Oil Change interval

My mechanic recommends changing oil every 5K miles in my 03 Golf. We are using Motul 5w40 x-cess synthetic. The owners manual specifies 10K miles. I hope to run the Golf to 300K miles. I'm at 105K miles and she runs great. Which one should I listen to?

Sorry guys. As you can see, I'm a brand new newbie. This has been done to death, and the answer for VW specified oils is 10K. I'm pretty sure the Motul we use is at least as good. Let me know only if you disagree about the quality of the oil.

50 MPG said:

My mechanic recommends changing oil every 5K miles in my 03 Golf. We are using Motul 5w40 x-cess synthetic. The owners manual specifies 10K miles. I hope to run the Golf to 300K miles. I'm at 105K miles and she runs great. Which one should I listen to?

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I change mine at 10k mile intervals. Sometimes 12k miles. Ther is no need to change sooner then 10k. Unless you like spending 2x as much money then needed.

I am sure most here will say the same. Some may even advocate for longer intervals. If the manual says 10k then you cant go wrong at 10k, provided you use the proper oil, etc.

I cant speak for your choice in oil. I have only ever used Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck or Rotella T6, both 5w40.

Nick

SyNtAxx said:

I change mine at 10k mile intervals. Sometimes 12k miles. Ther is no need to change sooner then 10k. Unless you like spending 2x as much money then needed.

I am sure most here will say the same. Some may even advocate for longer intervals. If the manual says 10k then you cant go wrong at 10k, provided you use the proper oil, etc.

I cant speak for your choice in oil. I have only ever used Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck or Rotella T6, both 5w40.

Nick

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x 2. no reason to do 5k intervals. I would question whether your mechanic knows anything about tdi's

50, welcome aboard! You're throwing away perfectly good oil every 5,000 miles.

Actually, you can use a wide and ever expanding choice of oils. (5w40's Castrol, Motul, Total, Mobil One @ least 4 products, Fuchs, Amsoil, Redline, Rotella, etc,. I am sure I have left out some favs. I have and continue to use Delvac One 5w40 (aka Mobil One 5w40 TDT). The oem filters and the vendors that do the oem filters; like Mann, Bosch, Hengst, etc., are all specified (made to go) to 50,000 kms (converts to 31,069 miles).

Since the conversion from LSD to ULSD (Oct 2006), I have been running 25,000 miles OCI's. My last one was 30,700 miles. @ 154,000 miles this thing runs like the proverbial top.

Most any diesel-rated 5W-40 oil you'll find around here is good for at least 10,000 miles oil change intervals... many of us run 15,000 miles or more routinely... (my 2003 has over 400,000 miles now...) However, if you don't drive enough, I'd change it once a year, at least...

Personal favorites:

Mobil-1 Turbo-Diesel Truck 5W-40 (new version of Delvac-1) - found affordably at most WalMarts in the U.S.

Shell T6 5W-40 - again, at most WalMarts in the U.S.

Petro-Canada "Duron" 5W-40 - hard to find in many areas...

Castrol "Syntec" 5W-40 - European Formula (used to be the house oil at most VW dealers once upon a time... now they need to stock newer oils, some of which may not be ideal for your car... most here prefer 5W-40...)

Although I've never used it, many just love the Amsoil "European Formula" 5W-40...

Your Motul should be fine for more than 10,000 miles as well...

Welcome to the TDI-Club !!!

Yuri

10k miles MINIMUM:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=306043

Important posts in the above thread well worth reading:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3261177&postcount=13
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3266524&postcount=36
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3267180&postcount=56
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3267277&postcount=65
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3267294&postcount=69
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3267404&postcount=79
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3268543&postcount=86
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3268783&postcount=88

Good luck and Welcome to TDIclub.

ruking said:

Since the conversion from LSD to ULSD (Oct 2006) I have been running 25,000 miles OCI's. My last one was 30,700 miles. @ 154,000 miles this thing runs like the proverbial top.

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Wow! I'd love to be able to stretch it out a bit. Seems like that 10,000 mile interval comes back around in a hurry.

On my '01, which has the same engine as your '03, I took two oil samples at around 10k miles of oil use. Lab analyses indicated oil was less than half way through it's useful life. So yes, 10k changes are fine and even conservative.

Enjoy the car!!

Ski in NC said:

On my '01, which has the same engine as your '03, I took two oil samples at around 10k miles of oil use. Lab analyses indicated oil was less than half way through it's useful life. So yes, 10k changes are fine and even conservative.

Enjoy the car!!

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Are you serious??? Thats awesome. Thats some excellent proof to OCI's as well.

85_305 said:

Are you serious??? Thats awesome. Thats some excellent proof to OCI's as well.

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While I can see by your signature you do not have a PD; here are 2 UOA's, 10,000, 22,000 miles on a PD.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=296388

Welcome to the club. Every 10K for O/C and do a UOA and go from there.I use Blackstone there are others.Good luck

Well, I know in europe they have the same engines that we have and their OCIs are variable, usually carrying them all the way to 30,000 miles in some cases.

