# 5w/50



## jetdavdub (Mar 13, 2006)

any idea if the castrol syntec 5w/50 is 502 000 approved?


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## shipo (Jan 3, 2006)

*Re: 5w/50 (jetdavdub)*

No, it is not approved.


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## corradokidg60 (May 14, 2002)

*Re: 5w/50 (jetdavdub)*


_Quote, originally posted by *jetdavdub* »_any idea if the castrol syntec 5w/50 is 502 000 approved?

The list can be found here:
http://www.audiusa.com/etc/med...e.pdf


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## gehr (Jan 28, 2004)

*Re: 5w/50 (jetdavdub)*


_Quote, originally posted by *jetdavdub* »_any idea if the castrol syntec 5w/50 is 502 000 approved?

And a 50 weight is too thick for a VR, *W40 is max.


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## blubullet509 (Oct 15, 2007)

*Re: 5w/50 (gehr)*

why's 5w50 too thick, 50w is the only stuff my vr barely burns, like half a quart an oil change compared to a little more than one with 40w(shes tired with a little over 140k). yea its not approved... but my vr loves it


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## G_Lader_91 (Dec 28, 2006)

*Re: 5w/50 (blubullet509)*

I use Castrol 5w50 in the summer. My oil temps were rising on my 24v, so I started running 50w in the summer down here. I don't want to hear it's too thick/not approved etc that audi thing tells me nothing really...I ran 50w in all of my old vr's to include my old 3.1vrt corrado. I love this stuff, and it keeps my oil temps down. Ever foamed synthetic? I have... down south during 90 deg+ weather and a long day of autox or drag racing...don't flame this stuff too hard. As it is still synthetic and for over 60k now has kept my 24v running strong. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif 


_Modified by coatofarms at 10:02 PM 7-23-2008_


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## gehr (Jan 28, 2004)

*Re: 5w/50 (coatofarms)*

VR6 has hydraulic lifters, the lifter is filled with engine oil intermittently from an oil galley via a small drilling. When the engine valve is closed, the lifter is free to fill with oil. When the valve is opening and the lifter is being operated by the camshaft, the oil feed is blocked and the lifter acts just as a solid one would, oil being incompressible. Too thick a weight will not allow the lifter to fill completely causing valve burn or so I've been told by someone that is more accomplished an engine builder than........99.9% of the people on here, at least!
Like all opinions on here, it's just that, an opinion but given the source I got it from I'll stick with 40 weight or lower!








P.S. I road race both my VRs, mostly around Phoenix, and run oil coolers on both.......foaming oil in a 60 second autocross and 15 second drag strip runs means something isn't right!!!


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## germancarnut51 (Mar 23, 2008)

*Re: 5w/50 (gehr)*

Manufacturer's oil weight specifications are driven by the Federal CAFE standards. Thinner oils yield marginally lower friction, and fractionally higher MPG. Higher MPG allows the manufacturer to more gas guzzling, profit making vehicles without a financial penalty from the Feds (can you say Toureg?).
Use the oil weight recommended by the oil manufacturers based on the ambient temperature. Thicker multi-weight oils (ones with larger differences between the winter rating and the summer rating) actually cost the manufacturers more to make, so there is no financial gain for them to recommend a lighter oil when a heavier oil is actually indicated. This is in opposition to the car manufacturer's who have a financial incentive to recommend the lightest weight oil they think they can get away with. The car manufacturer's don;t car how long or how short the service life of your engine is, as long as the car lives long enough for the warranty to expire.
As good example of this is Ford recommending 5W-20 oils in their car engines. A number of Duratec 3.0L V6 engines have been reported to have suffered extensive accellerated internal wear and have failed both in warranty out just out. When though some of the cars have documented Dealer Service Histories, Ford has refused Warranty replacement of the engines, claiming that the Car Owners are responsible for the selection of the correct weight of engine oil to prevent accelllerated wear, and that the oil specifications printed in the Owner's Manual is only a recommendation for cars driven normally. Have you ever read the Owner's Manual for your car? Most people drive under what the manufacturer's describe as "severe service", and therefore should not use the Manufacturer's oil weight or oil change schedules.
I live in SoCal, in the Inland Empire. It's normal for the termperature to reach and hold daytime temps over 100F degrees for days and weeks on end during the summer, and drop to under 40F (75-85F during the day) at night during the winter. That means that I run different weight oil in the summer and the winter. In the summer it's 20W-50, and in the winter I usually run a 10W-30 or 10W-40.
If your car is out of warranty, why care what the manufacturer recommends?
Blindly running 5W-20 or 0W-20 all year long is a disaster in the making that the car owner is ultimately going to get stuck with the repair bill for. 


_Modified by germancarnut51 at 2:50 PM 8-1-2008_


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## franz131 (Apr 13, 2008)

*Re: 5w/50 (germancarnut51)*

germancarnut51, you mae some solid points regarding the fuel economy focus of North American manufacturers. The situation differs slightly when you look at the German manufacturers.
1. All German manufacturers spec the same oil for gas and diesel engines. This eliminates the possibility of ecessively thin oil being specifiedby the manufacturer.
An example of this is the 503 00 and 506 01 specs from VW. VW tried to reduce the viscosityof those oils to improve fuel economy. The first problem they encountered was that the 225hp 1.8t motor broke the oil film in the bottom end, this prompted the 503 01 spec which returnd to it's thick-film roots. 506 01 was plagued with volatility and oil consumption problems prompting a return to a thicker requirement for the new 507 00 spec.
2. When you use mineral oil or low end synthetic built to API standards, there is a definite viscosity benefit to a 10w vs a 5w or 0w. With an ACEA standard oil meeting the A3/B4 spec (which has a very specific high temp viscosity limit), there's no high temperature benefit to the 'w' number. Therefore a 0w30, 5w30, 5w40 or 10w40 meeting the same A3/B4 standard will all be ~20% thicker than an API 5w30 and ~10% than a 10w30.
3. Using good high V.I. synthetic motor oil will enable the same oil to cover your year round needs. Personally, I'd use a VW 502 00 oil in a 5w40 viscosity range, lots of it around for a good price.
I don't mean to come off preachy, just add to your point.
Grüsse aus Deutschland


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