New TDI owner questions

First post, thank you in advance for any and all help.

Just picked up a 2014 Passat, 21,000 miles, my wife absolutely loves the car!

I have done a search and read quite a bit but here are a few questions I still have.

Snow tires, the car has 18 inch tires and I have read that 16's will work, what rim size do I need? Tire rack lists 16x7, 16x7.5?????, and 16 x 8. Then I search ebay and they say 16x6.

Oil change interval is 10k, going to take my wife over a year to do that, should I do 5k changes??

That's all for now, I'm sure there will be more !

The car has an oil change reminder that will prompt you to change oil in 1 year after last oil change, even if you drove less than 10,000 miles. That is when I change oil. I drive my '013 about 3000-5,000 miles per year.

Probably overkill but oil is cheap and maintenance of these cars is a must.

I bought Audi 16 inch rims for my snows, not sure what width they are. If you go on tire rack, you can plug in say 2012 Passat, base model came with 16 inch rims so see which width they suggest, then buy rims wherever you want. There is a 215 width tire that is very close to the original diameter of the stock tire, you may even see the size listed on your door post, if 16’s were offered in 2014.

Thank you

The reason the oil change is 10k miles OR 1 year (some cars it is actually 372 days.... no idea why) is because they thought that if you were not racking up a lot of miles in a certain period of time, then you must be doing a lot of short trips. This is where you need to just use some common sense.

If the car gets driven every day, but does not go 10k miles in a year, then that is likely meaning it does a lot of short trips.

But if it only gets driven once a week, and when it does it gets driven on a longish trip, then you could probably leave it be.

My Sprinter has a 20k mile/2 year service interval. I didn't even have 10k miles on it when it was 2 years old. But it NEVER gets driven short trips, ever. Most of its trips are at least 50 miles one way. It often sits for weeks on end without being driven at all. So I just do 10k mile intervals, easy to keep track of, and the tires really start to show signs of needing rotation by then anyway. Which is another point to consider. Lots of city driving, with lots of parking lot turns, will be harder on the front tires than cruising down the highway. So look at the tires for service determination clues, too.

I went to a wrecking yard and got a set of 16" wheels from a '16 Passat TSI.


Tires are much less expensive, and the car rides better. Wheels and tires together cost less than new tires for the 18s that came on the car. Rides better, too, and less prone to curbing and bending on our lovely Massachusetts roads.

Jesus Quintana said:

Snow tires, the car has 18 inch tires and I have read that 16's will work, what rim size do I need? Tire rack lists 16x7, 16x7.5?????, and 16 x 8. Then I search ebay and they say 16x6.

Oil change interval is 10k, going to take my wife over a year to do that, should I do 5k changes??
That's all for now, I'm sure there will be more !

Click to expand...

The general rule for snow tires is that you want them to be skinny, not wide, so if you end up buying wheels for use in snow, buy the 16x7's.

If you can find VW wheels in a junk yard like Indigo did, that'd be the route that I would take.

Also, if she's doing a whole bunch of short trips in a TDI, you're likely to have EGR and DPF issues. They're covered under the extended warranty, but be prepared. These cars love the highway and they need the highway, otherwise the DPF won't be able to get up to the necessary temperature during a regen.

Jesus Quintana said:

First post, thank you in advance for any and all help.

Just picked up a 2014 Passat, 21,000 miles, my wife absolutely loves the car!

I have done a search and read quite a bit but here are a few questions I still have.

Snow tires, the car has 18 inch tires and I have read that 16's will work, what rim size do I need? Tire rack lists 16x7, 16x7.5?????, and 16 x 8. Then I search ebay and they say 16x6.

Oil change interval is 10k, going to take my wife over a year to do that, should I do 5k changes??

That's all for now, I'm sure there will be more !

Click to expand...

We have a 15 SEL that does just about 10K/yr, all longer trips.We are at 31K now, purchased new in May 2017. We traded our 13 SE for the 15 SEL.


We use our Chevy Volt for local driving, mostly using electricity provided by the sun from our solar tracker. It is nice having the engine for use in the winter when the range drops and heat is required. If you can afford it an electric vehicle for short trips/town driving is a great option.



Very occasionally the Passat will be doing a regen when we get home, probably 1/2 dozen times in 3 years. We fill the DEF once a year at oil change time.

I went with 16" wheels for my winter tires. Steel or alloy are available. The basic Passat S model came with 16 steel wheels with plastic wheel covers as standard. Passat suspensions are pretty much all the same, so you can go with 16", 17", 18", or 19" wheels. As mentioned, 16" tires will cost a lot less and give you a better ride. You can hit a pot-hole a lot harder and not damage anything with a taller tire. Something to consider if your state is not maintaining roads or if you live in the snow belt and winter is also pot-hole season.

When I was still working and drove 35k to 40k miles/year, I changed oil every 10K miles. Since I retired I'm driving 5k to 8k miles/year. So with all those short trips I'm changing my oil every 6 months now. I top off my DEF reservoir at every oil change.

DPF regens, something to keep in mind. I installed a ScanGauge-II so I can monitor my regens. With all the short trips I take now, when my car goes into a regen I simply take a short highway trip until the regen is complete. Usually a regen takes around ~10 to ~12 miles of highway driving. The less interruptions the better.

Drive more and worry less.

With most cars, but ESPECIALLY FWD Volkswagens, the larger the rim size, the higher the increase in bent wheels happening. And as someone who sees thousands of wheels a year, the difference is pretty staggering.

15": maybe one in 100

16": one in 50

17": one in 25

18": seriously it is probably around one in 10, it is quite ridiculous how fragile they are. I had a CC in here last week with all four 18" wheels bent.

Plus, a bent rim will be FAR more noticeable with a lower profile tire.

Sometimes you wonder if people aim for potholes, but i am the person that keeps reporting potholes on my commute until the DOT fixes them.

This is why I run 15s on my MKIVs. And 17s on my BMW, the smallest wheels that will fit over the tires. Still had to have 3 straightened when I bought the car. Run flats make wheels bend even more easily.

Most places I'm looking for rims say 16 x 6.5 is that correct???

Jesus Quintana said:

Most places I'm looking for rims say 16 x 6.5 is that correct???

Click to expand...

You can get wheels in just about any size, so long as they aren't too small to fit over the calipers.

If the wheels are coming off of any Volkswagen car from the last decade, chances are super high that they'll work; I can't think of any special cases off the top of my head.

If they're generic/aftermarket wheels, you will have to verify bolt pattern and offset.

USMCFieldMP said:

You can get wheels in just about any size, so long as they aren't too small to fit over the calipers.

If the wheels are coming off of any Volkswagen car from the last decade, chances are super high that they'll work; I can't think of any special cases off the top of my head.

If they're generic/aftermarket wheels, you will have to verify bolt pattern and offset.

Click to expand...

Thank you

oilhammer said:

With most cars, but ESPECIALLY FWD Volkswagens, the larger the rim size, the higher the increase in bent wheels happening. And as someone who sees thousands of wheels a year, the difference is pretty staggering.
15": maybe one in 100
16": one in 50
17": one in 25
18": seriously it is probably around one in 10, it is quite ridiculous how fragile they are. I had a CC in here last week with all four 18" wheels bent.
Plus, a bent rim will be FAR more noticeable with a lower profile tire.

Click to expand...

Forgot to mention the R and GTI BoIS rockin pimp 19 and 20

Passat R-lines with 19” rims, i like the look, the dark gray and the machined of the 2020, but no way do i want to pay for tires or straightening rims.