TDI Used Oil Lab Analyses Results & Discussions

[tjsean0308]

This is the most recent. The turbo developed shaft play and was rubbing the housing so I think that will be the copper. What do you all think about the Lead?

Any thoughts on the lead? Should I pull the cam caps and check?

 

[nickfancher1]

Well I did a UOA on my 2004 VW Beetle TDI, my notes to Blackstone were that I found that the air filter hose had fallen off at some point and put it back on. I found this about 2,000 miles into the oil change so I'm not sure how long it was off. Probably not any linger because the dealer had done some other work to it and he probably didn't put it back on. Anybody have some insight as to what's going on here with the high iron? I know these cars are known for eating cams. Should I drain the oil and put some Mobil 1 TDT 5w40 in it? I've got 1,300 miles on this oil change (a little over 2 weeks, it's supposed to say March 13th was my UOA date).

[/quote]

 

[shuswap]

I'm no expert, but you're at the same mileage as I am and my cam is quite heavily worn. But then, I first noticed significant wear 5 years ago, probably 125k miles back and it's changed somewhat, for the worse, but I'm holding out for the next Tbelt change, when I'll do the cam/lifters and everything that touches the Tbelt also.

Anyway, 5 years back some wise fellows (here) suggested I use Shell T6 or Mobile1 TDT oil and I'm now a believer in their anti-wear qualities. You don't mention what you've been using?
BTW, it takes 30 min to inspect the camshaft, why not do this easy inspection and find out if that is an issue?

 

[SFHGolfTDI]

I just got my oil analysis back on an extended OCI. The main concern is lead. I am going for a 15k OCI, and did this test around at 12.5k to see how things were going. Over the weekend, I went on a 1k road trip, so am now at 13.5k.

Maybe relevant info: Around 12k, I got a tune and ran lots of WOT logs. I do run higher blends of biodiesel regularly (but that is changing now that it is no longer available around me). FWIW, the car has given me the best mileage ever since the tune and a new MAF in the last 1k miles.

At this point, my plan is to continue to the 15k interval this time and test again to see what is up with the lead. Will I hurt anything by doing this? Any idea why it is so high?

 

[psrumors]

Potassium high but glycol test negative. Would one tank of "B5 to B20" cause this? I have not had to add any coolant nor has the level decreased.

Anything else look suspect?

This is using Pennzoil Euro L Ultra 5w30. For the first 5k miles of this oil change I was using OptiLube XL and then switched to Stanadyne Lubricity Formula.

 

[phreaddy]

Bob, you seem to know what you're doing -- do you have any suggestions re the metals and the possible cam wear? Is it something that should be dealt with sooner rather than later? BTW, since either 40 or 50K miles oil change, I have also used a magnetic drain plug. The blob of particles on the end of it is always about the same volume as a teardrop or so.

 

[psrumors]

Potassium high but glycol test negative. Would one tank of "B5 to B20" cause this? I have not had to add any coolant nor has the level decreased.

Anything else look suspect?

This is using Pennzoil Euro L Ultra 5w30. For the first 5k miles of this oil change I was using OptiLube XL and then switched to Stanadyne Lubricity Formula.

Anyone?

 

[ruking]

Yes you changed @ least four variables in total. So the UOA is a snap shot in time AFTER you did that. The real questions are along the lines of: what you were expecting.

 

[SFHGolfTDI]

Anyone know what happened to user TooSlick who used to comment on this thread quite a bit? He hasn't been active since October.

 

[phaser]

Anyone know what happened to user TooSlick who used to comment on this thread quite a bit? He hasn't been active since October.

I've been wondering as well. Sent a PM back in November but never heard back.

.

 

[bluesmoker]

I just got my oil analysis back on an extended OCI. The main concern is lead. I am going for a 15k OCI, and did this test around at 12.5k to see how things were going. Over the weekend, I went on a 1k road trip, so am now at 13.5k.

