Castrol Edge LL III 5W-30 Prof - Volkswagen TSI

[Mathson]

Okay, here is an interesting UOA found on a finnish Volkswagen forum. Castrol Edge LL 5W-30 Professional in service for 6300km / 3700 miles.

The vehicle in question suffered from a failed timing chain and the sample was taken while the vehicle was sitting at the dealer's waiting to be repaird. After a huge fight with the dealer, customer won and got a factory repaired engine but only after when the owner complained directly to Volkswagen in Germany.

Comments from the lab:

"ACTION REQUIRED, LOW TBN: Identify and correct the low TBN value of reason. - Possible low TBN value reasons are: 1 poor combustion, excessive bypass, insufficient oil increase, 2 the lower the value of having a TBN of oil caused by the
mixing / contamination, 3 high water content is too low engine temperature and / or prolonged oil change intervals, 4 use fuel with a high sulfur content, 5 low TBN may indicate that the oil is acidification, and that there is very little alkalinity
left, 6 make sure that the product is in the right (engine / transmission). - Take a new sample to make sure that the problem is fixed."

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ypnjb9gbwho2ztp/Sample_Report%5BKA-2%5D.pdf

 

[EddieCairns]

Looks similar to a modern low saps oil and the viscosity is high. TBN looks a touch low at that mileage. Could it be burned and be starting to thicken?

I reckon it is an engine material fault as the oil looks to be doing it's job and why would VW replace an engine if they could get out of it.

In the UK where we buy a lot of VW cars there are lots of people with engine problems as in some cases VW have been too clever with their engines and it bites them from time to time.

eddie

 

[Mathson]

The question is, would you run this oil for 30 000km (18600 miles)/2 yrs which is normal OCI for VW in Europe?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Good question.

As I mentioned in the previous thread, the TBN depletion seems very rapid, even though this is a low SAPS oil to begin with, and that's probably unrelated to the timing chain issue, unless someone can link the two?

Personally, I don't think I'd be comfortable running this oil 4-5 times as long based on this report. But maybe another UOA at 30k km could prove me wrong.

 

[DuckRyder]

I'm confused, is it:

Castrol Edge LL III 5W-30 Prof

or

MOBIL M1ESP5W30

 

[Mathson]

Originally Posted By: DuckRyder
I'm confused, is it:

Castrol Edge LL III 5W-30 Prof

or

MOBIL M1ESP5W30


It's Castrol. It mistakenly says M1 ESP on Sample Data, because the lab thought they were analysing M-1 ESP, but it was corrected after the results came back. They were not able to change the sample data at that point without making all the tests again.

 

[vinu_neuro]

These low-SAPS oils are pretty unimpressive in performance. Why has the oil thickened from 12.1 to 14 cst in 4k miles (6.3k km).