like to get some input on which oil folks would choose between Amsoil AFL and the new Castrol SLX Longlife III 507 that's available at dealers.
You're confusing two oils - Castrol SLX Professional OE 5W30 (505.01 certified) and Longlife III 5W30 (507.00 certified).

cycledude02 said:
I know Amsoil is a full synthetic, but what about Castrol
What about it?

cycledude02 said:
Also, is the 5W-30 507 going to protect my engine as well as the heavier 5W-40?
Probably.

cycledude02 said:
Please let me know your thoughts.
Plunk your cell phone into Minnehaha Creek, stock up on a thousand cans of beans and beer, hole yourself up in a windowless shack and spend the next MONTH reading the posts in this forum and you will have a much better handle on why asking the questions you've asked have been discussed to death.

Welcome to the club, and please, pretty please, Read The F@#$(*&g Stickies. :rolleyes:

scurvy
 
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robzuk

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bhtooefr said:


(How about an oil that is actually APPROVED by VW, not one that just CLAIMS to meet the specs? ;))
I use teh Schaffer in my Duramax and CTTD in teh Rover, no harm, no foul. Sorry for teh confusionz. :D
 

robzuk

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scurvy said:
THEN DON'T! :mad:

You're confusing two oils - Castrol SLX Professional OE 5W30 (505.01 certified) and Castrol Longlife III 5W30 (507.00 certified).

What about it?

Maybe.

Plunk your cell phone into Minnehanna Creek, stock up on cans of beans and beer, hole yourself up in a windowless shack and spend the next MONTH reading the posts in this forum and you will have a much better handle on why asking the questions you've asked have been discussed to death.

Welcome to the club, and please, pretty please, Read The F@#$(*&g Stickies. :rolleyes:

scurvy
Good Gawd man, ROID RAGE? :confused:
 

cycledude02

Active member
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Location
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Thanks for the tongue lashing. It's nice to know that someone can get some 'USEFUL' information here when asking a simple question. For what it's worth, I did use the SEARCH function, but it did not produce the insight I was looking for which is why I created this thread.

Also, this is what I based my Castrol product description on, but I suppose the manufacturers bottles could be wrong.



Webmaster PLEASE delete this thread as it's obviously of no value.
 
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Long_Range

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Location
Arthur, IL , USA
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Jetta Sedan GL 2004
Castrol 507.00 oil from the dealers looks pretty good if you can buy it for under $7.00. Elf Solaris LLX 507.00 is selling around $11.50.

As for the 505.01 being a heavier oil. Not by much. All the 505.01 5W-40 oils barely hang on to enough viscosity to stay a 40. My last UOA of Elf DID finished with a vis at 100*c of 12.56. 12.5 being the cutoff to a 30. 507 5W-30 oils are up in the 11.XX range.
Bottom line is if you can buy a 507.00 oil for within a dollar of a 505.01 oil. The 507.00 looks pretty good. We haven't received enough feedback to see just how good this new oil is. I'd personally like an oil that stayed between 13.5 and 14.5 vis at 100 deg.c. But we don't have any. I don't loose any sleep over it though.

You should think more in terms of choosing between a 507.00 and 505.01 oil. Then pick a brand based on price and convenience. For filters you can save a lot of money with mail order vendors over dealer prices.
 

BKmetz

Administrator, Member #10
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cycledude02 said:
Webmaster PLEASE delete this thread as it's obviously of no value.
The regulars perceived you as a troll because you registered in 2004. Only a troll or a clueless newbie would bother asking about Amsoil. But you only have 23 posts (as I type this) so obviously you're not up to date on what's been discussed to death.

I'll take you at your word that you were asking a legit question and give you a pass. Please read the stickies and search a bit, it will help your reputation and credibility simply by knowing what not to ask. ;)

.
 

dhdenney

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Well I've got some UOA's on the AFL. Average wear numbers. I am going to try 507.00 LL3 soon to see how it stacks against my previous UOA's. Then I can make a fair comparison. If the wear numbers are about the same, then I can probably attribute the phenomenon to the car. See my UOA's on one sheet here: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=154548&page=5
 

SuburbanTDI

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robzuk said:
7th Army Special Forces Master Sgt. Art Lilley killed in Afghanistan. R.I.P. RANGER, you are not forgotten.
Small typo there robzuk...

MSG Lilley was 7th SFG (ABN) not 7th Army.

MSG Lilley also was not a Ranger - he was not a member of a Ranger Batt. nor did he attend Ranger school or display the Ranger tab.

http://news.soc.mil/Fallen%20Heroes%20Folders/Bios/USASFC_lilley_bio.pdf

No big deal - A quick check on the keywords shows that it looks like you picked up the error here:

http://bbs.zuwharrie.com/content/topic,62893.msg668301.html#msg668301

Just thought you'd like to get the facts straight. It does make a differance.
 

weedeater

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If you asked a legit question, I'll give a legit opinion. Go with the Castrol, since you only produced two choices.

Now, I'm not anti-Amsoil. In fact, I use it in my VE motor. But I myself will not put it in a PD motor.

All I can say about the Schaeffer is that a person came on here a few weeks back who had been using it in his PD and the cam chewed up the lifters. VW denied warranty service due to using a 'non-approved' oil. He was a bit 'Angry' about it.
 

soberups

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I find it amazing that some people get SO offended at a new members failure to use the SEARCH function correctly that they spend far more time, effort and energy berating him for said failure than simply answering his question.
Yes it would be nice if every new poster immediately found the search function and refrained from asking questions that have already been answered. Not everyone is computer savvy, however. I stumbled across this forum via google, and wasnt aware of the search function when I first got here. I'm grateful that no one was so rude and spiteful to me for daring to ask a "dumb" question. Perhaps in the future it would be more constructive to simply ANSWER the question politely, and then in the same post explain the workings of the search function to those who aren't yet aware of it or have not been able to find the information they are looking for.
 

bhtooefr

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It takes me less than a minute to post a search first image.

