Another engine oil question...sysnthetics

[ktm525]

Hmmm I may have to consider German Castrol in the future. I have no complaints with the Mobil 0W-40 other than it is a pain to find/buy. Its weird because a couple of years ago Mobil 0W-40 was in all the auto parts stores but then it suddenly vanished.
I guess there is little demand with some auto manufacturers going towards 20W.

[dart]

I just picked up some Castrol Syntec 5W-40 from Canadian Tire. CT seems to be stocking a bit more of this grade recently as I didn't find any about a month ago. I paid $7.49 per bottle plus 10 cents bottle recycling fee. Not sure whether it is US or Germany.

It is the only oil that CT carries that meets the VW 502 505 specification for my Passat 1.8T. The dealer wanted to charge $9 per Litre which was reasonable.

[tpl]

I agree with Mark, if the ACEA rating is on the bottle its the good stuff.

KTM, I had a 1.8t in an A4 with a chip and the dealer ( at my insistence) put in Syntec 5w-30.

I have looked on BobTheOilGuy in the hope that I'd see a "consumer language" explanation of the difference between say 0w-30 and 5w-30 in terms of what it means to the moving parts... For instance...do some mfr's oil pumps have difficulty with 0W?  DO some MFr's gaskets not like whatever additives make a 0W instead of a 5W ?

As for 0w 30. I have a bottle for top ups and I am reassured by the "BMW Longlife-01" rating... next time I am at a dealer I'll see if BMW's branded oil meets that <grin>

Engineered Automotive who do Dinan in Toronto for BMW say they'd normally put 15w-40 synthetic in all BMW 6 and 8 cyl motors.  My manualadmits that can be used in the 0C to 45C range and 5w-30 for -20 to +30C.  I think we get more days at 0 than at 45...

[ktm525]

0W may flow through the engine a little quicker than 5W on an extreme cold start-up? Other than that I don't think there is much difference in day to day driving. In my limited experience I have found thinner oils sometimes make the engine more noisy and it seems that there is more oil consumption. Other than that I don't think I need anything thicker than 0W-40 (which is closer to a 30W)in the summer living here in Calgary.