Am I using the right oil? -- VW Passat 2.8 V6

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Since your in Texas I would go with a quality dino 20w50 or 15w40. VW's, especially older ones, tend to go against current thought on thinner is better. They seem to like thicker oils.

I ran 20w50 year round in my 89 jetta here in Texas with no problems at all. In fact my oil pressure warning light would go off with anything thinner than 15w40.

Valvoline all climate, while not looked at by this board as being all that great, seemed to do very well for me in 225,000 miles of driving with no oil leaks, oil burned.....ever. With other brands i had some lifter noise at start up in the winter, with valvoline i had none.

I also tried pennzoil 15w40 long-life diesel rated dino oil and it worked very well. Most oil change places keep this in stock.

You might check with your local VW dealer and see what they use as far as viscosity. Given your cars desire to leak/burn oil, i would not think this is a good time to switch to synthetic, at least until you get that problem resolved.
 
"I ran 20w50 year round in my 89 jetta here in Texas with no problems at all. In fact my oil pressure warning light would go off with anything thinner than 15w40"

That's the sludged OP syndrome. Worn OP is part of the problem too. The real cure is an oversize G60 OP. No way should an engine get the pressure light with any 30 weight or greater oil.
 
quote:

Once again, my hat is off to AoA and VWoA for making sure I'd never buy a new VW or Audi in NA ever again.

VW/Audi makes great, fun cars. If you take good care of your vehicle and pay attention to what you put in it, you'll enjoy many of years driving pleasure. I feel sorry for the clueless owners out there...
 
I'm glad that after 9 years, you come along and tell me that. I've only owned a few VW before the Audi.
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When I bought my Audi in '96, I knew what I was up against when I brought the car in for the first service. I'd never seen such incompetence and stubbornness before at any (German) VW/Audi dealer. AoA gets the credit for turning me into a do-it-yourselfer. And no, I would never buy a new VW or Audi in the US. I would not want to put up with the lack of spare parts, and I do not want incompetently performed free service. I'll take a used Audi, thank you.
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On my 30k miles used V6 A4, I found the sparkplugs installed about 3/4 of the way. I guess they had Mr. Dopey Tech do the 30k service. I'll say my feelings are mixed at this point. I bought a 2002 A4 new and hated it. I sold it in 6 months after pre-ordering it in spring 01. I went back to a B5 Avant, my 4th A4 and now I've had 14-15 Audis. Older cars are better. I almost bought an Element last year. I like the Matrix a lot, too bad Honda has no similar product.
 
Mori, I think Jeff was making a general statment, not directed at either of us. He's a good guy.
 
Hmm, did I bite Jeff's head off? Thought something tasted funny here.
Naw, my statement was rather general, too. As for the sarcasm, see the smilies?

PS: Can I please get an official list of the good and the bad guys? I'd like to cross-check with my own list.
 
moribundman,
quote:

Once again, my hat is off to AoA and VWoA for making sure I'd never buy a new VW or Audi in NA ever again.

I'd suggest to stick with the oil the actual carmaker recommends for specific engines instead of adhering to arbitrary recommednations by the subsidiary who couldn't care less about making appropriate recommendations:

JeffPGH,
quote:

VW/Audi makes great, fun cars. If you take good care of your vehicle and pay attention to what you put in it, you'll enjoy many of years driving pleasure. I feel sorry for the clueless owners out there...

JeffPGH,
If you haven't experienced the VW/Audi woes we have, then give thanks to G0D, you're one of the few. My 1999 Passat 1.8T has had about 20 issues ranging from minor service to huge warranty problems requiring dealer attention. None, I repeat none, of these issues have ever been resolved in less than two visits. In most cases, a 3rd or 4th visit to the dealers was required to fix what the dealers screwed up. One issue (a serpentine accessory belt tensioner squeal) required 6 visits over the course of 30,000 km to diagnose and repair. In the end, the dealer tried to charge me over $700.00 to repair it when the car was less than 1000 km out of warranty.

I literally could go on for hours about similar dealer problems, but I’ll leave you with just one more story. During the spring of 2003 I began to notice small amounts of sludge in my engine, so I checked the owners manual in the hope of finding a remedy. After discovering that VW/Audi actually had various unique oil specs I phoned the two dealers in my area and asked what the specs meant and where I could find such oil. Both dealers knew nothing about the specs and told me just to use an API compliant conventional oil. I had already been using A3 rated Castrol Syntec 5w-50 for 3.5 years, so I wasn’t about to take their advice. I then did a great deal of detective work and tracked down the cell phone number for the national VW/Audi service manager (VW refuses to give out such numbers to the public), and asked him about the oil specifications. I doubt many “clueless owners” would go through this kind of effort. His answer was, paraphrasing, I don’t know what those specs mean, but it doesn’t matter because they only apply in Europe! Again, I chose not to trust VW/Audi North America and started to search the web in hope of one day finding the answer. It was at that point that I found BITOG.

