Re: What oil is delivered from the Factory for the new MK6 GTI

[Greg Roles]

Can't begin to think how many times I have seen this debated, across several car brands. Bottom line is there is the 'ideal' and then there is reality, which often falls short. I can confirm what Mav has said in that whatever 200l drum the dealer has open at the time goes in. If I was buying a new GTI I'd head straight home, dump the oil, and refill with a quality mineral oil to aid the bed in process, probably even run the thick but specific to purpose Penrite run in oil. Have used that very successfully in the past, but hey, just my own idea....

[brad]

I can't see how it can be mineral oil as the first fill. Apart from what Greg roles & Maverick has said I put forward the following:

• Turbo Engine. Turbos & mineral oil don't get on well as long term partners. Sure, if all the Golfs were sold to people that cared then you'd probably get the correct warm-up, driving & cool down procedures, etc but these cars are predominantly sold as mass market shopping trolleys to people that start-up, drive & shut-down without much thought to what's going on under the bonnet. Mineral Oil would simply cook & soot up the bearings of the turbo.
• Long Life service intervals. My car came from the factory set to variable service (QG0/QG2). This is a normal ex-factory setting that (in the UK) is supposed to be adjusted to the customers preferred setting at PDI. It means 2years/30,000km between services under ideal conditions. As an experiment, I left it set on variable service & when i had the service done at 15,000km (8 months), it was still showing 13,000km to next service. There is no way a mineral oil could run up to 30,000km without causing ongoing reliability issues.

Bpgti: Used oil is supposed to be black. It means it's doing the job of suspending particulates rather than letting them form sludge in the sump. New oil should look clean / transparent - like runny honey. If you do a lot of stop/start traffic or short trips then an early change would be justified.

My engines always run a bit rough with higher fuel consumption for the first couple of hundred km after an oil change - oil has to "run-in" too.

[T Go]

My gti has only done 2200km.. i rang the dealer and asked if they can change the oil for me.. and would this be an issue.. the guy said it is not recommended if you change the oil before 15000km, he also said if the oil is changed before this, the engine may consume more oil and or have start to have leaks which will not be covered under warranty. He Said we can change the oil if you want, but you will have to sign a disclaimer that if anything happens the warranty will be void.. He said once the oil is changed at 15000km, you may change the oil after that as many times as you wish..

So i was like.. ok leave it as it is.. even though i want to change it.. but as its a special VW oil i dont want to risk my warranty.. especially for the motor.. O_O

My oil light came up today, so I called the service centre at my dealer and he said the same thing....
I'm just going to let them top it up and not mess with it.

[Bpgti]

Can't begin to think how many times I have seen this debated, across several car brands. Bottom line is there is the 'ideal' and then there is reality, which often falls short. I can confirm what Mav has said in that whatever 200l drum the dealer has open at the time goes in. If I was buying a new GTI I'd head straight home, dump the oil, and refill with a quality mineral oil to aid the bed in process, probably even run the thick but specific to purpose Penrite run in oil. Have used that very successfully in the past, but hey, just my own idea....

Thanks for sharing your opinion. So maybe at factory they put in "special" synthetic oil that would help with engine bedding-in but you'd still prefer to flush it and refill with mineral oil for that.. I get you. They say for the most part mineral and synthetic oils are compatible though. So no worries there.. I guess. But when you get to think about the different purposes of those two oils it shouldn’t be that good? Mixing those two.

I can't see how it can be mineral oil as the first fill. Apart from what Greg roles & Maverick has said I put forward the following:

• Turbo Engine. Turbos & mineral oil don't get on well as long term partners. Sure, if all the Golfs were sold to people that cared then you'd probably get the correct warm-up, driving & cool down procedures, etc but these cars are predominantly sold as mass market shopping trolleys to people that start-up, drive & shut-down without much thought to what's going on under the bonnet. Mineral Oil would simply cook & soot up the bearings of the turbo.
• Long Life service intervals. My car came from the factory set to variable service (QG0/QG2). This is a normal ex-factory setting that (in the UK) is supposed to be adjusted to the customers preferred setting at PDI. It means 2years/30,000km between services under ideal conditions. As an experiment, I left it set on variable service & when i had the service done at 15,000km (8 months), it was still showing 13,000km to next service. There is no way a mineral oil could run up to 30,000km without causing ongoing reliability issues.

