Volkswagen spec'ed oil: ANY weight will work.

[dbrowne1]

I looked in my 2004 A4 1.8T owner's manual, and it says oil must meet one of:

1. ACEA A2 or A3
2. API SJ

It further states that 0w30 was factory fill and suitable for all temperature ranges, and that 5w30 and 5W-40 are acceptable substitutes if 0w30 is not available.

Note that this has since been superseded by TSBs and a class action suit that require a VW 502.00 approved oil in addition to those criteria, and they even sent all the owners a sticker to put under the hood saying "VW 502.00 oil only."

 

[dparm]

See my picture on page 2 of this thread...basically says the same thing.

My car has no sticker about VW 502, though IIRC the 1.8T had some class actions or something.

 

[30valve]

Audi/VW got sued for the 1.8t having sludge issues do to the recommended OCI of 10k miles. This was to long for that engine running a turbo. They set it so high so the cost of ownership, calculated by J.D. Powers, would look smaller by having less oil changes.

In the TSB Audi/VW set the new OCI to I think 5k miles and only 502 approved oil was allowed.

My wife drives a Audi Allroad which has a twin turbo V6 engine. Even running GC oil I only run 4K OCI's in her car. Better safe than sorry for engine that can be so hard on oil and mostly city driving. The naturally aspirated V6 in my Audi gets GC and 7500 mile OCI's.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: 30valve
My wife drives a Audi Allroad which has a twin turbo V6 engine. Even running GC oil I only run 4K OCI's in her car. Better safe than sorry for engine that can be so hard on oil and mostly city driving.

The 2.7TT engine isn't really that hard on the oil unless it's heavily modified. We've seen a number of extremely good used oil analysis at 10K miles on this engine. Alas, if it's mainly short distance driving, I agree that cutting the OCI a bit makes sense.

 

[dbrowne1]

Originally Posted By: dparm
See my picture on page 2 of this thread...basically says the same thing.

My car has no sticker about VW 502, though IIRC the 1.8T had some class actions or something.


The stickers were part of the class action settlement. I just got mine a few months ago, and your car isn't a 1.8T, so you wouldn't have one.

The TSBs and the lawsuit were specific to the longitudinal 1.8T.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: 30valve
Audi/VW got sued for the 1.8t having sludge issues do to the recommended OCI of 10k miles. This was to long for that engine running a turbo. They set it so high so the cost of ownership, calculated by J.D. Powers, would look smaller by having less oil changes.

In the TSB Audi/VW set the new OCI to I think 5k miles and only 502 approved oil was allowed.

My wife drives a Audi Allroad which has a twin turbo V6 engine. Even running GC oil I only run 4K OCI's in her car. Better safe than sorry for engine that can be so hard on oil and mostly city driving. The naturally aspirated V6 in my Audi gets GC and 7500 mile OCI's.


I bet you can run beyond 4k. The car has a 7+qt oil sump.

 

[riggaz]

Originally Posted By: 30valve
Audi/VW got sued for the 1.8t having sludge issues do to the recommended OCI of 10k miles. This was to long for that engine running a turbo. They set it so high so the cost of ownership, calculated by J.D. Powers, would look smaller by having less oil changes.

In the TSB Audi/VW set the new OCI to I think 5k miles and only 502 approved oil was allowed.

My wife drives a Audi Allroad which has a twin turbo V6 engine. Even running GC oil I only run 4K OCI's in her car. Better safe than sorry for engine that can be so hard on oil and mostly city driving. The naturally aspirated V6 in my Audi gets GC and 7500 mile OCI's.


Yeah it was a major blunder

The oil they spec'd originally was not up to the job, from the early days at the training centre they were saying only use fully synthetic oil in these engines that meets 502.00. We also use engine flush at each service and we have never seen any 1.8T that we maintain with any sludge or carbon deposits, that's with 10k mile OCI's, just lovely clean engines.

 

[riggaz]

Originally Posted By: beast3300
I like the "synthetic" quotations, reminds me of "laser." The VW spec is usually met by common brands in their 5w40 so I guess by default that's what you use?


i would say the common brand 5w-40's will only be VW505.00 and 502.00 as a rule, some will have the 505.01 spec also if they are a bit special

no longlife oils meeting 504.00 507.00 will be 5w-40, they will only be 5w30

all VW specs are different usually depending on fuel type and service regime.

 

[riggaz]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
The VW oil requirements have always mystified me. I'm never owned a VW. In general, what oils are they excluding? Why? What will happen if you use a non-approved oil that otherwise has the proper starburst (SL or SM) rating?


They don't use API specs as they don't offer the right amount of protection, they only use their own.

It depend on whether you are petrol or diesel and whether you are fixed servicing or variable, very simple once you get to know them.

 

[riggaz]

Originally Posted By: dbrowne1
Here is a worldwide 502.00 list:

http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/3005/V170801.pdf

Notice, once again, there are no 10W-XX oils.


I think maybe in the US there aren't any 10w-40 oils that are VW 502.00 approved but here in europe there are quite a lot.

502.00 is the arduous use, fixed service interval, petrol engine spec. 0w-40 5w-40 10w-40