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Volkswagen Lubrication

Lubrication is key if you want your VW to last.

What Engine Oil

This is a favorite topic for just about any automotive circle and everyone disagrees.  In fact, here is a forum thread covering this argument ad nauseum Official "What oil should I use" topic.

As long as you change your oil every 1,000 miles, or 3,000 if you have a real oil filter, then you should be fine.  Valvoline VR1 race oil is high in zinc and the 20W-50 should be good for most applications.

Synthetic Oil

True synthetic oil provides superior lubrication to any traditional oil.  It unfortunately costs significantly more and since the particle size is smaller than traditional oil, it will leak more than you old 30W did.  You may even discover new leaks with synthetic oil.  Others may/will argue, but it doesn't really make sense to use synthetic oil in a VW engine if you are changing it out every 1000 miles.  If you want superior lubrication and are not a cheapskate like most VWers tend to be, then you should install an oil filter system and run synthetic oil.

If you are going to run synthetic, you need to know that many "synthetic" oils sold in the US are not true synthetic oils.  The oil topic is covered in greater detail on our DR650 Lubrication Page.

Drain Plug

First off, the sump cover on the bottom of your VW engine is designed to be removed at every oil change.  This is important as the only filter in the earlier air cooled VWs is behind this cover, as is a collection of sludge and metal particles.  The central drain plug that may or may not be present under your engine is there to make draining the oil less of a mess so that when you remove the entire plate, oil doesn't spill everywhere.  In later years, VW removed the drain plug from the sump cover as many VW owners were not removing their sump covers during oil changes.  You should remove and clean your sump cover and filter at least every other oil change.

Magnetic Drain Plug

This will help you collect all the metal particles floating around your engine and allow for easy removal at each oil change.  Most VW use a 14mm 1.5 drain plug.  The exception would be a few Eurovans in the 1990 and the sump plates without a central drain plug (which can easily be replaced with one that does).

Empi sells a chrome drain plug with a magnet and a gasket that doesn't work.  These are commonly found in many VW shops next to the other Chinese chrome parts.

CG Enterprises has several drain plug choices. 

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