Bpgti: Used oil is supposed to be black. It means it's doing the job of suspending particulates rather than letting them form sludge in the sump. New oil should look clean / transparent - like runny honey. If you do a lot of stop/start traffic or short trips then an early change would be justified.

My engines always run a bit rough with higher fuel consumption for the first couple of hundred km after an oil change - oil has to "run-in" too.

Thanks for the information. Yeah that's what I've found out too. Performance turbo cars need synthetic oil but I guess with the first fill it must be a special one to help with bedding in. The colour of the oil was thick black when I checked it before I left service centre and a couple of hours after that too but now it seems almost back to like how you described. Car is rather sluggish on acceleration - sorry that's what I meant by not being smooth on acceleration - and the wastegate rattle louder.

[Greg Roles]

Every new car till the diesel I've driven straight home, dumped whatever was "supposedly" in there, put in my own researched ideal, spent the next few days purposely running it in, and then changed back to manufacturer recommended about 500kms later. Couldn't do it in the TDI because of the PD cam and the DPF, otherwise I would have. Ran it in specifically though!

May seem over the top, and probably is, but I have as yet to own a new car that didn't run better than it should, performed better on the dyno stock, and used no oil. I'm convinced run in is just so important, but then I am prepared to risk warranty to follow my crazy ideas!

[stephen8512]

My gti has only done 2200km.. i rang the dealer and asked if they can change the oil for me.. and would this be an issue.. the guy said it is not recommended if you change the oil before 15000km, he also said if the oil is changed before this, the engine may consume more oil and or have start to have leaks which will not be covered under warranty. He Said we can change the oil if you want, but you will have to sign a disclaimer that if anything happens the warranty will be void.. He said once the oil is changed at 15000km, you may change the oil after that as many times as you wish..

So i was like.. ok leave it as it is.. even though i want to change it.. but as its a special VW oil i dont want to risk my warranty.. especially for the motor.. O_O

You've been told bulls**t. Ring another dealer. I had a change performed at six months and ~7000kms with my dealer with no problems and the manual even recommends it under the driving conditions in Australia. (RTFM)

I was actually told the same thing. Dealer : Denlo Parramatta. I went in to change the oil on my Golf R at about 10,000kms but they said exactly what shaq said in the post. So left it. It seems okay still so not too bothered by it. Just bought 5L's of Motul specific 504/507 5w30 synthetic for the Golf R for its first service (due this friday). Will be changing oils every 7,500kms

[dasrattles]

i was told they wouldnt recommend a change under 15000km but would do it if i wanted (no disclaimer to sign though). so i left it at that

[Transporter]

oil doesn't evaporate as such.

Conventional oils do vaporize at higher engine temperatures and can lose up to 25% of their original weight.
If you had a look at the oil detailed specs, you could see the parameter called "NOACK volatility". It is a test, which measures the weight loss of an oil due to evaporation.

[brad]

I would class vaporisation as being different to evaporate (probably because of the industry I work in - we would consider vaporisation to be in an enclosed vessel above atmospheric pressure subject to a direct heat source & evaporation to be an open vessel at atmospheric subject to environmental dehydrators such as sun, wind) but pointing it out that way, I can understand what the OP/OPs mech means now.

Need to take the blinkers off every now & then.

[jacs]

I too was told today (by paul wakeling) that an oil change before 15000ks is not recomended.............but after that, every 7500ks at least !!!!!

[PTW]

Who's Paul Wakeling?

[hooba]

Who's Paul Wakeling?

Click Here For The Answer

[Mi16 Man]

I too was told today (by paul wakeling) that an oil change before 15000ks is not recommended.......

That's great but why?? Do we need to RTFM again?

[brad]

Who's Paul Wakeling?

Voldemort's Dad

[PTW]

Click Here For The Answer

Wow. Better take that as gosple then.