Skoda Superb 206 oil choice

[aratic]

Hello all,

I have a 2019 Skoda Superb 206TSI and am currently investigating my oil options. I am based in Australia where the climate range is generally 5-40degrees C year around. I do around 10,000km a year max so a LL oil isn't a necessity.

Under the hood it states I need a oil with VW 502.00 spec however I know late model VW engines state 504.00 spec can also be used, which from what I can see is basically low SAPS.

Is there any benefit under my circumstances to use the VW504.00 low SAPS oil? I read somewhere it may prevent clogging of the PCV system over time.

I prefer Castrol oils and my options are:

502.00:
Castrol EDGE 5W30 A3/B4 SL
Castrol EDGE 5W40 A3/B4 SN
Castrol EDGE 0W40 A3/B4 SN

504.00:
Castrol EDGE 5W30 LL C3 CF

Thanks for your help.
Blair

 

[Trav]

If your country uses low sulphur fuel there is no downside to using the higher spec 504.

 

[zeng]

504 is Long Life oils, and 502 isn't.
However 502 would easily do 16,000 km OCI.

 

[1JZ_E46]

Whatever is cheapest. I'd probably pick the 5w30 A3/B4.

 

[UNC063]

Originally Posted by 1JZ_E46
Whatever is cheapest. I'd probably pick the 5w30 A3/B4.


+1

 

[Shannow]

The Castrol EDGE 5W30 A3/B4 was my fave oil, and can be had for raging deals...so pick that.

Magnatec C3 can also be found reasonably priced and is a 502.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by zeng
504 is Long Life oils, and 502 isn't.
However 502 would easily do 16,000 km OCI.

Again spreading misinformation.

Oils service is dependent on market, NOT on type of specification!

 

[aratic]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Attached photo is an extract from the owners manual.

Can be read in two ways I guess; first way is that the listed oils are within spec and only using a max of 0.5L to top just a general comment relating to all markets and the second is as it reads.

Thoughts?

I'm sure there are many VAG owners here running their late model EA888s on 502.00 A3/B4 oil right? I guess I'm not quite sold on why A3/B4 is the better choice that the low SAPS 504.00.

I'd also note that the Castrol EDGE 5W30 is an API SL while the others are SM, if that matters?

 

[mikecz]

Can you post a picture of the left side of that page?
Do you know if the car has any exhaust treatment devices? I'm assuming it has a catalytic converter at least, but anything else? How long do you plan on keeping it?

What kind of driving are you planning on doing? How long are the trips going to be?
Why only Castrol? We used to use only Castrol, but not anymore.
I'm not an expert or anything like that, but that's what I'd be asking myself if it was my car, so that's why I'm asking you.

P.S. Regarding that statement in the manual, I'd take it the way it was written (given I had no other info), as in, "engine damage may occur", so add only 0.5l max., and only if you really need to, and don't have the 'proper' oil.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by aratic
Thanks for the replies so far.

Attached photo is an extract from the owners manual.

Can be read in two ways I guess; first way is that the listed oils are within spec and only using a max of 0.5L to top just a general comment relating to all markets and the second is as it reads.

Thoughts?

I'm sure there are many VAG owners here running their late model EA888s on 502.00 A3/B4 oil right? I guess I'm not quite sold on why A3/B4 is the better choice that the low SAPS 504.00.

I'd also note that the Castrol EDGE 5W30 is an API SL while the others are SM, if that matters?

Personally I would stick to Castrol 0W40 if you can get your hands on.

 

[aleneros]

Originally Posted by edyvw
Originally Posted by aratic
Thanks for the replies so far.

Attached photo is an extract from the owners manual.

Can be read in two ways I guess; first way is that the listed oils are within spec and only using a max of 0.5L to top just a general comment relating to all markets and the second is as it reads.

Thoughts?

I'm sure there are many VAG owners here running their late model EA888s on 502.00 A3/B4 oil right? I guess I'm not quite sold on why A3/B4 is the better choice that the low SAPS 504.00.

