I find that shell rotella 15-40 works good in most older VW's in the Ohio
winters. I know it's not as good as synthetic but with low yearly usage on
my wife's 91 jetta and my Vanagon it's really costly changing it twice a
year. I just put Delvac1  (5w-40)  in my 99.5 jetta tdi that I drive for
work at $34.99 per gallon it was costly but big trucks run it for 30k miles
so it should be good for 10k on my tdi. With Rotella my tdi getts noisey at
about 6k miles so I know it's breaking down.

Joe

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bradley Flubacher" <flubach@HOME.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2000 8:22 PM
Subject: winter oil

> I see no reason to switch to anything less than a 40 or 50 weight...  what
> you're after is better cold starts?  Note that the second number is the
> viscosity rating once the oil is up to operating temperature.  I suspect
you
> don't want to run a lighter weight oil at operating temp than you have to.
>
> I think I saw a 15W-50 mobile 1 product.  That sound pretty ideal to me..
> I'm running 15W-40 amsoil at the moment. Next year I intend to try to
20W-50
> year round.  For whatever reason, I'm sold on amsoil. We'll see how it
> behaves though.
>
> From my understanding, you never want to run a w-30 oil ever.  And 40
isn't
> as desirable as 50 for these beasts.  I suppose it's the viscosity spread
> that you're concerned with?
>
> Brad
>