90QMilwaukee

No, I'm not stupid, just drove Hondas my whole life. What kind of oil does everyone run? I grew up on 5w20, but I would like to know what grade does the 90Q require. Also I have lots of miles on her, is synthetic better? I have to get her from Phoenix to Milwaukee next week, anything else I should check?

Thanks

RIAudiCab

5w-20 is probably too thin for an old Audi. I use 5w-30 Valvoline GTX High-Mileage in mine (94 Audi Cab w/ 91k miles), but I just got some 5w-40 Lubro Moly Semi-Synthetic to put. in as I have replaced most of the oil seals on the motor in the past month and feel more comfortable going towards synthetic. I have replaced the valley pan/ Valve cover, rear cam seal, front cam seals, and crankshaft seal. Only things left are Head gasket and rear main seal, neither of which leak yet. With old seals, I would be leery to switch over to full synthetic if you have high miles, due to propensity to leak. These motors leak as it is even w/ dino oil.

RIAudiCab

Just noticed you are in Phoenix. 5w-20 is way too thin. WOuld consider 10w-40 or even 20w-50 where you are. The hottest it ever gets here in Coastal New England is 85F, with lows down to -10 F in the winters.

4000fixes

I run 20w-50 in the summer and 10w-40 in the winter for my 10v 20v and 12v

hacker-pschorr

Past 75,000 miles I've used either:

• Castrol Syntec 5w-50 all year. I no longer favor using an oil with this wide of a viscosity spread.
• Mobile 1 5w-40 Turbo Diesel Truck in the winter. It's safe for gas engines and a very good oil
• Mobil 1 15w-50 in the summer
• Valvoline VR1 20w-50 in the summer
• Royal Purple 20w-50

This year I swtich to Redline 0w-40 for winter and much to my surprise my CQ didn't burn a drop all winter.
For summer 2010 I'm picking up Brad Penn 20w-50

fjasper

Is it an inline 5 or a v6? The 5-cylinder engines seem to call for a little heavier oil than the V6.

Personally, I like Rotella Synthetic 5w40. Cheap for a synthetic and the oil geeks seem to think it's really good stuff. Seems to work well in a wide variety of engines and year-round up north.

In AZ, you could probably use Rotella 15-40 conventional, since you don't need the cold-start properties of a 5wt oil. Cheap and good. In an inline 5, I might use a 20-50 for Arizona summers.

greasegun

I got 91000 miles and use my cabby during summer time. I only put amsoil oil european blend since i got my ride with 68000 miles. No leaks and quieter engine.

hacker-pschorr

I was a big fan of Rotella until recently. I was helping a friend dig through some research on the correct oil for her 100hp TDI VW.

Wow, talk about wading through information trying to decipher the many certificaitons Audi and VW have for the various engines. Much to my surprise, Shell Rotella 5w-40 isn't on any of their lists. There are quite a few Shell products (most are european) so it's not like VW just didn't check the Shell products.

It probably is a good oil, just made me scratch my head wondering why VW didn't approve it for anything.

uberwgn

Shell Rotella is targeting big, American trucks, not HSDI diesels from Europe

CRAZY_RUSSIAN

Im in Albuquerque, use 10-30 Castrol Syntec all year long