It takes me longer to post a real reply.

Therefore, the search post image wins. :D
 

LF06VWJTDI

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I ordered a case of Longlife III as I've decided it is what I'm going to be using from my next oil change on.
$6.26 a bottle at a local dealership.
 

Long_Range

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LF06VWJTDI said:
I ordered a case of Longlife III as I've decided it is what I'm going to be using from my next oil change on.
$6.26 a bottle at a local dealership.
$6.26 a bottle :) It's almost like VWOA is making an attempt to not alienate us. Can you feel the love. :rolleyes:

If I were in the market for some oil right now. I'd have to think about it.
 

AndyH

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Location
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bhtooefr said:
Hmm, an oil from a pyramid scheme, or an oil that in Europe, is rated to go as far as 31,000 miles without a problem.
You're good at giving search instructions, bh.

I guess I shouldn't have stayed in the USAF (around since 1947) for 21 years as they have one commander in chief, and on down the food chain until a very distinct pyramid structure forms. I hope the FTC gets on to them quickly. They should probably go after IBM and Microsoft and all the other corporations in the world as well - pyramids all.

The company you love to hate is actually a hybrid that contains a product-based multi-level marketing portion, a factory direct catalog/internet portion, and a retail/commercial 'traditional' sales portion.

Your bud Suburban has already gone on record saying that straight facts are important, so I hope you don't mind this minor correction.

cycledude02 said:
...between Amsoil AFL and the new Castrol SLX Longlife III 507 that's available at dealers. I believe I can get them both for about the same pricepoint, but I'm curious to hear what people think about which one is best for my 2005 Passat TDI.
AMSOIL AFL is a generation 2 505.01 product and is proving to perform as well as the other Gen 2 products - pedigreed or not.

We think that 507 might offer better performance than either the Gen 1 or Gen 2 505.01 products, but with no information from VW on the differences in specifications or formulations, and with few bits of data from the club's early adopters, we have little to go on yet.

It is very possible to create a 5W- or 0W-30 that gives excellent wear protection - AMSOIL's been doing it with their 5W-30 HD diesel oil for more than 20 years. But we don't know yet what's up with 507. VW might have a real winner with this formulation. But since they won't share the details with us, and won't even tell us about the bad camshafts and lifters in a number of PD model years, we really don't know.

Andy
 

bhtooefr

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AndyH said:
AMSOIL AFL is a generation 2 505.01 product
I'll just remind everyone that there's a difference between something claiming to meet 505.01 (where did you get the 505.01 spec, anyway? Because I thought, just like the 507.00 spec, you didn't, and you just guessed) and something being certified or approved by VW to be a 505.01-compliant oil.

I would LOVE it if VW trademarked 505.01.

But, that's all I'll say on that topic. Thread derailment over.
 

rjr311

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bhtooefr said:
I'll just remind everyone that there's a difference between something claiming to meet 505.01 (where did you get the 505.01 spec, anyway? Because I thought, just like the 507.00 spec, you didn't, and you just guessed) and something being certified or approved by VW to be a 505.01-compliant oil.

I would LOVE it if VW trademarked 505.01.

But, that's all I'll say on that topic. Thread derailment over.
I think a curiousity a number of us have towards many oils is - Amsoil being one - is "if your product is so good - prove it ! ". Wait, you won't submit it to the same process that over 50 other oils have been submitted through and received the manufacturers blessing ?

Wow! You don't trust your oil that much ... I suppose I should not trust it either. And so far VW agrees. But the day VW says an oil that almost is good enough based on their own "independent testing" will work in my cars drop me a line.

And please no stories of "1,000,000 miles running strong on flavor X means it is good enough" because no it doesn't for cars under warranty. Who said so ? VW.

There is a reason our cars have specific requirements for motor mount bolts. There is a reason our cars have specific requirements for cylinder head bolts. There is a reason our cars have specific requirements for connecting rod bolts. And it is a manufacturer derived standard - whether or not it is TTY or 8.9 or 45 ft/lbs it is a standard and deviating from that standard is something that can cause failure. Any use of non-cerfied oil is the same, but in the case of certified oil if there is a failure there is a recourse.

I use FDA approved drugs, UL approved light switches, FAA approved pilots and VW approved oil.

Show us a documented VW honored warranty with documented use of non-VW certified oil. ( Not that I want any failures )

I'll bet this guy is glad he had documented VW certified oil history :
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=189827
 
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dhdenney

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This is just a guess but I am thinking you can no longer submit oils for 505.01 certification cuz it's an old spec. Am I wrong? Is it an ongoing thing?
 

andreigbs

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I would think that's right, dh. Why would an oil producer go through the trouble and expense to submit to certification testing for a standard that is almost obsolote, from the point of view of production. They would be wise to formulate a 507 compliant oil and get THAT tested; then we all win.
 

dhdenney

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Perhaps Amsoil was too late in submission? Would they bother with that defense? Seems kinda unprofessional to say "Recommended for VW 505.01 but we were too late for certification." Does anyone know when the deadline for submissions was?
 

tditom

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it has nothing to do with late submission.

Amsoil has chosen not to have their oil's certified. This is their philosophy.
 
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