5k miles on '13 Passat

Hey guy's! New member here. I've been surfing the board for a while and finally decided to join based on, what appears to be, a very large amount of experience and knowledge.
This is our first TDI but not our first VW. My wife had an '05 Beetle convertible with the 1.8T for 6 years until we got the Passat in July.
I'm used to doing 5k oil change and am comfortable with that interval. I know the issue I'm about to bring up has been beat to death but I'm still unable to find an answer to my exact question. VW's recommendation is 10k oil changes. I feel that if the oil was sent off to a lab at 10k it would still be just fine. But, for the somewhat small cost of changing it, I would like to at 5k. Especially on the initial break-in oil. I'm sure the filter is good enough to filter out the break-in material, or whatever is left after whatever the factory does to run the engine after assembly.
My main question is, is the oil from the factory a certain type of oil that should be left in for the first 10k miles to allow a correct break-in, or is it just your regular recommended Castrol oil? If the oil isn't anything special I think I would like to change it before the "free" service at 10k.
I look forward to seeing the responses and I'm not trying to start anything here, just a general discussion regardless of if the oil still serve's it's purpose at or past 10k miles.

Seriously READ THE OWNERS MANUAL!

You're not starting anything except perhaps for people giving you a hard time for not searching for an answer. There are many, many threads on this topic.

There is no break in oil for TDIs. The manufacturer's interval is important to follow, as the viscosity of the oil and additive condition are designed around 10K change intervals. Not only is it unnecessary to change the oil more frequently, some believe it's harmful as fresh oil has lower viscosity than oil well into its interval, and stronger additives.

Follow the manufacturer's (not the dealer's) recommended change interval.

Drivbiwire said:

Seriously READ THE OWNERS MANUAL!

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I have. Thank you for your response. You've obviously been around here for a while. Do you have something in mind in the OM that I have missed, besides where it say's to change it every 10k? Manufacturers have many reasons besides technological advances to extend drain intervals, such as maintenance cost regulations and the fact that they build maintenance for 3 years into the car. It's obviously cheaper to be responsible for 3 drains instead of 6 when the oil is holding up to extended intervals.

The question was what kind of oil is in the engine. I don't think that the owners manual will cover that, so telling him to read the owners manual doesn't answer his question.

What kinds of search terms did you use when searching? It's rather difficult to find all of the information here due to the amount of threads.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

There is no break in oil for TDIs. The manufacturer's interval is important to follow, as the viscosity of the oil and additive condition are designed around 10K change intervals. Not only is it unnecessary to change the oil more frequently, some believe it's harmful as fresh oil has lower viscosity than oil well into its interval, and stronger additives.

Follow the manufacturer's (not the dealer's) recommended change interval.

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This is the sort of information I was looking for. I'm aware that changing a more normal engines oil too often is a bad idea as the detergents build up in too much concentration when they're not allowed to deplete. I know oil color doesn't really have anything to do with its condition but my TDI's oil has been pitch black since 1k. I attribute this to the engine being new.

Welcome to the diesel world! It will always be pitch black and has nothing to do with being new. Particles being held in suspension from combustion.

Your oil was probably pitch black after 10 miles. That's normal for Diesel engines.

I have a farm full of diesels and this one turned color quicker than normal but I bet the 2nd will stay golden longer. My 1968 military truck turns black almost instantly while my Deere tractor runs really clean oil wise. It's still golden after a 100 hr interval. With the good info provided, I'll stick with VW'S recommendation and just enjoy the car and fuel economy. The only has engines I have left are a '92 Toyota commuter car and small engines like generators and chain saws and such.

The color of the VW's oil is directly attributed not to the engine but the chemistry of the oil.

The first 1000-3000 miles the oil has very high detergency which breaks the bond of contaminants and causes the oil to turn black almost instantly.

After 3000 miles or so and a certain number of heat cycles (operating time) the detergent burn off (evaporate) and leave the dispersants to continue to protect the motor.

After 3000 miles the dispersant of the oil prevents the contaminants from re-bonding and conglomerating in the oil keeping the effective size of the soot and combustion by-products small enough that they remain harmlessly suspended in the oil until changed out.

Changing the oil too often causes excessive operation time with the detergents and increases total wear. Ideally operating in with the dispersants in full effect keeps the oil in the best possible condition resulting the lowest possible wear.

FYI, VW oils are all forumulated for up to 20,000 mile oil change intervals with plenty of reserve (oil filters included).

Also, oil filters for the most part cannot filter out anything circulating in the oil due to the extremely small size of the suspended contaminants thanks to the additives in the oil.

Most particles are seldom if ever larger than 400-500nm, the best engine oil filter can't stop a particle as small as 10,000 nm (typically 15,000nm is the typical size range a full flow filter can remove with 90% efficiency).

Nope. It turns black almost immediately.

Isn't the Deere a 250 Hr interval? All of the Deere construction stuff I knew was a 250 Hr and moving to a 500 Hr interval.

Yup, the used oil will be black as the ace of spades. This is normal. Hmmm, perhaps used diesel oil is the secret ingredient in "Sharpie" pens.

And many say VW runs oil in every engine at the factory for some period of time, then drains and replaces it.

Stick to the owners manual schedule and specification of oil (VW 507).

Great explanation Drivbiwire! I bookmarked that for future reference.

Drivbiwire said:

FYI, VW oils are all forumulated for up to 20,000 mile oil change intervals with plenty of reserve (oil filters included).

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My MKIV hasn't had an oil change in 15,000 miles.