I love the VW/Audi driving experience but like moribundman and thousands of others, unless VW/Audi North America and it's dealer networks totally reform their current servicing philosophy and customer service practices, I will never buy another one of their products.
 
I'm with you, moribundman.

Everything you have posted about the VW service and problems mirror my experience. My one saving grace is I found a good local dealer with a great parts guy.

But no more new VW's for me either. I've never had so many minor problems with a car in my life. I love my VR6 but the constant replacement of window regulators, switchs, etc. is a nightmare.

And don't even get me started on my Ginster paint quality, which was crap from day one. Everybody with the Ginster paint has faded cars that look 40 years old (unless they were repainted). VW's response: we will buff it out for you one time at no charge. In order to get this response, I too had to trackdown the mysterious "regional mangager" who only comes into Houston (4th largest city in the US) once in a blue moon. Ridicoulus!
 
Well, my complaints are only regarding proper service. I can't complain about quality of the A4. It is the best car I've ever owned. I have not been left stranded once. I have had no annoying or recurring issues save the ones the dealer couldn't track down. Let's see what went wrong:

At about 28 k miles my transmission went bad (main shaft bearing). I had reported occasional trouble shifting from second into third -- my comlaint was dismissed (Stoopid Audi drivah!)

AoA was extemely unwilling and while Audi AG Germany assured me they would simply replace the tranny under warranty, AoA fixed the tranny (They paid for parts only!). Took 2 months (lack of parts and tools -- unable to ship quickly from Germany) and the tranny was not fixed well. The day I was told to pick up the car, I found out the reverse gear had been installed backwards. It took another week... In the end, the same 2nd gear issue showed up.

At 60k miles or so the tranny went belly up again. Again, the dealer picked up some of the cost.

Other than the tranny, I had go bad until now (143k miles):

- vaccum leak the dealer couldn't track down (I did)
- 1 MAF sensor (normal)
- 1 ICV (normal)
- 1 ECU (went bad at 9 years old in over 100 degree heat)
- 1 shock absorber
- tie rods (normal)
- gas pedal broke off (leadfoot)

One recall:

- ignition lock replaced

As for the paint job, after 9 years, the car looks like new. The A4 had a 1A paint job to begin with. Fit and finish after surving me for 9 years is better than on some new cars in the same price range. I'll keep this car until it is worn out, but I will stay way from the dealer as far as possible.
 
Audi Junkie Said: "That's the sludged OP syndrome. Worn OP is part of the problem too. The real cure is an oversize G60 OP. No way should an engine get the pressure light with any 30 weight or greater oil."

The VW Digifunct Mgmt system was famous for its low oil pressure oddness. In the hot Texas summers xxW-30 would simply not create high enough pressure to keep the sensors quiet. Not that there is anything wrong with xxW-30 oils, just that the cars sensors didnt seem to like them. This was true in both my jetta and my golf.

Then again, mine only had 8 valves and i changed the oil every 2000 miles
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OK guys, educate me.

My wife's car is a 2001 Passat variant/wagon with an AUG version 1.8T (mechanically identical to the AWM, but factory chipped for 150hp instead of 170). Because most of the miles accumulate under congested suburban conditions, I use Mobil 1 0W-40 and the largest filter I can cram into the engine bay (to compensate for the undersized sump) on a 3k mi / 5k km OCI, which works out to about every 4 to 6 months. Comments are invited, of course, but I believe I am on the right track with this one. When my 10-year powertrain warranty expires, I may switch to Mobil 1 5W-40.

Son #1's car is a 2003 Dodge Stratus 2.4, also subject to some stop-and-go and short trips. It gets Pennzoil 5W-30 dino on about a 3.5k mi / 6k km OCI, which again is about every 4 to 6 months. The owner's manual specifies 3k mi / 5k km for severe service and twice that for "normal" driving, then notes that most cars fall under the severe rubric. Would I be better off using a good synthetic and doubling the OCI, which might mean only one oil change per year, or does it really matter? This is NOT the sludge-prone Chrysler V6 engine.

Son #2's car is a recently-purchased 1996 Audi A4 2.8 (SOHC 12-valve) quattro, with the first owner's history of dino on 5k mi / 8k km OCIs (mostly at Audi dealerships) and at least 65% city driving. With 66k mi / 106k km on the odometer, it is currently halfway through the first phase of an Auto-RX treatment. After the Auto-RX, I had planned to keep it on Castrol GTX 10W-40 with a 3k mi / 5k km OCI, or about every 6 months. Would I be better off using a 502.00 oil on a 5k mi / 8k km OCI? I suspect it really doesn't matter, but I am wide open to fact-based recommendations.
 
Just cut-n-paste your question into a new thread to get the most input. The Passat is the only car I'd worry about. I would not count on M1 T&S being available anymore. For the 12v, I'd go with a HM oil like GTX HM. 5w-30 will work well in winter, save the 10w-40 for summer.
 
I tried Delvac 15w40 in my 30v for 2k miles and really liked it. It was smooth like GC but it hurt my milage a little. I switched back to GC since my car is still under warrenty.
 
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