My guess is that's why the oil analysis company asks for the type and viscosity of the oil used. I'm sure they are privy to this info.
sorry guys...calm down...don't know where that "k" kame from.
I've never actually asked, but I can't imagine a company as well-known and respected as Blackstone is throwing numbers at us w/o a baseline from a VOA.
Bingo.
We are an extremely small subset of enthusiasts on this forum. I'd say less than 1% of owners are on forums like this, and of the 1% on this type of forum, a high percentage of us don't do these types of analysis. So, even in 50 people here paid for a UOA, compared to the total numbers of TDI drivers out there...it's a tiny, tiny fraction of a %.
Yes, thank you. That's exactly what I am trying to say.
Crap, I can't see your attachments!hi!
i had a problem with the service advisor at the dealership where i puchased my car as i approached the 40K mile mark. their quote ($1200.00) for 40K mile maintenance left me cold (they insisted on including maintenance i didn't need and had non competitive pricing for the items i did need). at that point i decided to split the tasks up and give the work to other local vendors. "Oil Can Henry's" did the oil change w/ my oil & filter.
at that time i changed to:
Pentosin
Pento Super Performance III
SAE 5W30
from the Castrol product that the dealer used. as i approached 50K miles i started oil analysis w/ Blackstone. my military experience told me to include a sample of the virgin oil. here is the Blackstone report:
note that it showed aluminum (Al) content right from the bottle.
here is the latest UOA for my 2012 Passat taken at 70K miles:
the metals content seems to be settling down slowly without any obvious changes in maintenance regimen or driving style. the car continues to perform well averaging almost 45 mpg over the 70K miles of mixed driving.
i don't know what to make of these UOA numbers. i've been driving VW diesels continuously since 1981 (with good luck). i have great faith in the basic engine design. however, this is the most technologically complex vehicle i have ever owned and the possibility of running into expensive repairs does give me pause. for now i have decided to drive more, worry less and keep a watchful eye on things.
bob.
The numbers listed above are totally superfluous & irrelevant. They mean NOTHING.
---my best guess is that i somehow contaminated the sample used in the Pentosin VOA shown in my post above. i poured that sample directly from a 5 liter jug into the Blackstone supplied sample container. i was careful....but spectrographic tests are VERY sensitive. my experience at a military SOAP lab has shown me that it wouldn't take much to get the Al levels shown. i discounted it and have never worried about it. aluminum is the 3rd most abundant element on the planet. just like silicon, it is everywhere. no telling how it ended up in that bottle of oil.
--i bought the DSG and have been very happy with it so far. this is the first VW i've owned that did not have a manual shifting transmission.
You are merely attempting to separate the pepper from the fly sh!t now!
Both my samples were taken as an extraction from the dipstick tube. I have the 6MT in my car. I may wait and take a sample at 7.5K and then again at 10K on the oil in the car. Given that many people are seeing high readings of Al it can at least give me an idea about whether my levels will begin coming down.
Did you ever call and find out how many of our TDI samples they've tested?
The reason I asked is because the DSG I drove (albeit very briefly) let the engine pull at high load, low RPM. That's what you'd expect for a diesel, but I wonder if the high load is causing excess wear on certain components. Granted, I'm not sure where aluminum would come from but I doubt the bearings (which would be most suspect in high load, low RPM/low oil pressure situations) would be the culprit.
A little off topic but $1200 from the dealer for your 40k service sounds about right. Remember 40k is when the dsg service is due... the dealer likes to charge a lot for the dsg.
$1200 is indeed very high for the 40k service. You're nuts to try and justify that price to yourself.
No way!!!
I understand the whole turbo whistle thing but how is that going to help you prevent the unavoidable.. if your turbo is going to fail, it's going to fail.
Idk what dealer you've been to but when I had to do my 40k service the dsg price they quoted me was ~650 just for the dsg service. So of course I took my car back and did it at home.
I stand corrected.
