redrocker55

The idea behind this thread is to track wear and tear and provide the group with detailed oil analysis over the life of my 2010 Audi S4. This vehicle was purchased new by me. I personally do all the oil changes.

All tests are being done independently by Blackstone Labs. Personally I felt they were the best in the biz. I've done oil analysis for years and these guys deliver great service and a quality, consistent product.

It was suggested the factory fill was a Fuch's 5w40 oil at the time of my S4 purchase.

I then experimented with German Castrol (only found at AutoZone). It is a VW 502 approved oil. Viscosity 0w30. This oil tested well in my opinion.

I then tried AMSoil European Formula in a 5w40 weight. This oil tested slightly better so I decided to run with that oil for the time being.

I did a early oil change at 1,566 miles...I've always done early oil changes on my cars with success so why change this strategy until something warrants it.

I'm not changing the air filter every other oil change...approx every 15,000 miles.

I've been gradually increasing the miles on each oil change since.

The most recent report from Blackstone read...

Dan: You are almost up to 7,000 miles on this most recent oil run and the engine hardly even noticed the longer usage. Most wear only increased by 1 or 2 ppm and coppe actually improved this time around. That coupled with the e4xcellent insoluble reading of 0.2% and strong TBN of 3.6 leads us to think that an even longer oil run should be just fine next time. Try going up to 8,500 miles and check back to see how the engine handled things. Iron will increase, but the other metals should hold fairly steady. This was still a 5w30 to 10w40 oil after 6,750 miles and no fuel or collant was present.

The details of this oil change and all preceeding oil changes are below....

1st number is the oil change at 20,450 miles-6,753 miles on oil
2nd number is the oil change at 13,697 miles-4,843 miles on oil
3rd number is the oil change at 7,636 miles-2,355 miles on oil
4th number is oil change at 5,293 miles-2,443 miles on oil
5th number is oil change at 2,850 miles-1,294 miles on oil
6th number is my first oil change at 1,566 miles
7th number is my S4 Average
8th number is the universal average for all S4's they've tested with the

3.0 TFSI engine.

Aluminum 3 2 2 3 3 5 3 3
Chromium 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Iron 11 9 7 10 8 18 10 14
Copper 5 6 6 8 8 25 9 7
Lead 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1
Tin 0 1 2 6 0 2 2 1
Molybdenum 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 20
Nickel 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Manganese 1 1 1 2 3 12 3 3
Silver 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Titanium 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Potassium 0 1 0 2 1 4 1 1
Boron 49 51 45 4 11 58 32 37
Silicon 7 8 8 13 19 67 19 11
Sodium 4 4 3 4 3 5 4 5
Calcium 1615 1778 1736 2004 1749 1867 1822 1936
Magnesium 11 29 14 504 402 11 225 267
Phosphorus 659 769 747 933 862 735 805 794
Zinc 726 941 890 1231 1060 951 1004 979
Barium 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

The below values are from this most recent oil change...

SUS Viscosity @ 210°F 62.6
cSt Viscosity @ 100°C 10.96
Flashpoint in °F 390 >365
Fuel <0.5% should be <2.0%
Antifreeze 0.0% should be 0.0%
Water 0.0% should be <0.1%
Insolubles 0.2% should be <0.6%
TBN 3.6

NWS4Guy

Looking good, I still will do 5K changes on mine I think, but this is good evidence that going 10K is not just horrible on these engines, with good oil.

redrocker55

Yep...big thing for me on the extended oil changes is the TBN and the fuel dilution. Direct Injection engines are supposed to dilute the fuel pretty bad. Not seeing it so far...but that is the big rumor on the "bob is the oil guy forum".

If the TBN's hang in there and no fuel dilution then the wear metals should still be strong and the oil should be good to go for extended drain intervals.

AMSoil sells 35,000 mile oil!!! I would never let an engine go that long...but they swear by it. On the Euro formual I'm using from Amsoil they say to go by the manufacturers recommendation. I bet their oil for Euro cars is not that different from their 35,000 mile oil, meaning going 10,000 might not be a problem for them.

I'm using their top of the line "signature series" oil in my wifes Expedition and the numbers are phenominal on that vehicle too.

By doing the oil changes myself I can justify the $20 for the oil analysis so I should be able to produce these for the group for quite a while.

NWS4Guy

Because I know you like techie stuff, here's the study guide for our engine:

http://www.s4-mtm.com/images/925803_3.0V6TFSIengine.pdf

Good stuff about our rings and pistons on page 7 and injectors on page 43.

Explains why the dilution is likely so low

need_TQM

FWIW - I had blackstone do an analysis on my 2.0TFSI (2009 model A4) after 6 months and only about 4000 miles. Since I don't drive the car very far, but it's a daily driver - it gets lots of short trips and I was worried about fuel dilution (Had heard the same rumors).

Blackstone found zero fuel, and low insolubles. Copper and Silica were slightly high - they thought both could be due to the low mileage etc.

I know these are not 1-1 comparisons, but perhaps the new generation of Audi DI engines are not as prone to fuel dilution issues...

I'll update with the actual #'s later if I remember.

redrocker55

That is SWEET!!! THANK YOU! Well...there goes my night! Wife is going to be mad but hey...that's the way it goes. She know's I'm crazy about this car. Thank you NWS4guy for the technical details! Much appreciated!

NWS4Guy

Welcome Dan - you can tell her to be mad at me

redrocker55

I got lucky...after our 3 year old went to sleep, the wife crashed out too!!! What perfect timing. So I had peace with my 3.0TFSI study materials!!

redrocker55

Here is the first set of results of my oil analysis for my S4.

This is slightly easier to read. Ha. Ha.

Enjoy...!!!

edit...still working on getting the size right...

edit #2...success...

Sunstealer

Which oil was this run?