Long time between oil and fuel filter change - A4 Jetta

So a cousin of mine is selling his 02 jetta. He was asking me about some things to do before selling it and what not. One thing he noted was that he hadn't changed the oil, oil filter, fuel filter, nor done much of anything since november of 2014. He said he's put about 18,000 miles on it since then and was wondering if there was anything he should check. He said there's no problems with it, other than he just checked the oil and it's really really low. He said no smoke, no leaks, no nothing. I chastised him a bit for letting it go that long, but the car seems to drive fine and no problems. I test drove it and I will say that when you step on it in 3rd or 4th there seems to be low turbo in the high rpm range, but lower range you can hear it, boost seems fine in low range.

anyway, i'm considering buying it (it's another platinum grey!) but i'd like to know if there's anything really important to check to make the low oil and long time between hasn't hurt anything. Anyone got some ideas/advice?

I would be concerned on the lack of maintenance and how long he has maintained the vehicle in that manner. Regular oil changes are critical on the car. As far as what could have been impacted in during this one time (if its only the one time) is hard to tell, depending how low. Obviously, less oil adds to the wear and the potential if low enough, for un-lubricated wear items. I am sure you know all of this already.

The engines are pretty solid and a one off might not be that big of a deal, but usually a one off is an indicator its been done before or that the owner doesnt really care about the car anymore and will neglect / treat it like a beater. (Like a rental car ;-) )

18k miles? The 10k mile intervals are conservative. Blackstone has seemed to find that, for most, 15k would be OK (not optimal). Running low isn't good, but it kind of depends on how low. If you're still reading in the hash mark area after 18k miles w/no added oil then I'd have to say that things are probably pretty much OK. Obviously, you'd want to change EVERYTHING right away.

kbaisley said:

I would be concerned on the lack of maintenance and how long he has maintained the vehicle in that manner. Regular oil changes are critical on the car. As far as what could have been impacted in during this one time (if its only the one time) is hard to tell, depending how low. Obviously, less oil adds to the wear and the potential if low enough, for un-lubricated wear items. I am sure you know all of this already.
The engines are pretty solid and a one off might not be that big of a deal, but usually a one off is an indicator its been done before or that the owner doesnt really care about the car anymore and will neglect / treat it like a beater. (Like a rental car ;-) )

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he's actually got very detailed records up until that time. He showed me his binder and it's very thorough. That's why I was so surprised. I guess stuff has happened the last couple years for him, I'm not really sure. I know he had a kid and moved.. anyway.

UhOh said:

18k miles? The 10k mile intervals are conservative. Blackstone has seemed to find that, for most, 15k would be OK (not optimal). Running low isn't good, but it kind of depends on how low. If you're still reading in the hash mark area after 18k miles w/no added oil then I'd have to say that things are probably pretty much OK. Obviously, you'd want to change EVERYTHING right away.

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Yeah, the mileage was fairly low for 2.5 years so I was a little relieved. The oil level when I checked it made me a bit nervous though. It was below the lower bend. He said he's never added any oil since the oil change. I just spoke with him and he said he drove it tonight and at one point the oil warning light flashed on and beeped, but then went off. He's since added oil (not sure how much) and he said it's back within the hash marks. I'll ask him tomorrow how much he had to add.

The price he's asking is great. I'm not sure where the oil has gone since there's no evidence of leaks that I could see. I think there's a guru near him, so I sent him the list and told him to call.

His last TB change was at 163K. He said the first tb job he had replaced with the 100K mile parts but had forgotten when he had the next one done. The car has 183K miles on it. No rust, no upgrades, all stock. He said he'd sell to me for 2500. lol. I can't pass this up.

When you say everything, how deep a rabbit hole is that exactly? Are you talking replacing the normal maintenance items? Should I remove the valve cover or maybe even the head and check for any damage?

He's taken his car to the same guy for everything (except oil changes when he did them lol. he did those himself he says) and though this guy isn't on the forums here, supposedly he only works on vw/audi/porsche/mb/etc. but he said he has a few TDI's himself and has been working on them since mid 90's... I know that doesn't mean he's been doing good work necessarily. As my coach said "Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent"

at least he hasn't taken it to the dealer.

btw when i harangued him about the lack of maintenance for 2.5 years, he sadly looked down and said "i know, i don't know what's wrong with me, i don't have an excuse for not doing it" lol. i felt a bit bad for going after him.

Tell him it could have been worse, he could have driven with the oil light on for 15 minutes, as my wife's daughter did! (first car- didn't know any better, but... miracles of miracles, we seemed to have dodged a bullet- the turbo oil feed line broke- not her fault (PO's fault! I now know to look for such things).

I'd change everything as soon as possible. Oil, fuel filter. And then I'd look to change at the next appropriate 10k interval; I say this because it makes it really convenient with maintenance to be conditioned to know that something is coming due when your odometer hits (well, you should be anticipating it) rolling over the next 10k miles. 10k is always an oil change. 20k a fuel filter. and, I think, cabin filter, 40k(?) air filter.

