Jst checked my oil and the level is right at the bottom of the marked area on the dipstick... how much oil should I add to get the level back up to full again?

Does it matter what oil I add as long is it's 505 01 stuff (as listed here: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/t16067-list-of-vw-505-01-oils-for-the-pd-engine.html )

Thanks.

As long as oil is 505.01, it doesn't matter really. It's pretty much all the same stuff, just like fuel. If you get NUL or SUL fuel, whether you go BP, Esso, Shell...

If your dipstick is right at the bottom, I'd add up to 1 litre, but put in half a litre, wait a minute, and see where the dipstick is. In any case, 1 litre should be more than enough to get you back to "normal" levels

Thanks tfboy (maybe I should have mentioned I have a Fabia VRS). Have you given up playing PacMan?

Thanks tfboy (maybe I should have mentioned I have a Fabia VRS). Have you given up playing PacMan?

If you have a VRS it will have the PD engine, you do not have a lot of oils to choose from, it has to be a PD specific oil, probably of the 5w-40 grade and it will have to be VW approved.

I always recomend the Fuchs Titan Supersyn SL PD 5w-40 as this oil was also used on the factory fill for the car.

Cheers

Guy.

wots all the extra letters and stuff mean when looking at the oils

i.e. API S????

and is fully Synthetic better than Semi-Synthetic

and hows it better?

me getting paranoid and want to work out which is the best oil to get

allready know that it needs 5w-40 and VW505.01

just wondered what else i should look out for

wots all the extra letters and stuff mean when looking at the oils

i.e. API S????

and is fully Synthetic better than Semi-Synthetic

and hows it better?

me getting paranoid and want to work out which is the best oil to get

allready know that it needs 5w-40 and VW505.01

just wondered what else i should look out for

It's simple. Just make sure you buy an oil specifically marked as meeting spec VW 505 01. If it happens to be fully synthetic, so much the better.

i know about the vw505.01 and 5w-40 i just wondered what lese i should look for

api has something to do with how long it lasts i thought bout how do you tell and how is fully Synthetic better???

there loads out there now with vw505.01

wots all the extra letters and stuff mean when looking at the oils

i.e. API S????

and is fully Synthetic better than Semi-Synthetic

and hows it better?

me getting paranoid and want to work out which is the best oil to get

allready know that it needs 5w-40 and VW505.01

just wondered what else i should look out for

Here you go.

API = American Petroleum Institute

S = Service - Petrol Engine Performance

C = Commercisl - Diesel Engine Performance

PETROL

SG - Introduced 1989 has much more active dispersant to combat black sludge.

SH - Introduced 1993 has same engine tests as SG, but includes phosphorus limit 0.12%, together with control of foam, volatility and shear stability.

SJ - Introduced 1996 has the same engine tests as SG/SH, but phosphorus limit 0.10% together with variation on volatility limits

SL - Introduced 2001, all new engine tests reflective of modern engine designs meeting current emmissions standards

DIESEL

CD - Introduced 1955, international standard for turbo diesel engine oils for many years, uses single cylinder test engine only

CE - Introduced 1984, improved control of oil consumption, oil thickening, piston deposits an wear, uses additional multi cylinder test engines

CF4 - Introduced 1990, further improvements in control of oil consumption and piston deposits, uses low emmission test engine

CF - Introduced 1994, modernised version of CD, reverts to single cylinder low emission test engine. Intended for certain indirect injection engines

CF2 - Introduced 1994, defines effective control of cylinder deposits and ring face scuffing, intended for 2 stroke diesel engines

CG4 - Introduced 1994, development of CF4 giving improved control of piston deposits, wear, oxidation stability and soot entrainment. Uses low sulphur diesel fuel in engine tests

CH4 - Introduced 1998, development of CG4, giving further improvements in control of soot related wear and piston deposits, uses more comprehensive engine test program to include low and high sulphur fuelsSG - Introduced 1989 has much more active dispersant to combat black sludge.

But I agree with DGW, you need to look for the VW505.01 code.

Feel free to contact me for a list of approved oils.

Cheers

Guy.

ah ha thats what i was after Cheers oilman

where you get all that info is it on the web anywhere?

so is there no difference in fully synthetic and semi?

ah ha thats what i was after Cheers oilman

where you get all that info is it on the web anywhere?

so is there no difference in fully synthetic and semi?

