M1 EP 10w-30 in a 2.0L Golf

[The Critic]

I just bought a 5qt jug of M1 EP 10w-30 from Walmart ($28) and a Mobil 1 M1-205 Oil Filter ($12) from Autozone today, and plan to use it in my cousin's VW

The owner's manual for this car says that one may use either an API SJ, ACEA A3, or VW 502.00 oil (oil must meet one or more of the specs) for the recommended oil change interval of 10,000 miles. (2.0L 4-cyl engine)

Thus, do you folks think the oil/filter I bought today was a good combo for the application?

TIA

 

[Willy_G]

Take the 10w30 back and get the T&SUV 5w40 or 15w50.

 

[wavinwayne]

Michael Wan,

You said:
"The owner's manual for this car says that one may use either an API SJ, ACEA A3, or VW 502.00 oil (oil must meet one or more of the specs)"

I believe you are reading it wrong. The VW manual states:

To assure that the oil you use is of the highest quality required by your car, the following TERMS must appear on the oil container singly or in combination with other designations:

Gasoline Engine
- VW 502.00 or VW 505.00 or VW 501.01
- ACEA A2 or ACEA A3
- API Service SJ

Notice that the text above says "...the following TERMS...". It does not say that the "one of the following terms" must appear on the container.

This is a very important distinction. My interpretation of VW's wording is that they do NOT mean that an oil simpy has to meet API SJ, or ACEA A2 to be of acceptable quality.

To me, it means that the oil must meet at least one of the VW specs, be at least ACEA A2, & be at least API SJ. The good thing is that if it is VW 502.00 approved, it will also meet the proper ACEA & API ratings.

With all that siad, the M1 EP 10w30 might work OK, but I wouldn't feel comfortable running it for 10k miles in a car that requires VW 502.00 approved oil. I would take it back & get M1 0w40 or Syntec 0w30 or Syntec 5w40.

The M1-205 oil filter is a great choice, IMO. I've used those before on my 1.8T & I really like them. I don't use them anymore, because they cost too much. I now use Fram Extra Guards......j/k

I use Purolator Pure One's.

 

[The Critic]

W2,
I appreciate your advice and suggestions.

To not confuse myself and others, I went to the trusty dictionary and looked up "singly." It means:

sin·gly Audio pronunciation of "singly" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (snggl)
adv.

1. Without the presence of others; alone.
2. Without the help of others; single-handed.
3. One by one; individually.

Thus, my interpretation (which may be different than yours) views it as the following: The terms appearing "singly" is referring to any one of the listed terms....and in combination with other designations is more than one of those terms. What has me curious now is what are the OTHER designations that they are referring to....

Nevertheless, all this spec business is good to know. I did talk with Ted about this engine recently and he did tell me that M1 10w-30 EP would work fine in this application and Terry used M1 10w-30 in his 2L Bug, and it too did fine. I also talked with George Morrison with AVLube, and he too said that it'd work fine. Thus, with three parties agreeing...I'm not too concerned.

In addition, FWIW, the local stealership here simply dumps Castrol 5w-30 dino into most of these cars and they run 5K OCIs without any problems...of course they no longer do this to the turbos.

Mike

P.S. FWIW, I know I'm playing devil's advocate here, but I seriously doubt that M1 0w-40 retains its starting HT/HS of 3.6cp anyway thru out the course of the drain...and thins quite rapidly anyway. At least the M1 EP 10w-30 won't thin and will probably retain its starting HT/HS much better.

 

[wavinwayne]

MW,

Your definition of "singly" is correct. I simply believe that in the above context, VW is stating that the oil must meet at least one of the specs from each line.

For example, a VW approved oil's container would have the following TERMS on the container:
-VW 502.00 &
-ACEA A3 &
-API SJ

or

-VW 505.00 &
-ACEA A2 &
-API SJ

Etc., Etc.

In my interpretation of VW's language, an oil that had:
-No VW spec #
-ACEA A2
-API SJ
would NOT be suitable. Whether or not this is what VW is really saying is anyone's guess.