Might want to find out how he was driving this thing. Hard? Oil light coming on AND being driven hard would tend to be cause for a bit of concern.

I wouldn't be very confident that the correct oil was even used. I guess I'd want to know just how low the oil was. If it wasn't showing on the dipstick, I'd take a pass.

turbobrick240 said:

I wouldn't be very confident that the correct oil was even used. I guess I'd want to know just how low the oil was. If it wasn't showing on the dipstick, I'd take a pass.

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Since it sounds like he wasn't adding any oil the concern of it being the right oil might be moot?

"It was below the lower bend"

If this was the only instance then it was kept "on" the stick. But, "below" could be at the very tip/end, which is close enough to be "off" stick.

But if he truly didn't add oil in 18k and it's still on the stick at all I'd say that's a good sign.

Pull a sample *before* the change and send it to Blackstone. If anything has been getting torn up, they will be able to see it. About the best $20 you can spend in a situation like this.

- Tim

Everyone's advice is great. I'm gonna send a sample and find out. From what he's said his driving is not aggressive.

I'm hoping it's alright. It's a hell of a deal and I'd love to have it. I guess we'll see.

I've got an extra 20K service kit from idparts so I'll be ready. I'm gonna be out there this weekend so I'll see if I can get a sample. I'm sure he won't care.

Don't worry about the oil or fuel filters.
You'd better check turbo shaft play.
If there's (almost) no play and you really want the car, I don't see a reason why you can't continue negotiating the price of the deal

I do 20k service intervals on my ALH Golf. Did its 520k earlier this week. Seems to run fine for me. I'd not worry much about it.

18k isn't horrible... if it was synthetic oil? Isit proper synthetic oil, or cheap 10w30? if it was basic non-synthetic I'd be all :|

in his maintenance logs he has recorded the pentosin hp2 5w40 pretty much every time and rotella t6. earliest choices show liqui moly 5w40. i didn't read every entry, but i looked at every other page. luckily there's only a couple of entries that aren't normal maintenance and they aren't anything horrible. (glow plugs replaced, e-brake cable replaced, etc). He changed his oil today and via blackstone's rec's he collected oil for me to send off whenever i get the kit.

oilhammer said:

I do 20k service intervals on my ALH Golf. Did its 520k earlier this week. Seems to run fine for me. I'd not worry much about it.

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does it matter how long it takes you to get to 20k? Is it 20K or every 2 years or something or is it just every 20k?

I'd bet my car has close to 30k on it. I quit doing maintenance about a year ago because I'm waiting for the headgasket or clutch to completely fail but they seem to just keep hanging on.

I do however top it off when needed.

So I just texted him and he said "This is the first time I've added oil since I changed it 11/2014 and I just added 2 qts and it's just into the hatched section" .... not sure what to think

also, i will have to search on here how to check turbo shaft play. but i will .

Take a look at this thread to see how far down the oil pickup is in relation to the dipstick:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=315821
Pretty far. My totally random guess would say the pump could keep drawing with only 2qts left in the pan, on level ground. The block, filter, etc. hold quite a bit of oil though so would need a bit more total. Not ideal of course.

The fact that the oil light came on is a concern, because the ALH only has an oil pressure sensor. It doesn't take long with no oil pressure to do serious damage. It's promising that the engine still runs well but hard to know for sure.

yeah i've seen those pictures, they are very revealing and fantastic. i think it's ok but i'm still going to send out the sample to black stone. it'd be nice to know where it is anyway. I'm going to do to my other two tdi's as well.

He said the light came on for a couple seconds and went off. Engine didn't shut off and he said nothing happened other than the light and two beeps then off.

Have in mind that when the engine is running and the oil is pumping, the actual oil level is way lower that it registers on the dipstick with engine stationary.

Henrick said:

Have in mind that when the engine is running and the oil is pumping, the actual oil level is way lower that it registers on the dipstick with engine stationary.

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That's why I'm concerned. stationary it had some in the tank. Was there enough in the tank while it was running... that is the question. I guess we'll find out if there's damage when we hear from blackstone.

If the pressure drops it will light or flash the oil light, if he saw that and stopped as soon as the light came on, it might be fine, if he put the engine under load for some/long time with the oil light on....

senso said:

If the pressure drops it will light or flash the oil light, if he saw that and stopped as soon as the light came on, it might be fine, if he put the engine under load for some/long time with the oil light on....

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supposedly he saw the light come on during acceleration from being stopped at a stop light and he started to pull over but before he came to a stop it turned off and hasn't come back on since. anyway, i'm thinking it may end up being okay. i'm sure he dodged a huge bullet and it could've ended up real bad if he hadn't done something now.

I have a couple friends that have cars lets say for fun, older cars, that consume some oil and the light will come in tight corners, if it was that momentary, I dont think there was any damage, but, wait for the oil analysis to see if there are excessive particles.

Worth to mention that the oil light comes only at RPMs 1800 or above.