I'd also note that the Castrol EDGE 5W30 is an API SL while the others are SM, if that matters?

Personally I would stick to Castrol 0W40 if you can get your hands on.



Castrol 0W40 A3/B4

PAO >50%

Good stuff

 

[aratic]

Originally Posted by mikecz
Can you post a picture of the left side of that page?
Do you know if the car has any exhaust treatment devices? I'm assuming it has a catalytic converter at least, but anything else? How long do you plan on keeping it?

What kind of driving are you planning on doing? How long are the trips going to be?
Why only Castrol? We used to use only Castrol, but not anymore.
I'm not an expert or anything like that, but that's what I'd be asking myself if it was my car, so that's why I'm asking you.

P.S. Regarding that statement in the manual, I'd take it the way it was written (given I had no other info), as in, "engine damage may occur", so add only 0.5l max., and only if you really need to, and don't have the 'proper' oil.


Here's the first page. Pretty nondescript!

Answers:
Car is stock, I am unsure if this car has a GPF.
Will be keeping it 5-6 years minimum
City driving mostly with the odd trip away
Usual daily commute is less than 10km each way
Castrol because that's what I trust and is very readily available in Australia

Re the statement, I would usually agree BUT they mention VW502.00 and VW504.00 which is the approved spec so I don't know why they would make this statement saying you can't put more than 0.5L in between changes. From what I've read, the car will use oil like most of these engines do and I'm hardly going to go to the dealer to get them to do it.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by aleneros
Originally Posted by edyvw
Originally Posted by aratic
Thanks for the replies so far.

Attached photo is an extract from the owners manual.

Can be read in two ways I guess; first way is that the listed oils are within spec and only using a max of 0.5L to top just a general comment relating to all markets and the second is as it reads.

Thoughts?

I'm sure there are many VAG owners here running their late model EA888s on 502.00 A3/B4 oil right? I guess I'm not quite sold on why A3/B4 is the better choice that the low SAPS 504.00.

I'd also note that the Castrol EDGE 5W30 is an API SL while the others are SM, if that matters?

Personally I would stick to Castrol 0W40 if you can get your hands on.



Castrol 0W40 A3/B4

PAO >50%

Good stuff

That shows between 25 and 50%, not more than 50%

 

[aratic]

Originally Posted by Trav
If your country uses low sulphur fuel there is no downside to using the higher spec 504.


I believe Australia does have low sulphur fuel, somewhere in the range of 50-70mg/kg.

I think I am leaning toward using 504.00 spec 5W30..

 

[mikecz]

Hah! "To find out which type of engine oil you can use ... contact a specialist garage." That sounds ridiculous. They're the manufacturer, and they're not willing to tell you, the owner, what oil you need to put in your car? What has this world come to?

Are they so unsure of the oil that they don't want to write it in the manual lest they need to change it in the future?

Did you try asking the dealer?

Does the engine warm up quickly? The diesel I have (quite a bit older though), warms up very slowly. In addition to it being a diesel (more thermodynamically efficient?, lower RPMs), I thought it might be because of the engine block being iron, not aluminum, which also seems to be the case in your engine. I also had a 1992 Golf with a 1.4 litre gasoline engine, which also had an iron block, and it also seemed very slow to warm up, compared to say some Honda gasoline cars I've driven.

If it says 502 00 under the hood then I'd guess that's probably ok to use.

Like you said, it's part of the '"ok to top-up, but don't use" list, so it might be true that some of the other oils there are ok for the car as well (e.g. 504 00/507 00).
I'd probably ask a dealer to make sure, but 504 00 5w30 sounds like it might be ok, or of course some 502 00 variant.