My understandind of the "singly or in combinaion with other designations" is this:

Singly
An oil container would have the following {b]TERMS[/b] listed & nothing more:
-VW 502.00
-ACEA A2
-API SL

In combination with other designations
An oil container would look something like this:
Meets the following specifications:
-VW 502.00
-ACEA A2
-API SJ
-BMW LL-01
-Mercedes Spec. #XXXXX
-Porsche approved
-GM Spec. #XXXXX
-Ford Spec. #XXXXX
Etc, Etc.

If Ted, Terry & George all feel that M1 EP 10w30 will work fine in the 2.0L Golf engine, then pay attention to them. They know a heck of a lot more about engine oil than I do.

One last thing; Why would you use an oil that you have to ask questions about, when you could buy at least three VW 502.00 approved oils in your local AutoZone? Plus the VW 502.00 approved oils are cheaper than the M1 EP 10w30. Is it Mobil's 15k mile guarantee that warms your heart?

 

[vwoom]

I just bought a 5qt jug of M1 EP 10w-30 from Walmart ($28)...

At that price, I'd rather use GC 0w30($4.99, even the Gold..)with all the manual motor oil specs inclusive(no brainer)for the normally aspirated 2.0..doable for a 10k oci.

 

[vad]

Michael Wan, GC (and the rest of the Syntec line) stayed on sale for about a month at $3.99.
AutoZone regularly discounts it every 3-5 months. It pays to check out the GC forum once in a while.

 

[Winston]

It seems pretty clear to me. "the following TERMS must appear on the oil container without the presence of other designations or in combination with other designations:"

Thus, it needs one of each of the three. And there may be other designations on the bottle such as BMW LL or Mercedes, etc. but it needs one of each of the three.

 

[The Critic]

quote:

---

One last thing; Why would you use an oil that you have to ask questions about, when you could buy at least three VW 502.00 approved oils in your local AutoZone? Plus the VW 502.00 approved oils are cheaper than the M1 EP 10w30. Is it Mobil's 15k mile guarantee that warms your heart?

---

Trust me Wayne...if ANY 502.00 oil had been avaliable, I would've bought it.

1) Kragen= $5.99/qt for M1 0w-40...they didn't have 5 bottles. They had Synpower 5w-40 though...but only 3 bottles.
2) Autozone=Bought the M1 Filter here. GC...not even a sign of it.

The only Syntec they had there was one lonely bottle of 10w-30.
3) Walmart= All they had was EP 10w-30 and regular M1 10w-30. No 0w-40. Don't recall seeing any Synpower 5w-40 there.

Mike

 

[vwoom]

2) Autozone=Bought the M1 Filter here. GC...not even a sign of it. The only Syntec they had there was one lonely bottle of 10w-30.

Sac must be Bitog Central..Castrol raided no less.

 

[TR3-2001SE]

I think the 5w-40 is too heavy for this application. It is a Golf for pete sake. Economy is important. I think either the 5w-30 or 10w-30 is great for this application. The EP will work great. I would do an oil analysis after 7500 miles to see how it is doing. 10,000 seems conservative in this application so should be super for the Golf.

 

[99]

Don't run a 30wt in the 2.0. The factory spec is a 5W40-go with that because there are some real good and readily available oils at Walmart. Shell Rotella T syn and Mobil 1 Truck and SUV are two excellent 5W40s. Mobil's Delvac 1 is another choice but some say the Truck and SUV is the same thing. Or you can run Mobil 1 0W40 if you want a official "VW spec" oil. The other 3 oils will no doubt vastly exceed any VW specs, so feel safe in using them. Also, the owner's manual in my wife's Beetle and Jetta states that if you cannot find a VW spec oil, a "normal" SL grade will work. So you are not tied into using VW spec oils per se. I personally have used the Shell Rotella T syn in mine and have since switched to the Mobil 1 Truck and SUV.

edit-VW has since changed the OCI on the 2.0 to 5K. My wife's 01 Beetle lists 10K changes but the 04 Jetta shows 5k. I go with 5k changes, even on the M1. These little engines work hard so I don't feel bad dumping the oil even though it "may still be good" to some.

[ January 01, 2006, 05:10 PM: Message edited by: 99 ]