2007-8 Audi RS4 Oil specs

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Audi recommends 5W-40 oil in the US.
The oil must be VW 502 and API SL
Other viscosities allowed are 5W-30 or 0w-40.... and only if 5W -40 not available.
I year / 10000 miles fixed interval.
Castrol Syntec is used by Audi USA.

The oil used in RS4s outside the USA ( UK /Australia) is a vw 504 spec oil. This only comes in 5w-30 weight. Australia has fixed service intervals, UK variable. Australia does not need to meet Euro 4 emission standards.

The Castrol oil used by dealers in UK and Australia is VW Longlife III vw 504-507. ( Also known as SLX Powerflow Longlife III in Australia and Castrol Edge 5w-30 in the UK). No API rating given as these are Audi specific oils.

It seems that outside the US Audi/VW has tried to rationalize their very complex oil specification guidelines such that (with a couple of exceptions) all Aud/VW cars from the smallest Diesel to the largest most powerful petrol engines use the same oil : VW spec 504/507 5W-30 oil.

I am unsure of the reason why in the US different VW oil specs and viscosities are used. More imporatantly I am unsure if these oils ( VW 502 /5W-40) represent a better choice.
Also confusing is why Australia would not have similar oil recommendations to the US.


What oil would you use?
 
The latest spec is 507.00 which retroactive for all previous gas recommendations which were 504 and 502.. 502 goes back to 1990's i think or earlier? i'd use a 5w30 like total eneo ineo? but def would not recommend using a 502 5w40 even the TT required a 503.01 spec from what i remember.
 
507.00 is a diesel spec, 504.00 is the sparker spec that's usually paired with it. At that's my understanding. Kinda like 505.00 and 502.00.
 
Originally Posted By: Dieseldoctor
The latest spec is 507.00 which retroactive for all previous gas recommendations which were 504 and 502.. 502 goes back to 1990's i think or earlier? i'd use a 5w30 like total eneo ineo? but def would not recommend using a 502 5w40 even the TT required a 503.01 spec from what i remember.


I think 507 refers to diesels and 504 to petrol engines. (503.01 is just a longlife 502 spec.)
I know these are newer specs, but these specs maybe more related to fuel economy and emissions than engine protection.
For example : is an SM/GF-4 oil superior to an SL/ GF-3 oil?



For example :
 
Different fuels used in UK than in US actually makes a difference.

felix,

I'm not sure if you are aware of RI_RS4 & his massive amount of work done on his RS4 (don't remember the year) in the area of oil formulation/selection. I would search & thoroughly read some of his posts especially in the UOA section of this board.
 
Originally Posted By: benjamming
Different fuels used in UK than in US actually makes a difference.

felix,

I'm not sure if you are aware of RI_RS4 & his massive amount of work done on his RS4 (don't remember the year) in the area of oil formulation/selection. I would search & thoroughly read some of his posts especially in the UOA section of this board.


Yes, I am aware...however the conclusion was that no acceptable audi approved oil is available...aside from RLI 5W-40
On the fuel question....how would that affect the oil choice,especially when viscosity is concearned ?
Please note that all oils used in europe are accepted by Audi US for use.
 
From the way that I understand it (nutshell, of course), the fuel profile determines hard-coded programming choices which then determine how beat up the oil will be.
 
Originally Posted By: felixthecat
Audi recommends 5W-40 oil in the US.
The oil must be VW 502 and API SL
Other viscosities allowed are 5W-30 or 0w-40.... and only if 5W -40 not available.
I year / 10000 miles fixed interval.
Castrol Syntec is used by Audi USA.

The oil used in RS4s outside the USA ( UK /Australia) is a vw 504 spec oil. This only comes in 5w-30 weight. Australia has fixed service intervals, UK variable. Australia does not need to meet Euro 4 emission standards.

The Castrol oil used by dealers in UK and Australia is VW Longlife III vw 504-507. ( Also known as SLX Powerflow Longlife III in Australia and Castrol Edge 5w-30 in the UK). No API rating given as these are Audi specific oils.

It seems that outside the US Audi/VW has tried to rationalize their very complex oil specification guidelines such that (with a couple of exceptions) all Aud/VW cars from the smallest Diesel to the largest most powerful petrol engines use the same oil : VW spec 504/507 5W-30 oil.

I am unsure of the reason why in the US different VW oil specs and viscosities are used. More imporatantly I am unsure if these oils ( VW 502 /5W-40) represent a better choice.
Also confusing is why Australia would not have similar oil recommendations to the US.


What oil would you use?







none of the above. There is an extensive database of UOA done on the RS4 engine, which pretty concludes, VW specs suck.

Check out the threads by RI_RS4

such as
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1173821&page=1

I tried 2 504 oils on my 2.0T. By the time I reached 5000 miles, I pretty muched changed out all the oil from all the oil burning I got. At least, since it is Low-SAPS, it didn't really do too much damage to the cats
 
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Originally Posted By: felixthecat
Originally Posted By: benjamming
Different fuels used in UK than in US actually makes a difference.

felix,

I'm not sure if you are aware of RI_RS4 & his massive amount of work done on his RS4 (don't remember the year) in the area of oil formulation/selection. I would search & thoroughly read some of his posts especially in the UOA section of this board.