I used Castrol 5w30 LL 504 00/507 00 oil (which is ok to use in my engine supposedly, though it wasn't around when the engine was made) for ~4 years and maybe ~60000km , but changed to Valvoline 5W-40 at last oil change, which is an ACEA C3, and VW 505.01 (the original spec for these engines) oil. The car seems to use a bit less fuel (~5%?), but maybe I got more efficient at driving, and a slight change in tire pressure perhaps helped as well. The reason I say this is that maybe a 502 00 might be better in some way for your car's engine than a 504 00, for 10000km/yr, but that's just speculation. It might be a little bit cheaper too. For warranty purposes, I'd probably stick to whatever type of oil the dealer says is specified for the car.

For what it's worth, Castrol's site suggests CASTROL EDGE 5w30 LL for your car, but I think that Castrol suggests the same for my car, and Shell actually suggests their 0w30 504 00/507 00.
http://www.datateck.com.au/lube/castr_au/

I hope that helps a bit.

 

[aratic]

Originally Posted by mikecz
Hah! "To find out which type of engine oil you can use ... contact a specialist garage." That sounds ridiculous. They're the manufacturer, and they're not willing to tell you, the owner, what oil you need to put in your car? What has this world come to?

Are they so unsure of the oil that they don't want to write it in the manual lest they need to change it in the future?

Did you try asking the dealer?

Does the engine warm up quickly? The diesel I have (quite a bit older though), warms up very slowly. In addition to it being a diesel (more thermodynamically efficient?, lower RPMs), I thought it might be because of the engine block being iron, not aluminum, which also seems to be the case in your engine. I also had a 1992 Golf with a 1.4 litre gasoline engine, which also had an iron block, and it also seemed very slow to warm up, compared to say some Honda gasoline cars I've driven.

If it says 502 00 under the hood then I'd guess that's probably ok to use.

Like you said, it's part of the '"ok to top-up, but don't use" list, so it might be true that some of the other oils there are ok for the car as well (e.g. 504 00/507 00).
I'd probably ask a dealer to make sure, but 504 00 5w30 sounds like it might be ok, or of course some 502 00 variant.

I used Castrol 5w30 LL 504 00/507 00 oil (which is ok to use in my engine supposedly, though it wasn't around when the engine was made) for ~4 years and maybe ~60000km , but changed to Valvoline 5W-40 at last oil change, which is an ACEA C3, and VW 505.01 (the original spec for these engines) oil. The car seems to use a bit less fuel (~5%?), but maybe I got more efficient at driving, and a slight change in tire pressure perhaps helped as well. The reason I say this is that maybe a 502 00 might be better in some way for your car's engine than a 504 00, for 10000km/yr, but that's just speculation. It might be a little bit cheaper too. For warranty purposes, I'd probably stick to whatever type of oil the dealer says is specified for the car.

For what it's worth, Castrol's site suggests CASTROL EDGE 5w30 LL for your car, but I think that Castrol suggests the same for my car, and Shell actually suggests their 0w30 504 00/507 00.
http://www.datateck.com.au/lube/castr_au/

I hope that helps a bit.

Yeah, pretty hopeless! I did ask the dealer, all I got was 5W30, we use Castrol.. Honestly I would expect them to use VW504.00 as they can use it in both petrol and diesel, rather than having a separate VW502.00 spec for petrol only. This basically means, atleast I'm assuming, they are using Castrol Edge LL.

Yes, the engine warms very quickly, oil temp up to 70 degC in around 5 or so minutes.

I think 502.00 and 504.00 are good to use but reason Im leaning towards 504.00 is that its low SAPS so possibly less build up on valves and clogging PCV over time.

Thanks for your help!

 

[aratic]

Originally Posted by Trav
If your country uses low sulphur fuel there is no downside to using the higher spec 504.


Trav, having a better read, Australia does not have low sulphur fuel compared to the levels in Europe.

Can you put some more context around your comment? Is there a downside to using this spec oil with higher sulphur fuel?

Also, what's the consensus on dropping the oil and changing the filter on these engines before the 12 month routine service? Thinking about doing a change at 3,000km.