Some of it is available on the net. However oil is my business so I need to know these things

There is a big difference between semi and full syntheitc, or true syntheitc I should say.

A semi syntheitc oil is made from petroleum base stock, and true syntheitcs are not, they are made in a lab and are quite expensive but well worth it.

Perhaps this will helps explain.

SYNTHETICS vs MINERALS

Oil is the lifeblood of your vehicle's engine. For decades conventional petroleum oils have been providing adequate protection for all of our vehicles.

The key word here is adequate. Petroleum oils, for the most part, have done an adequate job of protecting our engines from break down. If you change it often enough, you can be relatively sure that your car will last 100,000 to 150,000 miles without a serious engine problem - maybe even longer.

The real question is, why settle for adequate when something better has been available for about 30 years?

Today's engines are built for better performance, and, although petroleum oils are designed for better protection and performance today than they were 10 or 20 years ago, there is only so much that can be done. Today's engines need high performance lubricants, and the only true ones available are synthetics.

Conventional petroleum oils are insufficient for use in today's vehicles primarily because they are manufactured from a refined substance, contain paraffins (wax), sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, water, salts and certain metals. All of these contaminants must be refined out of the basestock in order for it to be useful for use within a lubricant.

Unfortunately, no refining process is perfect. Impurities will always remain when any refining process is done. It simply isn't economical to continue to refine the oil again and again to remove more impurities. If this was done, petroleum oils would cost as much as synthetic oils do.

There are many components of petroleum oil basestocks which are completely unnecessary for protecting your engine. They do absolutely nothing to enhance the lubrication properties of the oil. In fact, most of these contaminants are actually harmful to your oil and your engine.

Some of the chemicals in conventional petroleum lubricants break down at temperatures well within the normal operating temperature range of your engine. Others are prone to break down in these relatively mild temperatures only if oxygen is present. But, this is invariably the case anyway, especially since oxygen is one of the contaminants within petroleum basestocks.

These thermally and oxidatively unstable contaminants do absolutely nothing to aid in the lubrication process. They are only present in conventional petroleum oils because removing them would be impossible or excessively expensive.

When thermal or oxidative break down of petroleum oil occurs, it leaves engine components coated with varnish, deposits and sludge. In addition, the lubricant which is left is thick, hard to pump and maintains little heat transfer ability.

In addition, petroleum oils contain paraffins which cause dramatic oil thickening in cold temperatures. Even with the addition of pour point depressant additives, most petroleum oils will begin to thicken at temperatures 10 to 40 degrees warmer than synthetic oils.

As a result, petroleum lubricants will not readily circulate through your engine's oil system during cold weather. This may leave engine parts unprotected for minutes after startup. Obviously, significant wear can occur during this time frame.

Even when all conditions are perfect for conventional oils to do their job, they fall far short of synthetic oils. Part of the problem is that (because of their refined nature) petroleum oils are composed of molecules which vary greatly in size. As the oil flows through your vehicle's lubrication system, the small, light molecules tend to flow in the center of the oil stream while the large, heavy ones adhere to metal surfaces where they create a barrier against heat movement from the component to the oil stream. In effect, the large, heavy molecules work like a blanket around hot components.

There is also another effect of the non-uniformity of petroleum oil molecules which reduces their effectiveness. Uniformly smooth molecules slip over one another with relative ease. This is not the case with molecules of differing size.

Theoretically, it might be somewhat similar to putting one layer of marbles on top of another (if this could easily be done). If the marbles were all of the same size, they would move over one another fairly easily. However, if they were all of differing sizes, the result would be much less efficient.

In the case of petroleum oils this inefficiency leads, ironically, to added friction in the system (the very thing that lubricants are supposed to reduce). Hence, petroleum oils are only marginally capable of controlling heat in your engine. Considering that motor oil does nearly 50% of the cooling of your engine, that's not a good thing. But,

This being said, petroleum oils are

Excellent reading, Guy! Now a further question to see if I understand the above correctly. Are all 2 oils described as fully synthetic here true synthetic oils? And could you please PM me a link to your latest price list for oils? (The prices I quoted elsewhere on here today may have been from an out-of-date list).

so looks like i'll be getting a true synthetic 5w-40 VW505.01 oil with a high API C rating

Take a look at Fuchs Titan Supersyn SL PD 5w-40 (505.01) here:

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/lubricants.htm then email me for prices.

Cheers

Guy