First Oil Change Interval

A vw engine in Georgia, USA will work fine at 300,000 miles with regualr oil changes of 10,000-15,000 using Mobil 1. My own personal experience. I don't like to change the oil so I follow the oil change interval on my Jetta to 10,000 miles which is what the manufacturer recommends. If you do severe duty then you might need to change more often. Severe duty used to mean trips less than 5 miles, lots of stop and go, city driving or very fast driving. I drive about 35,000 miles ayear mostly highway so I follow the manufacturers standard oil change interval. Some argue that the 2 liter takes a while to break in and changing the oil soon affect the breakin. Change when the book recommends and you will be fine.

"Francis J. Bossol>What's the current consensus on first oil change mileage??

Jim B.

I'm don't know about new VWs, but my '03 Honda does indeed have a special breakin oil. The manual and the dealer are very explicit that the original oil is not to be changed until the right interval. They don't care if I do it more frequently after that.

My 2000 Passat has a 7 yr / 100,000 mile engine warranty. I'm assuming if the people who designed and built the engine thought that an early first oil change would be beneficial, they'd have recommended it.

I don't mean to be offensive, but I guess I don't understand why so many home car experts think they have a better handle on this than the people who designed and built the engine.

I think the ubran lore is the 3K oil change promoted by people like Rapid Oil change (who also always want to change my transmission fluid and other things at far more frequent intervals than called for by the manufacturers). They base their recommendations on millions of car experiences. We each base ours on what happened with the few cars we've owned.

I don't believe VW is using any special break in oil.

While I did add one additional oil change at the beginning, I would have to say, I don't think there is much if anything to gain by doing it. It made me feel good.

I changed at 2050, 7590, 14,200.

Wait until 5000 to do the first oil change and every 5000 after that. If you want to change it sooner then it's just wasted oil and money.

Consumer Reports did an extensive test using NY City taxi cabs a few years back. Bottom line was that over 100,000 miles of city driving with 75 cabs, there was no discernable difference in needed engine repairs between cabs with oil changes done at 3,000 miles and those done at 6,000 miles. They admitted there was no definitive conclusions but suggested that 3,000 miles oil changes are probably unnecessary and wasteful in most every case and that this myth was created to benefit the oil producers and the oil change industry.

I have always changed oil as soon as convenient after 5,000 miles and got over 315,000 miles on a 1987 Subaru and 250,000 miles and still going on my

1993 Honda Civic. My trucks have always worn out for other reasons but the engines have had no trouble.

Sherlock

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How many times is this topic going to be discussed???

oil change recommendation for new 1.8T engine:

VW of America - every 5k miles Audi of America - every 10k miles (even though they don't use synthetic!) VW / Audi in Europe - up to 12k miles (they have a counter like BMW/Mercedes that tells them when it's time to change it oil)

So doing an oil change even every 5k miles is a waste of money, or money earned by VW of America. Now, there is an issues of the quality lubricants / oils available in USA.

Last time I checked, the only oil that meets VW specs is Mobil 1 - 0W-40

Even the oil that VW dealer puts in your car at the dealership doesn't meet VW specs, so maybe that's why they think that changing it every 5K miles would save your engine, but guess what, the damage starts to occur immediately!

My recommendation: Buy Mobil 1 - 0W40 synthetic oil, or any other that meets the VW specs, bring it to the dealer and have them use it instead of the "soup" they get from Valvoline. Then change it every 5-10k miles, depending on your driving style.

The mechanic that was changing the oil in my '03 Passat said, I'm doing the right thing for using the 0W-40 Mobil 1. He said, I'll definitely have less issues with the car. The dealer also subtracted the cost of the dealership's oil, and I only paid $16 for the oil change.

-Cheers

When I had my 99 TDI Jetta, I talked to the service manager..."that's a hell of a long time to the first change"....he said it's because VW puts a specific oil in the crankcase at the factory for break in.

I would imagine he meant synthetic.