There aren't that many oils that are VW 505/505 approved. So to take a reductionist approach, if the oil meets VW cert. it's good. BUT that's not good enough for our minds.
There's some psychology at work here that makes us hate that approach. The only choices most of us have involving "caring for" the engine is: to change the oil & filter and choose the fuel we use. But apparently these are too minimal: they don't fully satisfy our primal need to "defend and protect" our assets. We seem to be driven by instinct to be more fatherly towards our GTI. So we turn to obsessing over the only decisions we have the responsibility to make as a way to reassure ourselves that we ARE fulfilling our destiny.
So it's OK to amuse ourselves that we think we can determine which of the 502/505 oils are BEST for our GTI children. But also, we'll probably have put them up for adoption well before our oil choices will have made any difference to longevity of their engines.
Good stuff.
Main reasons I use what I do (Castrol 0W-40) are in no particular order or importance:
Easy to get
Cheap
Good range of certs (502, A40, 229.5, ACEA A3, LL-01 etc.)
VERY low ash for a mid-SAPS rated oil.
Low NOACK
High VSS
Low shear
Lasts fine and performs well over my UOA determined 5K intervals (could probably use shit oil but wouldn't make me feel good
).
And it makes me feel good feeding it to my children (2 EA888s in the garage) so works the psych side. Paying more, or searching/sourcing harder for an "esoteric" oil doesn't necessarily equate to a better fluid.
