Audi A6 2.7T -- 41104 miles -- Audi 5w/30

[bluey]

Comments appreciated.

No-mod car has been owned since new. Oil changed at 5066, 10386, 20316, 30273 and 41104, all with Audi 5w30. Often Run at 80-90 on weekends for 200 miles or so; short trips during the week; oil has never popped 250F. Half-way thorugh 3rd set of tires.

From Blackstone report:

The TBN for this oil was 1.0, so you've used up most of the active additive in the oil with the 10,867 mile oil use run. Universal averages show typical wear metals for an oil from this type of engine after about 6,735 miles run on the oil. Your oil use was longer, but we still found all wear from the engine at around average levels and in the correct balance to show normal mechanical parts inside. Air and oil filtration look okay. This was 5w30 engine oil with no gas, moisture or anti-freeze in it. If the low TBN doesn't bother you, try more miles use for the next sample.

Elements A6 UA
---------------------
Aluminum 4 3
Chromium 1 1
Iron 17 15
Copper 9 7
Lead 1 1
Tin 0 0
Molybdenum 45 52
Nickel 1 0
Manganese 0 0
Silver 0 0
Titanium 0 0
Potassium 0 0
Boron 0 67
Silicon 7 10
Sodium 3 10
Calcium 1836 2307
Magnesium 0 330
Phosphorous 711 799
Zinc 834 960
Barium 0 0

Property Expected Were
----------------------------
cST @ 40°C
SUS @ 100°F
Visc. Idx
cST @ 100°C
SUS @ 210°F 54-61 55.9
Flashpt °F >365 370
Fuel% Anti-freeze% 0 0
Water% Insolubles% <0.6 0.5

 

[pscholte]

to the board and

to another 2.7T A6 driver (I have an '04). While your results are solid I'd sure like to see you put the Elixer (German Castrol 0W-30) in this fine machine. I bet you would see even better wear numbers!

 

[bluey]

Elfe Meister, you may be able to help me with a few questions. (1) Blackstone's comments seem to based on an average of 6,735 miles. Does that mean I should use my mileage of 10,867 as a multiplier for the universal averages? (2) I looked around at the A6 2.7T, S4 and allroad listings, but couldn't figure whether my motor was holding up as well as the others; (3) I'm considering upgrades and wondering whether the analysis for this 10K miles can be used as a surrogate for previous miles; and (4) other motors have received glowing wear reports, can I assume mine is on a par with them.

Thanks,
Bluey

 

[TooSlick]

Bluey,

FWIW, the Blackstone "Universal averages" for this engine are heavily biased by the large # of folks running various Mobil 1 formulations. That's why the average Fe level is 15 ppm after only 6700 miles ....

Your results are excellent, but the oil is pretty shot at this point and you don't have much of a safety margin left. This particular SAE 5w30 appears to work very well in the 2.7L Audi motor.

Is this "Audi 5w30" a German made synthetic?

TS

 

[Al]

Those are good values. The oil is pretty well shot. Your insolubles at .6 are kind of high. (or do I have the wrong column? ) You might want to change filters at the 5K mile mark in the futurte. I'm guessing that you did not have the car thouroughly hot when you drained oil:

Your oil is a high 20 wt..but no big deal.

 

[AndyH]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TooSlick:
Is this "Audi 5w30" a German made synthetic?

---

I'm wondering this as well. I've never heard of any Audi oil before.

bluey: Are you referring to whatever oil your dealer happens to use?

 

[williar]

My Audi dealer uses bulk 5w30 Castrol dino, I believe, in the "free" 10K oil changes. I've never heard or seen any Audi-branded oil at my dealer nor on the Audiworld website. Please enlighten us!

I use GC in my 2.7t; Mobil 1 0w40 is a great alternative.

 

[Johnny]

williar: I sure hope your Audi dealer is not recommending 10K oil changes with regular Castrol 5W30. I know my local dealer has regular Pennzoil 5W30 in their tanks, but for the Audi's they use our European Formula Synthetic.

Now don't get me wrong, Castrol 5W30 is a fine oil, just not a 10K oil.

 

[bluey]

I didn't mean Audi branded oil, just the bog standard stuff the dealership puts in. And yes it probably is Castrol 5W30. And yes they do recommend 10K services with this oil!

 

[Quattro Pete]

For 11K miles on conventional oil in a turbo engine these results are truly amazing, although the insolubles are creeping up there.

Once again it shows that no matter what oil you use in this engine, it delivers excellent results. Personally, I would not run mineral oil in this application though.

It's funny how AoA after the recent sludge reports decided to feed strictly synthetic oil to its 1.8T engines, but left the 2.7T on conventional diet.