What Oil type is the best for..??
02-05-2009, 08:38 PM
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What Oil type is the best for..??
Hi, i recently got my 2003 A4 3.0 quattro and i was wondering what oil type is the best for my engine. Also if you know; every how many miles do i have to chacge my transmition oil ?
p.s. it has 72.000 miles
Thank you for your time
p.s. it has 72.000 miles
Thank you for your time
02-05-2009, 09:28 PM
#2
By "best", you don't mean technically the very very best, do you? Many $2 10w-40 oils are excellent.
Imo, $2 oil changed 3x more often gives a much better result than $6 oil. Even twice as often is better, say 5k for dino vs 10k for synth. Changing synth at 5k is totally pointless.
Just to cover the dino 10w-40s, Pennzoil and Havoline make excellent modern oils which could pass for "synthetic" (a meaningless term) just 5 years ago. Now, if I had to throw out one single oil that is the "best" ~recommendation~, I'd say MaxLife 10w-40. It's easy to find, cheap, won't burn off, conditions seals and produces great lab results. It a selection that you could go ahead with indefinately and do fine. In Hi-Miles oils, Castrol GTX HM is excellent too.
I have to pause here to ask about your climate and length of typical trip. Short trips produce sludge by not burning off water and fuels that accumulate. In the short trip case, I even more strongly recommend cheap oil changed more frequently. 5000-6000 miles or 3-4 months is a good starting change interval. 10w-40 is tested down to -20f. I'd say -10f is more realistic, and only for a few days a year. If you see prolonged cold about 0f, I'd look at 5w-30 over winter and thicker for summer. 5w-40 synth is an option, but is actually not much thinner than 10w-40 in the cold. If you see extreme heat, 15w-40 truck oil is great, Mobil or Chevron.
If you are looking for some of the best synth oil, there are many and they vary mostly by availability. Walking in to any WalMart and now most parts stores will yield Shell Rotella T Synth 5w-40, a stout truck oil in the diesel oil section. $20/gallon. Not much need to go any further. Hi-Miles synths include MaxLife 30 weights and Mobil 1 HM, again the thick "Euro" 30 weights. Other synth oils include German Syntec 0w-30, factory-fill and good for 10k changes, that and Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30 are great for extreme cold. AMSoil is always an option, SSO 0w-30 would be one of their products.
My best advice is Hi-Mi 10w-40 or plain dino oil with a bottle of Auto-Rx and then more dino oil for the first few changes. After the engine's cleaned a little bit is the time to start synth, if at all.
I dump manual trans oil about 10k in a new car and about every 50k from there. Same with Auto.<ul><li><a href="http://auto-rx.com">http://auto-rx.com</a</li></ul>
Just to cover the dino 10w-40s, Pennzoil and Havoline make excellent modern oils which could pass for "synthetic" (a meaningless term) just 5 years ago. Now, if I had to throw out one single oil that is the "best" ~recommendation~, I'd say MaxLife 10w-40. It's easy to find, cheap, won't burn off, conditions seals and produces great lab results. It a selection that you could go ahead with indefinately and do fine. In Hi-Miles oils, Castrol GTX HM is excellent too.
I have to pause here to ask about your climate and length of typical trip. Short trips produce sludge by not burning off water and fuels that accumulate. In the short trip case, I even more strongly recommend cheap oil changed more frequently. 5000-6000 miles or 3-4 months is a good starting change interval. 10w-40 is tested down to -20f. I'd say -10f is more realistic, and only for a few days a year. If you see prolonged cold about 0f, I'd look at 5w-30 over winter and thicker for summer. 5w-40 synth is an option, but is actually not much thinner than 10w-40 in the cold. If you see extreme heat, 15w-40 truck oil is great, Mobil or Chevron.
If you are looking for some of the best synth oil, there are many and they vary mostly by availability. Walking in to any WalMart and now most parts stores will yield Shell Rotella T Synth 5w-40, a stout truck oil in the diesel oil section. $20/gallon. Not much need to go any further. Hi-Miles synths include MaxLife 30 weights and Mobil 1 HM, again the thick "Euro" 30 weights. Other synth oils include German Syntec 0w-30, factory-fill and good for 10k changes, that and Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30 are great for extreme cold. AMSoil is always an option, SSO 0w-30 would be one of their products.