Maybe relevant info: Around 12k, I got a tune and ran lots of WOT logs. I do run higher blends of biodiesel regularly (but that is changing now that it is no longer available around me). FWIW, the car has given me the best mileage ever since the tune and a new MAF in the last 1k miles.

At this point, my plan is to continue to the 15k interval this time and test again to see what is up with the lead. Will I hurt anything by doing this? Any idea why it is so high?

why not stick to the factory recommended 10k mile OCI and save your engine?

oil is cheap, engines are really expensive

 

[vanbcguy]

Some people drive 40-50k miles a year. That's a few hundred $$s in oil changes that may not be necessary if the oil is in good condition. We know the North American specs are much more frequent than the same engines in Europe, less idling in gridlock there. If the OP drives in conditions that don't demand a frequent change why not save some money and resources by extending the OCI? Doing it in a scientific manner, with reports like these to back up your decisions is smarter than using an arbitrary number chosen for average conditions in the country.

 

[shuswap]

Anyone know what happened to user TooSlick who used to comment on this thread quite a bit? He hasn't been active since October.

Great fellow, Too Slick, went out of his way to be helpful to me personally and his very extensive experience was shared freely, to the benefit of many people. He is missed.

 

[SFHGolfTDI]

why not stick to the factory recommended 10k mile OCI and save your engine?

oil is cheap, engines are really expensive

Sure, I may still do that. We all like to tinker / experiment, right? This my first time going past the 10k, and the PO changed it at 5k for its first 74k miles.

After doing the next UOA at 15k to see what's up with this lead/copper, I plan to do one next around 9k miles into the next OCI. Then I'll make a decision based on that whether I will continue trying to push the OCI or not. If my engine doesn't like it and I'm seeing too many signs of increased wear, I won't.

 

[tikal]

Agree. Mr. Ted K. always showed a great character and he was a gentleman. His website is currently inactive for some reason.

Great fellow, Too Slick, went out of his way to be helpful to me personally and his very extensive experience was shared freely, to the benefit of many people. He is missed.

 

[vwthingguy]

Agree. Mr. Ted K. always showed a great character and he was a gentleman. His website is currently inactive for some reason.

I truly hope that his absence is temporary in nature. His advice and friendliness are two of his qualities that will be missed. He was always there for anyone to share their concerns with and to offer sage advice and insight.

 

[shuswap]

I truly hope that his absence is temporary in nature. His advice and friendliness are two of his qualities that will be missed. He was always there for anyone to share their concerns with and to offer sage advice and insight.

Could not agree more!! His website seemed active to me?
A gent who is sorely missed!

 

[Blasar]

Liqui Moly Top Tec 4600 | 10091mil | VW Golf 1.9TDI ATD

Hi!!

I´ve got my first UOA on the Liqui Moly Top Tec 4600 (after using M1 ESP Formula for more than 3 years).
I thank for the all opinions/contributions in advance.

Brand: VW
Model: Golf mk4 1.9TDI
Year: 2002
Engine: 100HP (ATD Unit-Injector)
UFI filters
Car mileage: 100258 (about 161350km)
Oil mileage: 10091 (about 16240km)

I usually do small trips (5-10km), several times a day, during the week. During the weekend, sporadically, a few miles on motorways and similar.

Blackstone comment
Copper continued to improve in this third sample from your Golf, but now lead is a little higher. Lead could be a sign of bearing wear, but it may just be a harmless particle streak, and if so, it may go away on its own next time. Since all the other metals look good here, it's too early to call this reading a problem. The TBN of this sample is strong at 4.3, despite this being a longer oil change interval. Note: the previous samples listed the time on the engine/oil in miles, not km, so we converted to miles for this report. Let us know if you'd prefer kilometers from now on.


This time, and besides the puzzling values for Pb and Sn (I am waiting to see if the next UOA confirms this trend), the results are better or equal to the last UOA, and, finally, the TBN was way above 1.0 (4.3).

