New to me: 2015 GSW TDI 6SM. How to achieve Maximum Longevity.

[Glenymact]

Hi there, my beloved MKIV jetta wagon has finally drove its last km. In light of this i have just purchased a pretty clean 2015 GSW TDI 6 speed manual. This newer car has 168k km's and has all the emissions stuff warrantied up to 260k km's by VW. I am wondering if its possible to get this car up to 500k km's. What kind of stuff should i do to ensure longevity. My mechanic told me to go to a VW tuning place and get the emissions stuff removed and a stage 1 malone. I don't care about power, i want longevity. People keep attaching pro's and con's to the DEF delete, or EGR delete. I would love to hear from someone who knows what the effects of those mods are stated as fact with no qualifiers attached to it. When people subjectively rank something as good or bad i don't know what their ideals are, they may be thirsty for power, for economy, for a certain sound idk.

 

[Nuje]

Congrats on the car - the 6MT in the Mk7 chassis is a winning combination (I take care of three of them for family and friends).

DPF, EGR, DEF - just keep driving the car (preferably avoiding short 3km trips) until they start giving you trouble. Then decide what to do. But until then, they've proven to be pretty reliable (certainly a lot more so than the previous generation of TDI).
The DPF *will* fill up with ash at some point and that would be when you decide to replace or remove (if allowed).

Given you're probably a little past 10yrs from it rolling off the assembly line, you should probably prepare to do the timing belt in the near-ish future (not today or this month, but probably in the next year). Mileage interval is 230K km, IIRC, but most here seem to recommend not riding it for much more than ten years if you haven't yet reached that mileage.

Other than that, here's the maintenance schedule (note that it's from the US so it's in miles)
Read it.
Follow it.
Even the things you think "meh - really?" like brake fluid.

(And if you want the nitty gritty details on ALL the maintenance, there's this weighty tome. )

 

[Lug_Nut]

Maximum engine longevity? Easy. Just choose one, not both, of these:
a) Never start it up
b) Never shut it off
Short duration operation is terrible, as most wear from friction occurs at cold start. Once up to full operating temp the oil flow and the emissions limiting systems are far better and less prone to develop buildup. I'd leave these alone until they are not effective, and only then consider deletion or replacement.
There are some items that deteriorate by age regardless of use or disuse (belts, brake fluid, ...) and these need to be replaced on calendar intervals, but do you want to drive the car,or have it mothballed in a hyperbaric chamber for an archeologist to dig out 50 years from now?

 

[pedroYUL]

I would stick to 5w30 oil, not the new 0w30 dealers are pushing now.

 

[Nuje]

Yeah - I would as well. It's just getting tougher to find 507.00 oil in 5w30; most of the time I see it, it's that 0w30 flavor. 🫤