Friend of mine used this on his golf gttdi and said its ideal lol for £20 to 5l seems rubbish but after some digging turns out its made by texaco not sure how good texaco are now but been around for years

Have a look on the bottle and make sure it mentions VW 505.01. You must use oil that meets or exceeds this spec.

It's £29.99 delivered for VAG's own brand oil that's certified to the right spec, that's £0.000999 per mile more over the 10,000 mile service interval. Why would you even consider buying anything that's not certified to the correct standard? Meets or suitable for is not the same as certified to. One is manufacturer tested and then certified as being suitable for your car, one is made from a formula of base oils that other people have had tested and passed but the final product you buy hasn't actually been tested and certified. I'm all in favor of keeping the cost per mile down but saving £9.99 vs potential cam wear is a no brainier.

Friend of mine used this on his golf gttdi and said its ideal lol for £20 to 5l seems rubbish but after some digging turns out its made by texaco not sure how good texaco are now but been around for years

Just to add some more facts here, if, and I'd think Texaco might, supply oil to the correct VAG spec, there is no danger that what they package for Asda to sell cheaply, will be the same stuff. Life is never like that, the base "oil" will probably be close to what is sold branded as Texaco, but it is the additives that make a good oil fit for purpose, a bit like what happens in the fuel supply business - or even the baked beans supply business!! (well maybe the baked beans supply business is a bad comparision as sometimes, it is said, it is the number of beans in a tin that varies with "own brand" tins! - from a bean eating "expert"!

Edited 23 March, 201313 yr by rum4mo

Slight off tangent but for some time I've used & got on really well with Halfords own semi-syn. Any idea who manufactures this, I seem to recall Avalon mentioning Comma in a previous older thread?

Friend of mine used this on his golf gttdi and said its ideal lol for £20 to 5l seems rubbish but after some digging turns out its made by texaco not sure how good texaco are now but been around for years

Why even bother playing Russian roulette with oil on a PD engine?

People should understand this is not a petty argument about a few numbers written on the oil can. PD engines have injectors that are operated by special lobes on the camshaft. To fit these lobes on the cam, VAG had to make all the cam lobes (including the valve lobes) narrower that they would like. This means that they wear faster than is ideal.

To combat this, oil was developed in conjunction with VAG to stop this cam lobe wear. It's called Quantum Platinum (VW 505.01) for fixed interval servicing or Quantum Longlife III (VW 507.00) for variable servicing. Why use anything else!

The PD diesels impose a heavy lobe pressure on the injector lobes. The PD specific oils ( specs 505.01 or 507) have special ingredients to combat this heavy shear load on the oil. Without these special ingredients there will be increased injector cam lobe wear. Any oil that meets the Vag specs ( 505.01 or 507) will be O.K. ( the oil specs should be on the container). There are a number of oil manufacturers that make oils to meet these specs - Quantum , Castrol Edge, Mobil #2 "esp", Comma etc to name but a few. Note that Quantum is made by Castrol. Note also that Halfords market these oils to these specs under their own name but obviously don't make or blend these oils themselves ( I'm fairly certain that these oils are made by Castrol to supply Halfords).

It's not petty to check the oil specs on the containers - it's essential !

Edited 23 March, 201313 yr by vwcabriolet1971

Halfraud's have changed suppliers over the years, i'm not 100% on who the current supplier is but at one stage it was Comma and I believe it still is. I'm not saying unknown brand oil is crap, as pointed out it will come from a limited number of suppliers and most are pretty good at making oil, some of them are useless at recommending the right oil but that's another story. I am happy to use inexpensive oil in my mpi but it's a 50+ year old design and not that fussy. Would I ever run my PD on anything that wasn't certified to 505.01 to save a few quid? No.

We're talking about oil that costs £29.99 at most, and lasts 10k. Even if I was given oil that meets 505.01 free i'd still not use it in the Leon, it's certified or it's not, it's as simple as that for the insignificant price difference over 10k, it's crazy that anyone would spend the money on a car and quibble over oil that costs so little.

Halfraud's have changed suppliers over the years, i'm not 100% on who the current supplier is but at one stage it was Comma and I believe it still is. I'm not saying unknown brand oil is crap, as pointed out it will come from a limited number of suppliers and most are pretty good at making oil, some of them are useless at recommending the right oil but that's another story. I am happy to use inexpensive oil in my mpi but it's a 50+ year old design and not that fussy. Would I ever run my PD on anything that wasn't certified to 505.01 to save a few quid? No.

We're talking about oil that costs £29.99 at most, and lasts 10k. Even if I was given oil that meets 505.01 free i'd still not use it in the Leon, it's certified or it's not, it's as simple as that for the insignificant price difference over 10k, it's crazy that anyone would spend the money on a car and quibble over oil that costs so little.

Agreed The relative cost differential is negligible & it constitutes the most important ingredient in potential longevity!

Why even bother playing Russian roulette with oil on a PD engine?

People should understand this is not a petty argument about a few numbers written on the oil can. PD engines have injectors that are operated by special lobes on the camshaft. To fit these lobes on the cam, VAG had to make all the cam lobes (including the valve lobes) narrower that they would like. This means that they wear faster than is ideal.

To combat this, oil was developed in conjunction with VAG to stop this cam lobe wear. It's called Quantum Platinum (VW 505.01) for fixed interval servicing or Quantum Longlife III (VW 507.00) for variable servicing. Why use anything else!

This is the correct answer.

What happens is the cam lobes start to pick up on the flat tappets causing both the cam lobe and the tappet to wear very quickly, the rapidly wearing tappet usually then collapses at which point the owner notices the engine isn't running right and finally stops the engine.

This can happen as quickly as TEN MINUTES after an oil change with the wrong type of oil. The unit injectors and the PD lobes aren't usually affected since they use large roller rockers to actuate, however the camshaft and all the tappets will have to be replaced at best, at worst the entire engine is scrap due to tiny pieces of case hardened steel getting everywhere.

Wrecking your car by using the wrong grade of oil isn't a gamble, it's a certainty I'm afraid.

Edited 25 March, 201313 yr by sepulchrave

You'd have to be mental to gamble with oil, good to see so many sensible opinions on here...

Some would spend as much on what many would perceive to "absolute tatt" (opinions, they differ wildly) but one area ain't worth gambling with is the lifeblood or your engine.

Christ I've just spent more than that on the new style OEM badges.

I take it as no coincidence that I've not been prepared to gamble on such things and still have a good engine and turbo at 100K,

this has been partly thanks to paranoia that I haven't wanted to have a basic oil change at ambiguous places that could use such lower quality oils and even supplied the required oil when the car has needed to be serviced at good independent.

Then again, gamble away if you like! Its your car. Caveat emptor and all that. I'd personally be doing a lot of research before switching oils and frankly life is just too short.

Proper stuff from the dealer costs like £23 or something - why buy anything else.

You can get TRIPLE QX 5w40, which is 505.01 and 505.00 rated, for £23.79 from any local EuroCarParts, if you use CASTROL30 promotion code. They also do free delivery and have the same oil/fuel/air filter supplier brands as the dealership supplied parts (Hengst mainly for my Mk1 Superb). I have just stocked up for 2 years worth of parts and oil changes for my both Skodas, cost for filters is 2x-4x less than the dealer for the same brand part.

Best to split your order into two, one for oil with CASTROL30 code, and one for parts with PARTS25 or EASTER25 code.

No point in using non-VW rated oil really, especially if you need 505.01 spec, as many otherwise decent oils had trouble meeting it in the past.

Edited 26 March, 201313 yr by dieselV6