Out of oil, got some more...wrong type?

[dougmcdonald]

Hi there,

My low oil light came on, on the way into work this morning, fortunately about 500 yards from a garage, so I stopped and picked up a litre quickly to stop things drying out. (Yes I probably should have noticed before the light came on :S)

Anyway, I got some fully-syth 5w40 oil at whatever crappy brand they had in stock and stuck in about half just to get me into work and tip it over the 'low' mark.

When I got to work I checked the handbook for the types that the car is supposed to take, the particular code was not in the bottle *concerned* I knew it wasn't neccessarily going to be one of the VW numbers as it was only cheapo stuff, but I'm aware that I don't want to go putting anymore in if it's the wrong type :/

So my question is this, should I A) stick the other half of the oil in for the time being until I can fork out a few quid on a some proper stuff.
B) Limp to the closest decent place and get a full engine's worth of something which matches the VW spec number in the handbook
C) Not worry about it, generally 5w40 fully synth should be ok, irrespective?

If it helps, mine is a '51 plate LC 180, no (performance) mods.

Many thanks,

Doug

 

[m0rk]

Some oil is better than no oil. It's not like you need the spec to prove the warranty anyway.

I'd schedule a proper oil change asap, to include a flush & filter if you've been skimping.

 

[akchappers]

That's good advice mate! Get it flushed out and proper oil and filter!
Ak

 

[dougmcdonald]

I have an MOT coming up in the next 2 weeks so I'll get it done then, thanks for the pointers, glad to hear I'm not going to kill it by putting some crappy stuff in for a few days!

 

[akchappers]

Agh you're not far from me either!
Ak

 

[Bmthcupra]

Random question guys and sorry if its not thread specific.... can the wrong oil cause power loss issues??