Oil change 5k

It won't make a blind bit of difference, the bodywork will die before the engine wears out due to lack of lubrication.

I keep the oil topped up, doesn't really drink a lot to be honest so just every no and then top it up so everything works as it should.

I'm getting alot of conflicting advice about oil changes though, some say go for 5k some say 10k.

I'll stick with the manual and stick with 10k.

Highly unlikely on a Mk 4 Golf, to be fair.

Unless you do very short trips, 10k changes may be better for your engine than 5k changes.

Studies relating wear to oil change frequency seem to agree that wear is greatest for some time just _after_ an oil change.

"Testing with partially stressed oil, which contained some wear debris, produced less wear than testing with clean oil. This finding was unexpected and initially confusing (further inquiry suggested that the result was not so surprising, as many oil chemistries require time and temperature to enhance their effectiveness)."

SteveH ( snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH)) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

The car will certainly die before the engine, but it won't be rot. It'll be the usual miscellany of small niggles that just make it not worth fixing.

If I were doing low mileage, I'd probably do a 5k / 6 month oil change. If I were racking up the miles at a fair rate, I'd do it every 10k...

Very interesting read.

Thanks for the link John.

Interesting - so new oil needs to be 'run in' for a period...

Quite a while it seems. The site where I first saw this claim has disappeared, but thankfully not before it got archived:

John