I'm pretty sure 10,000 miles is just fine if not conservative. 5k is just way too soon and synth diesel oil is expensive so why throw it away early

The mechanic probably also recommends not doing the oil change yourself

ruking said:

While I can see by your signature you do not have a PD; here are 2 UOA's, 10,000, 22,000 miles on a PD.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=296388

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Thanks for the link! Interesting stuff!

Let's see if I can revive an old discussion. I've read through a lot of threads about OCI and still have one thing to clear up.

My mechanic (actually the guy at the front desk) told me to stick to a 5k mile OCI because the filter only lasts that long, and I could damage the turbo if I try to push beyond that. I'm not sure which filter they're using (i assume MANN), but he claimed the stock filter that comes with the car is the only one that can do 10k miles, and, unless you're getting your filters straight from VW, anything else is only going to last 5k miles.

Thoughts?

(BTW I often change at 10k still, but in my head I have to add 5k to the sticker they put on my windshield)

oil changes

Iif you do a oil analysis u can do 15,000 miles on oil changes with no problem .

And what part of the filter is he saying fails? Does it just dump the load of filtered crap back into the system. Does it over pressure the system before the filter? Does it get them twice the business for oil changes? I go with the last one.

The US is so into the 3-5k oil changes it makes me laugh. Better engine designs, materials, oils and filters have come a long way from the open crank shaft engines of the 1920's that had grease cups rather then oil. I have heard from a lot if sources on here Europe does a 20k oil change but they dumbed it down to 10k for us since they knew we wouldn't go that far.

Only stuff I find in the filter rarely is a flake of shinny metal which i then start to look at the cam. Cut a section out and press between a rag in a vice. Then you can inspect.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

oil changes

I plan on doing 20,000 miles this time on my oil change . Did a oil analysis at 10,000 miles and there where no sign of ware . All oil specification where good . Also did a oil analysis on dsg at 40,000 and oil was in specification. Will also double that service interval . This is how the dealers make money getting u to come back sooner. just check and top off oil as needed

That guy at the desk doesn't know what he's talking about. Go with the 10k mile interval. The filter will be just fine. Lots of brands of filter that work great for 10k+ miles.

I go with the MANUFACTURERS recommendation = 10,000 miles or in my case 16,000 km. I'm still on my original Turbo at 479,xxx km.

jnelly said:

Let's see if I can revive an old discussion. I've read through a lot of threads about OCI and still have one thing to clear up.

My mechanic (actually the guy at the front desk) told me to stick to a 5k mile OCI because the filter only lasts that long, and I could damage the turbo if I try to push beyond that. I'm not sure which filter they're using (i assume MANN), but he claimed the stock filter that comes with the car is the only one that can do 10k miles, and, unless you're getting your filters straight from VW, anything else is only going to last 5k miles.

Thoughts?

(BTW I often change at 10k still, but in my head I have to add 5k to the sticker they put on my windshield)

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On your next change, get it to the even 10K mileage and you will never have to remember. It's easy to recall mileage like that.

And... stop reviving threads. Just make a new one and reference the thread with a link.

I do 20k miles on my ALH.... 542k miles and climbing. 505.00 spec 5w40 and Mann filter, maybe ~2L total top up between services (added maybe .5L at a time throughout the run). I do almost all highway, and have a MAF delete mild tune. 10k is easily safe. 5k is just stupid. And wasteful.

Yeah, don't revive threads. It's so much easier for people searching when there are multiple threads on the same subject.

I've found the opposite to be true, less threads with more info.
But you know, folks seeing things in different light is actually a good thing!
Some forums will address this in Rules, but here at Fred's, they're more laid back, and some see that as a positive, some negative.
We sure don't need more discussion of tires, air filters, oil.........

VW Service light

My Light is set at 8000 miles or 12874 km.

507.00

Rodmiser said:

My Light is set at 8000 miles or 12874 km.

507.00

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Mine has always been 10K, but the last time my oil was changed it was done at the dealership and now coming up on 8K saying it's due.

Did the dealership reset my interval incorrectly? Now I'm not even sure that they put the right oil in it if they were re-setting it to some other make/model interval.

Would I have even known if the oil was wrong within 8K miles?

oilhammer said:

I do 20k miles on my ALH.... 542k miles and climbing. 505.00 spec 5w40 and Mann filter, maybe ~2L total top up between services (added maybe .5L at a time throughout the run). I do almost all highway, and have a MAF delete mild tune. 10k is easily safe. 5k is just stupid. And wasteful.

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im sure that the oil can handle that but not the filter.
20K is a lot for a filter to take, do you send out oil samples for testing to blackstone labs?

Mongler98 said:

im sure that the oil can handle that but not the filter.
20K is a lot for a filter to take, do you send out oil samples for testing to blackstone labs?

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The filter is fine. And yes, UOA were great at 10k and only marginally worse at 20k. I only needed to test it once, to set the trend, that was 100k miles ago... enough for me.