AFAIK nothing changed in the use of the car in this last 2 years, besides the oil and the filter, but the results are a bit different from the last time.

For the record, all filters used this last time were from UFI and not OEM. Maybe next time I´ll try OEM filters with the same oil to see if there are any differences.

Regards.


P.S. - I hope TooSlick come back ASAP. Does anyone knows what happened?

 

[Henrick]

I'd say great result for such short tripping.

 

[Blasar]

Thank you for the reply, Henrick!

If it wasn´t for the Pb and Sn numbers, it would be almost too good to be true.

But now I´ll have to wait another year/10000miles to see what happens.

Regards.

 

[turbobrick240]

Very nice analysis. I would have thought a brand called liqui moly would have more moly. Seems to be working well nonetheless.

 

[Blasar]

Thank you for the reply, turbobrick240!

As I said earlier, if it wasn´t for the values of PB and Sn, I would be very happy. Not that I´m really concerned about them, but I´ll have to wait to see if the trend disappears.

Regarding the brand, I guess that the name stayed the same but the oil formulations evolved.

All we ask is that the oil keep making is work.

Regards.

 

[vwthingguy]

Here is my UOA on my 2010 Jetta TDI. The iron is still high, and I am starting to get concerned that it is a sign of trouble that may be looming. This UOA was done in Dec 2014 and I am now just getting around to posting it. I will be changing out my oil this week sometime and will get an analysis done on it again. Any comments or thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

[dustingebhardt]

Don't worry about the high iron. My TDI had high iron up until 85k miles.

 

[mxcoy]

PD on Chevron Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40

Ok so I performed UOA on my 2008 Mexican Jetta TDI MK 4.5 which runs engine code AXR. It’s a PD which I believe is sold mostly in Europe for Skoda cars but I’m not sure about this, I haven’t been able to find much about this engine code other than it is a PD.

First things first, there are three main reasons why I decided to perform UOA on my car:

1.I need to find a suitable oil engine with high availability in Mexico, my options are
a.Chevron Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40
b.Chevron Delo 400 LE SAE 15W-40
c.Chevron Delo 400 LE SAE 10W-30
d.Mobil Delvac 1300 Super 15W-40
e.Mobil Delvac™ XHP LE 10W-40
f.Mobil Delvac™ XHP Extra 10W-40

2.Since I’m currently running Chevron Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40 which is not VW approved, I wanted to understand if my engine had any complaints plus understand/extend OCI.

3. For the life of me, I could not find any other TDI user who had shared a UOA running on Chevron Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40. I did however find a lot of people asking whether it was a suitable oil for a TDI or not. So figured I could contribute to the community by sharing my UOA (Chevron is super cheap at Walmart).

I’m running my engine on Mexican diesel (Pemex 500ppm), 75% city driving (hard driving) shifting gears between 2,500 to 4,000RPMs, and 25% highway driving which I usually drive at around 100MPH (~3,500RPMs).



My engine seems to be super happy with this oil plus the possibility of extending OCI by 2 to 2.5X. However it is the most expensive oil from the option list I specified earlier. I would like to give a try to alternate oil from the list, I would appreciate anyone’s recommendations.

Based on the results of this UOA I’m actually tempted to just pay the high price, stay with Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40 , and see if I can extend OCI to maybe 30,000KM, what do you guys think? I was just amazed at Fe and TBN numbers, oil is practically brand new, right?

BTW. This is the third oil change I’ve performed using Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40 with an OCI of 10,000KM (6,250Miles), I ran a bit over this last oil change due to a last minute trip I had to make.

 

[SFHGolfTDI]

Ok so I performed UOA on my 2008 Mexican Jetta TDI MK 4.5 which runs engine code AXR. It’s a PD which I believe is sold mostly in Europe for Skoda cars but I’m not sure about this, I haven’t been able to find much about this engine code other than it is a PD.

