R36 Oil Change Q's

[Jakeys]

Hey all,

So I'm about to do an oil change and as I'm relatively new to the car I've never done one before. Before I get under there and find where everything is, I had a few questions.

1. Any R36 tips or tricks I should know about, being a Euro? I used to have a Verada which was just the old oil filter wrench to unscrew filter attached straight to the sump, drain it out, new filter and o ring screw in, fill er up. Super straight forward stuff.
2. Where does everyone source their filters? VW want $38 for one, seems a little bit on the steep side.
3. What the hell is in the VW Longlife III oil that makes it $160 for 5L? It looks like it might just be rebranded Castrol, seen some old pictures of Castrol bottles with VW logos on them that are Castrol Edge SLX Professional Longlife III, is it just a rebranded version of this stuff? Is it even that much different from the retail Castrol Edge which is substantially cheaper and still meets 504.00/507.00 spec?

Cheers,

Jake

[JB's Dub]

Id use a genuine oil filter. $38 is not bad really. Stay away from the wesfalia filters. I have seem a lot of those distort and cause oil pressure issues. The cost of the filter is cheaper than an engine. Castrol SLX professional LL3 is what a lot of dealers use for the cars in service. The last 2 dealers I worked at used it. As long as the oil meets the spec for your car it should be ok. Its not like your car is a diesel and needs a low ash DPF oil. Drain the oil filter first before undoing it. There is a drain plug in the lid of the filter, from memory it uses a 5 or 6mm allen key to undo it, that allows you to drain the filter without covering yourself in oil. And dont go all crazy strong man on the oil filter housing when you refit it. It just needs a snug nip up. I think about 25nm is spec.

[Jakeys]

Id use a genuine oil filter. $38 is not bad really. Stay away from the wesfalia filters. I have seem a lot of those distort and cause oil pressure issues. The cost of the filter is cheaper than an engine. Castrol SLX professional LL3 is what a lot of dealers use for the cars in service. The last 2 dealers I worked at used it. As long as the oil meets the spec for your car it should be ok. Its not like your car is a diesel and needs a low ash DPF oil. Drain the oil filter first before undoing it. There is a drain plug in the lid of the filter, from memory it uses a 5 or 6mm allen key to undo it, that allows you to drain the filter without covering yourself in oil. And dont go all crazy strong man on the oil filter housing when you refit it. It just needs a snug nip up. I think about 25nm is spec.

Yeah the SLX Professional III is what I figured they might be using, I read that and I also have an old 2010 era brochure which has that on it saying it's what they use. However, when I called up and asked, the guy didn't know as they apparently brand it entirely VW now, looks like this:



Do you know what the difference is between SLX Pro LL3 and the retail Edge is? Both meet same VW specs, but the SLX isn't available to buy anywhere I've seen.

Cheers for the advice, old car didn't have a lid in the filter, this is the sort of thing I wanted to know about going in.

[Passat R36]

The most important thing is you need a 36mm socket!

[JB's Dub]

The oil in the pic is what dealers sell to retail customers from spare parts. The Castrol professional oil is dealer only oil I believe, but the Castrol edge of the same spec would be fine. I have atatched a pic of the oil filter layout showing the drain plug ETC. And yes, a 36 mm socket will make life much easier. Although I have seen filters be replaced using large multi grips!

[Jakeys]

I only have multi grips, I doubt my set goes up to 36mm. Thanks for the tip, I might grab one just for ease of use.

[Umai Naa!!]

$38?!

My local dealer retails them for $22.

Be gentle on the oil filter drain plug. It's only alluminum.

Also get yourself a new sump plug as well. It'll come with a new captive washer.

[brad]

You can get the right 504/507 oil from Repco for <$70. Shell Helix Ultra Extra or Penrite eco 5w-30 - something like that - there are a dozen threads on what is available.

Find a good source of MAnn or MAhle filters on eBay or a UK supplier like Eurocarparts.

If you don't want to spend silly money on a socket you can bodge one up out of plywood.

[Jakeys]

$38?!

My local dealer retails them for $22.

Be gentle on the oil filter drain plug. It's only alluminum.

Also get yourself a new sump plug as well. It'll come with a new captive washer.

All good, turns out it was $24 when I went to buy in person. Not sure why I was quoted so high on the phone, I gave them the VIN both times. Much more reasonable price.

Also, complete noob question, what is the purpose of having the drainage tube on the filter itself if draining from the sump plug is still required?

[brad]

Haven't done one but I assume it drains the filter housing so it doesn't dump everywhere?

[Passat R36]

For less messy

[Umai Naa!!]

It drains the filter housing. It's just a small aluminium plug in the bottom of the canister. When the 6mm hex hasn't rounded-out by a bafoon, it's a neat way to avoid making a massive mess everywhere when you undo the cansiter.

[Jakeys]

Makes sense. Smart! Smarter than making the dipstick black, heh.

[snerlo]

Good call mate! Makes it hard to see where the oil level is hey!!

[Jakeys]

Also get yourself a new sump plug as well. It'll come with a new captive washer.

DOH! I knew I forgot something. Need the washer too ah fark back I go, unless anyone knows if the correct type can be bought from a generic auto store

In other news though, as suggested by someone here, it sounds like Castrol Edge SLX Professional LL03 is the dealer oil and isn't available to the public, Longlife 3 is the Volkswagen branded oil that is available to the public and I suspect it is probably just rebranded and way overpriced Edge SLX Pro although nobody seems to know exactly, and Castrol Edge (Also called Edge Titanium) is the off the shelf retail version. There are probably slight variances between the retail and dealer oils as this was the case with the same scenario for BMW (Someone did an oil examination test on the two) but both meet the 504/507 spec and I am comfortable running the retail Edge given the massive price difference and the fact I do changes at 7500km anyway, both are rated for 15,000km.