>         On my trip to Vancouver my oil light would start to flicker on, and
> eventually stay on at idle, although only after it had been driven for a
> little while.
>         I had changed the oil a while back and it was acting fine for
> awhile, but then it started kinda out of the blue. Ive been putting in 10W
> 30 as of late, and am wondering if I should go with the 20 - 50 since it
> wont break down as quick.
>         Would the light come on do to the 10W 30 being in there? Or is my
> oil pump about to die or what? Not to knowledgeable in this area so I could
> use a hand.
Yes! This is the second message of a similar vein I have replied to 
this week. The 10w30 does not "hold" enough pressure when hot; 20w50 
will work fine. Some say this is due to worn crank bearings/journals, 
but all I know is I have put 100k on my TD engine since first having 
this problem, with no signs of trouble. I installed a mechanical 
pressure gauge and saw a difference of up to 10psi between 10w30 and 
20w50 when hot, measured from the cylinder head sensor location.

If you use the lower temp range for oil (in Bentley) as the 
guideline, rather than the upper temp, you should have no trouble. 
ie: 20w50 is good to about -10c - I use it year round, or sometimes 
use 15w40 if it gets really cold for more than a few weeks. A 
synthetic 15w50 should be good year round, even in Alberta! ;)

Shawn & Janis Wright
'88 Westy (338k) '85 Jetta TD (367k)
VWnut@smus.bc.ca (swright@smus.bc.ca)
http://www.islandnet.com/~swright/vw.html