First things first, there are three main reasons why I decided to perform UOA on my car:

1.I need to find a suitable oil engine with high availability in Mexico, my options are
a.Chevron Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40
b.Chevron Delo 400 LE SAE 15W-40
c.Chevron Delo 400 LE SAE 10W-30
d.Mobil Delvac 1300 Super 15W-40
e.Mobil Delvac™ XHP LE 10W-40
f.Mobil Delvac™ XHP Extra 10W-40

2.Since I’m currently running Chevron Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40 which is not VW approved, I wanted to understand if my engine had any complaints plus understand/extend OCI.

3. For the life of me, I could not find any other TDI user who had shared a UOA running on Chevron Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40. I did however find a lot of people asking whether it was a suitable oil for a TDI or not. So figured I could contribute to the community by sharing my UOA (Chevron is super cheap at Walmart).

I’m running my engine on Mexican diesel (Pemex 500ppm), 75% city driving (hard driving) shifting gears between 2,500 to 4,000RPMs, and 25% highway driving which I usually drive at around 100MPH (~3,500RPMs).



My engine seems to be super happy with this oil plus the possibility of extending OCI by 2 to 2.5X. However it is the most expensive oil from the option list I specified earlier. I would like to give a try to alternate oil from the list, I would appreciate anyone’s recommendations.

Based on the results of this UOA I’m actually tempted to just pay the high price, stay with Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40 , and see if I can extend OCI to maybe 30,000KM, what do you guys think? I was just amazed at Fe and TBN numbers, oil is practically brand new, right?

BTW. This is the third oil change I’ve performed using Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40 with an OCI of 10,000KM (6,250Miles), I ran a bit over this last oil change due to a last minute trip I had to make.

I would stick with the oil as it is the only correctly spec'd oil in the list you provided. All the other ones are either the wrong weight or not full synthetic. I'd also try a normal (for our market) 10k mile OCI since this one looks normal. 6250 is really low on this oil and your engine. You're just wasting good oil. The TBN shows a ton of life left in your oil.

 

[shuswap]

I'd agree with the posting above, but why risk a healthy engine by almost tripling the OCI to 30kkm? Oil is still relatively cheap, compared to everything else we do to these vehicles. I run my oil to 16kkm, either the Rotella T6 or Mobil1 TDT 5w-40 and I have the PD BEW engine, with a worn camshaft, but it was worn at 45kkm and I'm now at 272kkm with little observable change in wear.
My vote is to continue with this oil and to go out to 16,000 km!

 

[TornadoRed]

2.Since I’m currently running Chevron Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40 which is not VW approved, I wanted to understand if my engine had any complaints plus understand/extend OCI.
3. For the life of me, I could not find any other TDI user who had shared a UOA running on Chevron Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40. I did however find a lot of people asking whether it was a suitable oil for a TDI or not. So figured I could contribute to the community by sharing my UOA (Chevron is super cheap at Walmart).

That's a real nice used-oil report. Clearly the Delo Synthetic should be good for at least a 10k-mile oil change interval, and probably 12k miles considering the TBN and the low wear metals. I can't recommend switching to any of the others listed, not when the one you're using is working out so well.

 

[jon_slider]

I’m currently running Chevron Delo Synthetic 400LE 5W-40 which is not VW approved

why not? All 5W-40 is full synthetic. I use Rotella T6 from Wall Mart

I would stick with the oil as it is the only correctly spec'd oil in the list you provided. All the other ones are either the wrong weight or not full synthetic. I'd also try a normal (for our market) 10k mile OCI since this one looks normal. 6250 is really low on this oil and your engine. You're just wasting good oil. The TBN shows a ton of life left in your oil.

well said!

 

[mxcoy]

Thank you all for your comments, is just an amazing forum to participate...very active forum.

Looks like I'm sticking with Delo synthetic 5w-40. Continue to perform UOA to understand correct OCI. I'll perform my next UOA at 10k miles and post it for everyone to see.