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I feel that more than anything, especially with a turbo motor is to change oil as often as possible. 5k miles max. Forget factory recommended 7-10k intervals. Those are designed to have you get a new car every few years.
Problem with that is, lot of leased cars will follow, if they follow, factory set time guide lines. SO when buying a used car, you want a print out of every oil change as far is records go.
Also, would not hurt to warm up the motor for a minute or two and then drive in a gentle manner till oil warms up, when it gets cold outside.
meh, 10 K is ok when new, but come the 60k anniversary, swap to 5k as the motor IS older and it will last forever. motor, not car
what I do find is problematic are the cam phasers used on gm products with vvt and the OLM. Caddy especially with the hotrod versions. my OLM would project 12K+ changes because of my highway use and the holes in the phaser oil control solenoid are maddeningly small and this causes the position sensor codes that cause people to swap out the chains and stuff at $3000+ a pop when all it needs is a BG flush and more frequent changes. Go dig up my writeup on the cadillac owners group forums, too late to save a couple million in un-needed repairs by poor owners
On my TDI PD2 motor in my 06 I had, there was one and only one qualification I could use and it was not made by ANYONE in the US so I had to buy from TDIParts.com (which may or maynot have been forced to change their name via lawsuit) There were 2 or 3 brands like pento synth and motul that made it and the price was not too bad to import, vs dealer. You could NOT take a PD2 motor to any oil change locale in the US of A which ended up being a problem.
apparently the design of the injector was such that if it galled and seized, if would exit the block with great force such that VW issued an advisory that failure to comply could cause serious injury or death.
Very few OEMS have ever played the 'death card' on motor oil.*
So you either self soothed via TDI parts (which I now remember had to change to ID parts) or paid the dealer $300 something for an oil change. Another reason I hate VAG for life.
Then the cheater diesels came out and while I really loved the power and torque of that motor, the electronic injectors were junk and were $1500 each plus labor on a fairly regular basis, or $1000 each plus labor from a diesel shop which became popular as every truck bet the farm on turbo Ds and peoples pee pees got smaller.
* off topic but the dual mass flywheel which failed far far more regularly for far far more money than the injectors, and NEVER got the death card because there was no fix. quite a few came apart spectacularly and quite a few people had their feet sawed off by one. I hate VAG. Did I mention that?
Wow, that PD motor and "dieselgate" culture of VAG was just horrible. The prior motor series (ALH) was solid. I was able to stretch the OCI to nearly 20K miles (mostly highway). I bought the TDI as a 4 year old used car with 80K miles on it for $9,500 to use an experiment with biodiesel back when I was college. My only issues with the car were:
a seized idler pulley bearing about a month after changing it at 125K miles
defective relay 109 at 180K miles ($10 replacement)
clutch plate finger broke at 250K miles (replaced with SMF and street clutch)
leaky fuel injection pump gasket at 250K miles ($400 to replace all the seals)
glow plug harness became brittle at 280K miles ($40) wouldn't be an issue at all except for CEL triggers an automatic smog check failure.
All in all, the car is ridiculously reliable and they certainly don't make them like they used to.
Shell Rotella T-6 in two older Turbo Subarus for over 100K on each. Changed every 3-4K. Never lost a turbo and they were driven like we stole them. We did clean or replace both banjo bolt filters regularly.
I have an Audi with a 3.0 T engine and the oil requirements are very specific. I got a quart from the dealer because when they'd changed the oil they'd left it short a half quart or so. The bottle was Audi-branded but I don't know who actually produced the oil. It was less than $10/qt so not much out of line in cost than other full-synthetic oils at stores. And the oil change interval is 1 year or 10,000 miles, so the cost over other oils is insignificant compared to other good oils.
Yep, it seems the oils that these dealerships use would be the correct spec and type. But when you go to an independent mechanic, you have to be mindful. For example the independent VW/Audi shop that is well-known in this area uses Motul 8100 X-Clean oil (which is the correct spec) but seems to be of good quality also. I find independent shops using more different brands.
Of course, this question brings up the safer side of changing the oil at 5k rather than 10k for turbo engines. Probably even more so if you have an engine known for oil consumption issues like the VW/Audi 2.0T and the piston ring issue.
I feel that more than anything, especially with a turbo motor is to change oil as often as possible. 5k miles max. Forget factory recommended 7-10k intervals. Those are designed to have you get a new car every few years.
Problem with that is, lot of leased cars will follow, if they follow, factory set time guide lines. SO when buying a used car, you want a print out of every oil change as far is records go.
Also, would not hurt to warm up the motor for a minute or two and then drive in a gentle manner till oil warms up, when it gets cold outside.
This.
Best to change at 3K, regardless of what the manual says. Actually, if you read the manual carefully, you'll see a different schedule for 'harsh conditions' or something to that effect. The reality is we all drive at that schedule, rather than at some idealized one where you drive gently for 20 min., warm up, cool down, minimal stop and go, no hard acceleration, braking, etc.
Many lab results show almost no change up to 3K, then some degradation 3-5K, and a rapid one 5-7K. To be fair, a new oil doesn't get chemically stable until 1K or so, so probably the best part for your car is b/w 1-3 K, but that's splitting hairs. Synthetic, no synthetic, etc. are just marketing terms. It breaks down and you have to change it every 6 months as well, regardless of the mileage. The oil is what helps dissipate heat and move it away form the motor, among other things. The old oil doesn't do that very well.
For turbos, all of that is even more important.
Listen to this guy, for some tips:
I used to have a 2014 Mazda 6 with the 2.5L I-4 SkyActiv engine with 13:1 compression and direct injection. The owner's manual said to only use Mazda motor oil (available at the dealer) in 5W-20 OR the same weight Castrol synthetic. I've been using the Castrol synthetic in other vehicles with good results. Castrol has the ideal winter weight oil for the Jeep Grand Wagoneers I used to drive 5W-50. They didn't get a lot of miles so they got an oil and filter change once/year. This was in Missouri so hot summers and cold winters. Around November I'd do an oil change with the Castrol 5W-50. The AMC 360 used oil but not out of service manual spec (up to 1 qt every 1,000 miles). I would top off with 20W-50 conventional so by summer that's what it was running.
This.
Best to change at 3K, regardless of what the manual says.
That is ridiculous. I really hope no one is doing that. So nothing has changed since the 50's when this WAS good advice?
5,000 is fine, 7,500 is fine for some and 10K is absolutely fine for some too. The "harsh vs normal' oil change schedules aren't about "warm up and cool down time" but towing and short trips. My job is literally 2 miles from my front door. That alone warrants earlier oil changes...but not @ 3,000. I can't believe anyone is seriously recommending that...
And I know I know I've heard it all before. "But oil changes are cheap insurance"... Are they? Jesus, my dealer wants $179 for an oil change. Insanity.
Engines today are much better then in 1950 and we certainly didn't have semi and full synthetic oil.
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