99 Jetta Oil

Hello All,

I have a '99 JETTA GLS, and I have a motor oil question. I've never
really paid attention to the oil that the dealer and/or quick oil
change places have been putting in my car, but while jumping my car the
other day due to a dead battery I noticed that the engine really
sounded like it was running roughly. I looked at the little sticker
from the oil change place that I always go to, and it said that they
put in 15W30. I thought that sounded mighty odd, so I checked the
manual wich suggests 5W30. So I called the oil change place about it
and they said that they always put that oil in my Jetta. So I then
called my VW dealer about it, and they also said that 15W30 was the
right choice. I went to VW's website an viewed a PDF
(http://www.vw.com/vwcom/content/obje...engoil_gas.pdf)
which also says 5W30 or 5W40. So what's the deal? Is 15W30 okay, or
has my dealer and oil change place been poisoning my Jetta?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

-snorkel

Is it a 99 or 99.5 year VW. Bottom line the oil isn't going to cause a
running issue this time of year.


> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hello All,
>
> I have a '99 JETTA GLS, and I have a motor oil question. I've never
> really paid attention to the oil that the dealer and/or quick oil
> change places have been putting in my car, but while jumping my car the
> other day due to a dead battery I noticed that the engine really
> sounded like it was running roughly. I looked at the little sticker
> from the oil change place that I always go to, and it said that they
> put in 15W30. I thought that sounded mighty odd, so I checked the
> manual wich suggests 5W30. So I called the oil change place about it
> and they said that they always put that oil in my Jetta. So I then
> called my VW dealer about it, and they also said that 15W30 was the
> right choice. I went to VW's website an viewed a PDF
> (http://www.vw.com/vwcom/content/obje...engoil_gas.pdf)
> which also says 5W30 or 5W40. So what's the deal? Is 15W30 okay, or
> has my dealer and oil change place been poisoning my Jetta?
>
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> -snorkel
>

In article .com> writes:
$ I went to VW's website an viewed a PDF
$(http://www.vw.com/vwcom/content/obje...engoil_gas.pdf)
$which also says 5W30 or 5W40. So what's the deal? Is 15W30 okay, or
$has my dealer and oil change place been poisoning my Jetta?

VW had some famous sludge problems a little while back, and they
revised the list of oils they deem suitable for various engines. I
have an Audi A4 1.8t, and the oil recommendations in the manual
only match up somewhat against the current oil chart
(http://www.vw.com/vwcom/content/obje...t/oilchart.pdf).
The oil chart itself says it's for the 1.8t engine, but the link to it
from the service page says it's for "gasoline engines" in general.

The current recommendations are newer than the manual, and are the
result (at least in part) of work VW did to try to find out why the
sludge problem arose and what could be done about it. So I take
it that the newer list supersedes the older recommendations in the
manual.

There are no 15W30 oils on the list. The list is about a year
old, and it's possible that a 15W30 oil has achieved certification
but hasn't been added to the list yet. If so, the oil's label will
list the certification. If not, you might want to ask your
dealership why they are using an oil which is not recommended by
VW (and which, according to the PDF you cited, should never be
used except if you need to top up 0.5L or less and can't find an
appropriate oil).
--
..--------------------------------------.
|Silver, perpetually searching for SNTF|------------------------------
`--------------------------------------' a vaguely phallic .signature

It's a 99.5. Yes, one dealership that I called said that 15W30 this
time of year isn't going to cause a problem, but this is supposedly the
same oil that my oil change place always puts in the car. So I can
only assume that it has been used in the winter as well.

In article .com>,
> wrote:
>(http://www.vw.com/vwcom/content/obje...engoil_gas.pdf)
>which also says 5W30 or 5W40. So what's the deal?

Note that that PDF also recommends that the oil should have the
VW 502.00 rating.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy J. Lee
Unsolicited bulk or commercial email is not welcome.
No warranty of any kind is provided with this message.

> So what's the deal? Is 15W30 okay, or
> has my dealer and oil change place been poisoning my Jetta?

I didn't even know that automotive oil was available in 15W-30. I've
seen it for farm tractors, and that's it. What brand are they using,
and is it certified for automotive use?

Any synthetic oil would be safest I would think.
A 5-something would be great for winter. 5-40
would be good.

IR