curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies..

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skittishsynapses
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curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies..

Post by skittishsynapses »

It's one of those things I've never been to comfortable about having owned my 87 cabby for 2 years now, but since an oil change is coming up, I thought I'd ask what weight oil others are using and where they live?

I live in Los Angeles, so the weather can hit the 80-110F easy during the summer, winters at night can get down to 40F. I ended up going with 0w40, even though I know other owners use a 20w50. I think the previous owner used that grade, which seemed a little hard on the car, hence the switch to a lighter grade. Though with a majority of owners running heavier grades, I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong lol.

She seems okay with it, but maybe I can get some people's thoughts on the matter and get a survey of what gets used by other owners.
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Briano1234
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by Briano1234 »

If you use a good filter and are happy with your cars performance, then don't switch.
I use 20w50 and wix or napagold filters.
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by kamzcab86 »

Phoenix, AZ
20W50 year-round with a Mahle filter; zero problems in colder weather.

When I lived in SoCal, the car used 10W30 or 15W40 year-round (but it had far less miles on it back then).

If you're using that 40 year-round, you might consider switching to a multigrade oil: 10W40, 15W40, 20W50. According to the graph in the manual, 40 is for tropical climates.

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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by gull »

I use 10W40 in the winter, 20W50 in the summer. In the winter it gets just cold enough around here to make me a bit uncomfortable with 20W50, especially since I once blew an oil cooler seal on a cold morning while running it. In the summer the oil pressure light comes on in traffic if I use 10W40, so I step up to a heavier grade; it reduces oil consumption, too. The car has 165,000 miles on it and has a fair amount of oil consumption, apparently due to bad valve stem seals.
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by rabbitinfife »

My 1989 cabby stock original motor with 320k ish had the low oil pressure problem with the 10/30 I have been running 20/50 for a couple of years now haven't had any issues, lower oil consumption too. I don't really believe there is a right or wrong answer it is what works for you and youre car.
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by CalAltaDubber »

Here in Calgary, I run 20W50 year round in both Cabbys.

I should point out that both cars have attained "TOY" status and as such are parked for the winter.

However when I did drive Topless Bunny in the winter I did use 5W30 concidering temprature could be as cold as -40 degrees where I was living at the time.
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by Calimus »

Like Brian, 20w-50 here in Ga.
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by Bugly »

I live in eastern Pennsylvania and use Castrol 20-40 for high mileage cars with ONLY a VW filter. (Had oil pump go bad with other filters because of the difference in the flo thru the filter, no problems since.) My daughter uses the car as an every day driver.
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by PDX Cabby »

how you drive it also says what oil you should use. my cabby has been on 15w50 Mobile 1 with Bosch or Mahle filters... I also drive it pretty hard.
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by 85vwcabby »

I run 10W-30 here in yooperland. I drive the Cabby from spring to fall, then put her away for the winter. My Cabby has ~158,000 miles, and does not burn oil at all. (knock on wood) I did the whole cooling system early in the fall, and so far so good. (knock on wood) I use either Castrol Syntec or Valvoline Premium Conventional oil with Bosch or Mahle filters.
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by Briano1234 »

85vwcabby wrote:I run 10W-30 here in yooperland. I drive the Cabby from spring to fall, then put her away for the winter. My Cabby has ~158,000 miles, and does not burn oil at all. (knock on wood) I did the whole cooling system early in the fall, and so far so good. (knock on wood) I use either Castrol Syntec or Valvoline Premium Conventional oil with Bosch or Mahle filters.

mmm 2 posts, and you haven't started your Hi, I am a cabbyholic post, and post pictures of your car to the forum......
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by gull »

85vwcabby wrote:I run 10W-30 here in yooperland. I drive the Cabby from spring to fall, then put her away for the winter.
I spent 4.5 years of my life at Michigan Tech. I have fond memories of tooling around U.P. backroads, although I didn't have a Cabby to do it in. ;)
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Re: curious what weight oils everyone puts in their bunnies.

Post by RepZoo »

I also live in Michigan and run 10w-30 as well. I also heard 15w-40 is a good weight for the 1.8l. My car leaks no oil, but i suspect the previous owner had an oil leak from the valve cover gasket (based on the oil over the back of the engine) and had the seals replaced.
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