My best advice is Hi-Mi 10w-40 or plain dino oil with a bottle of Auto-Rx and then more dino oil for the first few changes. After the engine's cleaned a little bit is the time to start synth, if at all.
I dump manual trans oil about 10k in a new car and about every 50k from there. Same with Auto.<ul><li><a href="http://auto-rx.com">http://auto-rx.com</a</li></ul>
02-06-2009, 05:03 AM
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Advance Auto Parts had a special on Castrol synthetic
Don't buy into the hype that ONLY Mobil 1 will work in your car. Advance had a special of five quarts and a filter for $27. You'll need an extra quart for you car, maybe two.
M1 is like $8.50/quart nowadays. Absurd! Just go with a quality synthetic (I got 5w-40 castrol just last week) and you'll be fine. 5k - 6k mile intervals between changes and always change the filter.
Manual transmission? My car is just shy of 100,000 and has original trans fluid, but that will be changed to Motul 300V in the spring when I change the clutch.
M1 is like $8.50/quart nowadays. Absurd! Just go with a quality synthetic (I got 5w-40 castrol just last week) and you'll be fine. 5k - 6k mile intervals between changes and always change the filter.
Manual transmission? My car is just shy of 100,000 and has original trans fluid, but that will be changed to Motul 300V in the spring when I change the clutch.
02-06-2009, 05:06 AM
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10k change intervals is too long in my experience
I have all oil samples analyzed by Blackstone and the fuel % and iron content really escalates up over 6k miles. Therefore, I change my oil every 4-5k in the 1.8t. Overkill? Perhaps a little, but it's not terribly expensive and it works out to three changes per year for me, which is acceptable.
02-06-2009, 05:28 AM
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2nd on the Castrol synthetic... always had good results in the Audi's....
Close to 500k on previous two motors with no engine oil related failures.... Just my exp.
02-06-2009, 06:40 AM
#6
He has a V6, not 1.8t. This one did pretty well on 120k of 10k changes....
<a href="http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a364/AudiJunkie/bitog/?action=view¤t=122k_miles.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a364/AudiJunkie/bitog/122k_miles.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
02-06-2009, 06:44 AM
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Syntec 5w-40 is weak sauce. Ancient high Magnesium formula, does poorly compared to German Syntec.
In the same engine, sequential UOAs. Same price at the store. "Belgian" Syntec is also lame compard to other easily obtained 5w-40 like Shell Rotella and Mobil Truck & SUV. I would use it maybe in a beater if it was free.
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02-06-2009, 07:52 AM
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Can you link me to the "German Syntec"
Im not sure which one you're referring to. Im not even sure which one I picked up at AAP if they are right next to each other.
Are you against M1? I read they had a formula change a few years back that affected the quality.
Time to get my learn on!
Are you against M1? I read they had a formula change a few years back that affected the quality.
Time to get my learn on!
02-06-2009, 07:58 AM
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Don't you think that an oil analysis is more important than the way the cam looks?
The motor that I was referring to was a 2.8L V6 Passat, not a 1.8t. Previous owner did 10k intervals at the VW dealer and it developed some sludge and the oil analysis came back with higher than average wear metals... so now the interval is 6k miles and I have hte oil analyzed every other change.
I used to push oil intervals to 10k, but now just play it safer at 6k. I think 3k is ridiculous, but at the same time I'd rather pay the extra $30 every few months (less than I **** away at a bar on any given weekend) to keep fresher oil pumping through the motor, especially with the shorter drives that I make. I also change viscosity based on the weather and if Im heading to the track for a weekend of 5k+ rpm madness.
I used to push oil intervals to 10k, but now just play it safer at 6k. I think 3k is ridiculous, but at the same time I'd rather pay the extra $30 every few months (less than I **** away at a bar on any given weekend) to keep fresher oil pumping through the motor, especially with the shorter drives that I make. I also change viscosity based on the weather and if Im heading to the track for a weekend of 5k+ rpm madness.
