Oil For A 2001 Mexican Beetle

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Hello All!

My wife and I are flying home to California at the end of this week for Christmas. My dad is getting on in years and has some health problems, so I was going to change the oil for him in his 2001 Mexican Beetle (on a 1967 pan). It is a stock 1600cc air-cooled engine with EFI. I think the last time he changed the oil was at least 2 years ago, unknown amount of kilometers. It makes me cringe to think about and I partially want to change it as I want to buy it from him later and would like to protect my investment!

My dad says he usually runs 15w-40 in it. I'm planning on throwing in some Rotella T 15w-40 and a Wix 51088 filter. Sound like a good plan? Any other suggestions?
 
From what I've read, Rotella T 15w-40 is just the ticket for it. Delo 15w-40 would probably work too, if for some reason you can't find Rotella.
 
+1 for the Rotella 15W40

Personally, I run 2 quarts Rotella 15W40 and 1 quart Valvoline 10W40 motorcycle oil - all dino, and change every 2k miles.

I also added 150 ml of Liqui-Moly Ceratec.

Do a search here also for Liqui-Moly Motor oil Saver (MOS) and MoS2.

On this site you'll find both lovers and haters of LM, but very few are talking about engines designed 75 years ago.

Good luck!
 
20W - 50 is the factory recomendation for air cooled BMW bike engines (Half a bug motor
smile.gif
) but I and many others have used T6 in them with no problems. In the good old days, plain old Castrol 30 was the "hot" setup, summer and winter.
 
Thanks for the input, sounds like I'll be going with RT 15w-40!

I am very familiar with MoS2 and oil saver, having used both in my Audi. May not go with that this time due to unknown availability in my dad's area.
 
Well, the oil is changed on the VW. Used a Napa Gold 1088 and Rotella T 15w40. Napa here didn't carry MoS2,so I didn't use any.

What I did find was some moisture intrusion in the oil fill hole:

IMG_20141222_171929569.jpg


IMG_20141222_171952363.jpg


My dad drives this a lot in town and doesn't get it good and hot, which probably explains the condensation. The oil was thin and super dark, but wasn't milky.

All that to say I'm really glad the oil was changed. It is already sounding better... Not quiet though, after all it is an air cooled VW!
 
Originally Posted By: vintageant
Does the 2001 Mexican Beetle engine have a full flow oil filter as standard, or did you/your Dad fit as an upgrade?


Yup, it came standard OEM. Apparently the filter size it uses is pretty common for older Euro cars...
 
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