Yes, I am aware...however the conclusion was that no acceptable audi approved oil is available...aside from RLI 5W-40
On the fuel question....how would that affect the oil choice,especially when viscosity is concearned ?
Please note that all oils used in europe are accepted by Audi US for use.


I would rather characterize RI_RS4's work on this matter concluding that no Audi approved oil was acceptable ( in outcomes for Fe wear and valve deposits). Not the other way around. I doubt that RLI 5w-40 carries the Audi approval.
 
Yes, I am aware...however the conclusion was that no acceptable audi approved oil is available...aside from RLI 5W-40
On the fuel question....how would that affect the oil choice,especially when viscosity is concearned ?
Please note that all oils used in europe are accepted by Audi US for use. [/quote]

I would rather characterize RI_RS4's work on this matter concluding that no Audi approved oil was acceptable ( in outcomes for Fe wear and valve deposits). Not the other way around. I doubt that RLI 5w-40 carries the Audi approval. [/quote]


I do not understand what you mean by " not the other way around"
 
I wonder who should we trust, though. One person posting on BITOG or VAG who actually engineers, tests and manufactures the engines.
 
Originally Posted By: felixthecat

Yes, I am aware...however the conclusion was that no acceptable audi approved oil is available...aside from RLI 5W-40

It's a semantics thing. When paraphrased, your statement basically reads that RLI 5w-40 is the only audi-approved oil that is acceptable.

This statement is incorrect because RLI 5w-40 is not an audi-approved oil. The correct conclusion would have been that RLI may deliver acceptable results (according to some) despite not being audi-approved.

I'm sure we're all on the same page here. It was merely the wording...
 
Originally Posted By: CivicFan
I wonder who should we trust, though. One person posting on BITOG or VAG who actually engineers, tests and manufactures the engines.


The engineer that found an issue with the fallible VAG engineers who didn't fully test their highly praised engines. Then the tribologist & formulating chemist who found an acceptable workaround.
 
Originally Posted By: CivicFan
or VAG who actually engineers, tests and manufactures the engines.

That's assuming that those engineers' recommendations actually find their way into the owner's manual, unchanged. Unfortunately, after the finance and marketing departments get done with them, this is not always the case.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: CivicFan
or VAG who actually engineers, tests and manufactures the engines.

That's assuming that those engineers' recommendations actually find their way into the owner's manual, unchanged. Unfortunately, after the finance and marketing departments get done with them, this is not always the case.


I agree....it certainly seems that VW 504/507 "one size fits all" 5w-30 makes life easier for dealers etc.
Lots of questions remains unanswered...and a little knowledge is dangerous.
Boy what I would give for a conversation with one of those engineers !
 
Quote:
Originally Posted By: felixthecat

Yes, I am aware...however the conclusion was that no acceptable audi approved oil is available...aside from RLI 5W-40
On the fuel question....how would that affect the oil choice,especially when viscosity is concearned ?
Please note that all oils used in europe are accepted by Audi US for use.


I would rather characterize RI_RS4's work on this matter concluding that no Audi approved oil was acceptable ( in outcomes for Fe wear and valve deposits). Not the other way around. I doubt that RLI 5w-40 carries the Audi approval.


I do not understand what you mean by " not the other way around"


RLI isn't approved by any manufacturer that I know of. Therefore it's an acceptable NON Audi approved oil. As stated it sounded like no Audi approved oils were accessible/available aside from RLI ..which is clearly not an approved oil.
 
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Gary is correct. RLI is good oil, but it is not approved.

I've not posted for quite some time. In the interval, intake valve carbon deposits has become quite a problem on all Audi, VW, and Porsche direct injected engines, necessitating intake manifold removal and cleaning of the manifolds and valves. From what I've heard, every manifold and valves that have been examined have been found to have significant deposits. Those that are examined by dealers were done so because of ECU fault codes.

Nothing that I know of eliminates the deposit problem in these engines. Experience with RLI and Terry Dyson's DSFM by numerous owners indicates that they will retard deposit formation and increase the amount of time before intake valve cleaning is required.
 
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Dear RI_RS4
I would love your opinion/response to my original question.
I was recently in Sydney and was able to talk to the service manager of Audi of Sydney. They are well aware of the carbon deposit issues in the RS4 but claim to have seen less prevalence of this in Australia. They feel that the seemingly high incidence in the US maybe fuel related.(Although Australian fuel is not that good either)
As far as oil they only use VW 504/507 Longlife III.....but used at fixed intervals.
There maybe some merit to this approach after all: :http://www.caltex.com.au/products_oil_detail.asp?id=292
 
afaik, the N.A. tune for NOx emissions are rich-dump, plus the ethanol is a 1-2 punch for the oil. If I owned a DI Audi, I'd use 15w-40 and change it constantly.

I dunno about AoA's contradictory recommendation, they are worried about product availability and tend to allow the owner some leeway using off-spec top-up oil. It's no surprise, some people w/nitrogen in their tires won't add plain air to bring them up from a low reading. Fear of the unknown is paramount.
 
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