Hi. I have a query about oil. I have searched around and found links to an oil sticky but it does not work. Hope you can help.

I have a 2002 Octy Estate 1.9TDi 110. It has variable servicing and the oil is meant to be to VW 506.01 standard.

I have always bought Castrol SLX II before. Today, my missus goes to the local Audi garage for a litre of oil to that standard. She has come back with SLX III, which the Audi guy said has replaced SLX II. The label says "504 00/ 507 00" which the Audi guy says means 504 00 - 507 00, therefore 506.01 falls within that bracket and that oil is OK.

Others have written than SLX II is now superceded by Edge.

Can you help me? Is SLX III OK for our car or not?

Yours on variable was originally meant to have either 506.00 or 506.01 (it isn't a PD engine, so either of those is fine). As you say, this was Castrol SLX longlife II when the cars were new. In the shops, Edge has replaced longlife II (although there are various different Edge oils, so you still need to be careful and pick the right one).

This was all still too simple for VW, so they have created new standards 504 and 507, which replace a bunch of old standards (503, 506 etc). I think longlife III is 507, whilst longlife II is 506.

507 supercedes 506, so pretty much everything (including yours) that specified 506 will now be fine on 507 - newer cars have to have the new 507 and aren't OK on 506.

So, the dealer is wrong to say the longlife III means 504 00 - 507 00, and that it's OK for yours because 506 01 is between those numbers. It just means it supports the 2 new standards 504 00 and 507 00. I think 504 is the petrol engine standard and 507 is the diesel one (just like 503 was the old petrol one, and 506 was the old diesel one).

But he's right to say that it's fine for your car, because 507 00 is OK for your car.

It's all unbelievably confusing though!

It's all unbelievably confusing though!

Not kidding! Thanks for your help.

Sorry to hijack the thread, just want to ask another question...I too have an 02 110 TDI Octy estate which is on variable oil service intervalsMy question is : If I change it to fixed service intervals does this widen the range of oil specs that may be used ?( e.g. 505 OK )ThanksOlddog

P.S. sorry about the screwed format of this post the editor seems to insist on making one line of it - clearly I'm doing something wrong

Yes; there would be no barrier (other than cost) to using oils speced for variable service in an engine running fixed.

Yes; there would be no barrier (other than cost) to using oils speced for variable service in an engine running fixed.

I think most of us use the variable service oils on fixed anyway despite cost. I figure if an oil is good for 20k then it's going to have plenty of life in it come change time at 10k.

I don't like my oils to be past their best. Have always used this philosophy on every car I have owned.

Ian

*grin* I use variable service length oil, and I am on variable servicing :-)