Various VW Questions: pinking, octane levels, oil and a noisy 5th gear

Under normal conditions you should be able to use the range indicated

91 - 95 What is the octane of the fuel you have been using?

I suggest that you try a couple of tanks of the higher grade and see what happens. If the pinging goes away then you could continue to use it, but if you are using fuel in the recommended octane range, and it is pinging and it goes away with higher, you may have an engine problem. A compression check may indicate carbon build up for example or the engine may be running hot or other possibilities.

Actually many modern cars use more oil than the older cars. Not using oil is not bad, it is good. That does not mean you should add oil once a year. You should change oil based on the time or miles (which ever comes first) recommended by the manufacturer in your owner's manual.

That's great, but I don't think your car was designed to travel that fast for long periods. It is likely to damage the engine, and it is likely to be unsafe, not to mention illegal in most places.

It's a "car" (not card) and it's "pinging" (not pinking).

You refill based on the dipstick reading, not a time component. If the dipstick indicates oil is needed, you refill.

Oil won't really have anything to do with pinging though.

Pinging is caused by too low octane in your fuel or maladjusted timing or both. Also, a car that runs too hot might also ping.

I recommend getting your timing checked first, then use the proper octane fuel.

Ah, yes. Maybe I was thinking of 'plinking'?

I am checking the dipstick and the oil marker has barely moved in the last 3 months.

How do Octane and RON relate?

So the slight noise that sometimes occurs when accelerating in 5th is not someting to worry about? Driving today (in the rain) I only heard it once.

Three months is not an interval for checking oil level. 300 miles or every fuel up is. 6 months or once a year is an oil change interval if you do not drive 10,000 miles a year. Of course that depends on if your car has the 10,000 mile per year oil change interval and if your car does not fall in to the severe oil use plan. Driving mostly trips of less than 5 miles puts your car in the the severe use oil change interval in my book. Oil does not get hot enough to burn off cold engine condensation and byproducts so the oil gets nasty. Nasty is an official technical term. Driving 100 mph regualarly will put the engine in a severe use classification for oil changes for some engines.

with keywords of RON and octane will get you tons of reading material.

snipped-for-privacy@graq.co.uk (-+= graq =+-) wrote:

Jim B.

somebody saying "89 is fine by the M+R/2 US method. The TriumphOwner's Manual also recommends 89, US method. I do not know ifCanada uses the same standard.

95 RON will translate to roughly a little below 89."

I don't know if he is right.

table 1seems authoritative. I am not sure how applicable this is incomparing R vs M+R/2 numbers, but it seems to be helpful. Doessomebody have a more relevant comparison table? Methane Ethane Propane Butane Pentane Hexane Heptane Octane Nonane Decane are hydrocarbons that have 1...10 carbons. The n- prefix relates to whether the carbons are in a straight chain or are branched.

Is the noise a knocking/pinging noise?

If so, what's your RPM? If you're below 2000 rpm or so when trying to accelerate, it's bogging the engine and you should shift into 4th to accelerate. If you're moving at a reasonable RPM and it still makes the noise, then yes something isn't right. But knocking/pinging is usually a question of your timing being off or the octane in your fuel being too low or both.