2002 VW TDI - Amsoil S3000 5W-30 HDD - 15000KM

[Ferrari]

This is my girlfriend's 2002 VW TDI, 1.9L turbo diesel, 5-speed manual transmission. Absolutely stock. Driven daily in Toronto, lots of stop-and-go traffic, about 70% city, 30% highway. Started daily in winter, stored outside. Most of the gas used was Sunoco Gold with occasional cheaper diesel when the good stuff wasn't available.

Oil used was Amsoil Series 3000 5W-30 HDD, MANN oil filter. Car had 35000KM when the oil went in, 50000KM currently, 15000KM interval on oil and filter.

code:

---

CONTAMINATION

Silicon 5.1

Potassium 2.2

Sodium 0.0

Fuel (%) 0.0

Glycol (%)
Water (%)
Soot (%) 0.4

Sulfation 250

Nitration 136



OIL CONDITION

Boron 0.9

Barium 0.4

Calcium 3967

Magnesium 14

Molybdenum 0.4

Sodium 0.0

Phosphorus 1029

Sulfur 4183

Zinc 1508

Visc@40°C ---

Visc@100°C 12.5

Oxidation 308

TAN ---

TBN 5.12



WEAR

Iron 66

Nickel 3.6

Chromium 5.0

Titanium 0.2

Copper 6.7

Aluminum 6.9

Tin 1.0

Lead 1.8

Silver 0.2

---

 

[FowVay]

It looks like another high iron number for a mileage that is slightly less than the factory recommendation.

I honestly don't believe Amsoil's 5/30 is the optimum product for the TDI.

 

[TexasTDI]

quote:

---

Originally posted by FowVay:
It looks like another high iron number for a mileage that is slightly less than the factory recommendation.

I honestly don't believe Amsoil's 5/30 is the optimum product for the TDI.

---

35,000 KM = 21,748 miles

50,000 KM = 31,069 miles

With only 31k miles on the clock, the engine is hardly broken in.

Couldn't the high iron number simply be caused by the motor still being broken in?

 

[TooSlick]

Fe, Ni and Cr are all elevated - that's the metalllurgical signature of stainless steel. When I see this particular wear pattern I first suspect the ingestion of dirt through the intake system so I'd check that for leaks. Bearing wear is extremely low, so the 5w-30 certainly is providing more than adequate oil pressure and oil film thickness. Soot is low, so that certainly isn't a factor.

This is a low mile engine and I would expect these numbers to improve with time. For a cold climate, this is the Amsoil product I'd recommend for this application, along with the new Amsoil 5w-40. It would be worthwhile running the thicker 5w-40 1-2 times and compare how it does as well.

Tooslick
www.lubedealer.com/Dixie_Synthetics

 

[FowVay]

Ted, have you seen anyone do back to back analysis between the HDD 5/30 and a thicker diesel oil? I don't understand the physics enough to know why it would make a difference and it may just be a coincidence but it seems that there are unusually higher numbers with the HDD. Although I have only seen what's been posted here and over at Fred's.

My question is why?

 

[Quick_lude]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TexasTDI:


50,000 KM = 31,069 miles

With only 31k miles on the clock, the engine is hardly broken in.

---

Huh? Is this because it's a diesel engine? If not at 50,000km then at what point would you consider this engine "broken in"?

 

[TexasTDI]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Quick_lude:
Huh? Is this because it's a diesel engine? If not at 50,000km then at what point would you consider this engine "broken in"?

[/QB]

---

A diesel engine, especially a VW TDI, takes a lot longer to be fully "broken in". I'd say at least 50k miles (80k kilometers).

My 2000 TDI is almost at 100k miles (161k kilometers) and I think she's just now "broken in".

 

[toyvwbenz]

How do you know when your engine is full "broken in"?

quote:

---

A diesel engine, especially a VW TDI, takes a lot longer to be fully "broken in". I'd say at least 50k miles (80k kilometers).

---

How do you explain very low wear metals from TDI's with only 20K miles? There is very little wearing in that occurs after about 10K miles. After that it's just plain wearing.

 

[TooSlick]

I've examined probably 100 oil analyses from the TDI engine over the past five years. I'd say it takes at least 20k miles for the wear pattern to fully stabilize. The wear rates from 0k to 10k engine miles are certainly higher than from 10k to 20k miles.

The fact that you are seeing high chrome and nickel in this case would indicate either dirt ingestion or the engine is still wearing in. Nickel wear should drop to almost nothing in a higher mileage TDI and chrome wear should be in the 1-3 ppm range after 10,000 miles on the oil.

Tooslick
Dixie Synthetics

 

[Ferrari]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TooSlick:
The fact that you are seeing high chrome and nickel in this case would indicate either dirt ingestion or the engine is still wearing in.

---

If that was due to dirt ingestion, wouldn't the dirt show up as Silicon? 5ppm of Silicon isn't much, certainly not enough to cause 66ppm of Iron IMO.