Peter,

The brand is not as important as the weight of the oil.  Regular oil
changes are also more important than the brand. And so is the right
filter as explained below.

It generally should be 20W50 in dino oil or 15W50 in synthetic.  In most
places, 10W40 isn't suitable for year round use.  In extremely cold
climates, 20W50 dino oil will get quite thick in the winter and you
might need to switch to something like 10W40 for the coldest few months.

I now use Mobil 1 15W50 synthetic year round in Baltimore and have no
starting issues.   I had starting difficulties a few days a year with
dino oil.  Usually it would start but it would really struggle.  A few
times when the battery was weak, it wouldn't start at all.

Virtually all would agree that the proper filter is important because of
a valve that controls flow in and out of the filter.  The proper filter
can be bought from dealers for lots of $$.  The list vendors such as
Volkscafe.com, BusDepot.com, Vanagain.com, maybe vanagonparts.com, to
name a few, (see list vendors on the web site for the list for all of
them), sell German filters by Mann and Mahle which have the same
important feature as the dealer's filter and for much less $$$.  I keep
a few on hand at all times and reorder when I get down to one so I won't
ever forget and have to put on the wrong one.

Sam

--

Sam Walters
Baltimore, MD

89 Syncro GL
85 Westy Weekender

All incoming and outgoing email scanned by
automatically updated copy of Norton AntiVirus.