Amsoil 5W30 Euro, 2010 Jetta TDI, 9343 Miles

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Here is my UOA from my 2010 VW Jetta TDI. The last 2 runs have been Amsoil 5W30 Euro formula and before that was the VW Castrol from the dealership. The iron levels have not dropped down, which I was hoping that they might. I replaced the oil with my last stash of Amsoil 5W30 Euro, and am trying to figure out if I should switch to something else or stay the course and live with these numbers are just the "normal" for this particular vehicle. Any comments or questions are appreciated.
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This does not looks condemning. If I were you going forward I would give M1 0w40 a try. Decent report overall, how is it though that a modern engine like this could shed so much metal?
 
Do you HAVE to run a low SAPS oil?

So far people are NOT recommending low SAPS oils. If you want to go that route, use Amsoil Full SAPS EFM 5W-40 or HDD 5W-30. Your wear numbers will really drop.
 
Pablo was that question rhetorical? I am sure you are aware VW TDI Golf, Jetta, Beetle, and Passat made after 2009 and are equipped with Diesel Particullate Filters require a low SAPS oil to prevent ash buildup in DPF. Amsoil's 5w30 HDD is not even recommended for heavy duty trucks after 2007, which is listed in Amsoil's website. Who are these "people" you are referring to? Why the heck would Amsoil take the time, energy, and money to develop a low SAPS oil?-if Amsoil HDD could be run in everything? Selling is important, but not that important.
 
Originally Posted By: spiderbypass
Pablo was that question rhetorical? I am sure you are aware VW TDI Golf, Jetta, Beetle, and Passat made after 2009 and are equipped with Diesel Particullate Filters require a low SAPS oil to prevent ash buildup in DPF. Amsoil's 5w30 HDD is not even recommended for heavy duty trucks after 2007, which is listed in Amsoil's website. Who are these "people" you are referring to? Why the heck would Amsoil take the time, energy, and money to develop a low SAPS oil?-if Amsoil HDD could be run in everything? Selling is important, but not that important.


Yes it was rhetorical. Did you not read the posts before mine? Is it OK for for other people to recommend higher SAPS oils?

The next logical steps would of course be AFL 5W-40 and DEO 5W-40 if staying with Amsoil and moving away from low SAPS oils.
 
I would and do often run Mobil-1 ESP 5W-40. This oil doesn't technically meet VW's 507.00 norm because of the viscosity but it is still within the low SAP additive requirement that Volkswagen specifies. The other oils that are mentioned above all have SAP levels at the 1000 ppm level which is much higher than what Volkswagen wishes for.

The Mobil-1 ESP 5W-40 is relatively inexpensive when compared with VW norm 507.00 oils, it's easily available from NAPA, Mercedes-Benz, etc., and it provides a very slightly increased viscosity which will likely reduce your iron levels. The common rail TDI engines do shed quite a bit more metals than their former generation counterparts but much of this is related to the incredibly high levels of EGR function. Cylinder activity is aggressive on these things.

Give the 5W-40 ESP a few tries, possibly drop your drain interval to 7500 miles, and see if you don't get some improvement. I truthfully don't believe that you'll get much variance by trying other 507.00 oils. They're pretty regulated in their makeup so I don't see one working better than the other.

At present I am using Pentosin SuperPerformance III 5W-30 in my TDI. There have been some great deals on the net ($6.50/liter) for 507.00 oils from some of the Euro parts houses if you do decide to stick with 507.00.

Regardless, your engine isn't going to shred itself to pieces for several hundred thousand miles. I'd just reduce the drain interval to 7500 miles and drive on with whatever low-SAPS oil (<800 ppm) that you're comfortable with.
 
That Shell PDS still lists the sulfated ash at 1%. That's much higher than VW allows.

That AMSOIL product that Pablo mentions sounds like a direct competitor to the Mobil-1 ESP 5W-40 and would provide another option if it's easy to obtain.
 
In my country, VW asks a xW-40 (mid-saps max. 0.8%SAsh which is ACEA C3 or VW505.01) for engines without DPF and a xW-30 (low-saps max.0.6%SAsh which is ACEA C4 with HTHS>=3.5) for engines equipped with DPF (EXACTLY the same engines). A coworker of mine recently changed all the valve train on the same kind of engine at 80.000 miles using the 5W-30 VW504/507 LongLife given by the VW (Castrol I believe) using a 10.000 miles OCI. Now he uses M1 ESP 5W-30, but only time will tell if he'd chosen the right oil. VW engines are very, very hard on motor oils.
I firmly believe that you should follow FowVay advice and start using a xW-40 oil and M1 ESP 5W-40 is the perfect candidate even if it doesn't have VW504/507 approvals. Use it, take a VOA and see&tell the differences.
 
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To be perfectly honest, I think your engine is fine. All wear metals are trending down as mileage on the car goes up. Based on the other TDI UOAs I've personally seen, it takes 50-60K miles to fully break-in this engine and yours seems to be right near that tipping point. I'd run the same oil again for a similar length of time and do one more UOA. If it's consistent or better, I'd forget sampling every OCI and test it maybe once every 30 or 40K just to keep an eye on things and stick with the oil you're using. Just my $0.02
 
Originally Posted By: gregk24
If I were you going forward I would give M1 0w40 a try.

Not ideal considering that the OP's engine calls for low SAPS oil. From Mobil's lineup, M1 ESP 5w-30 or 5w-40 would be better suited, IMO.
 
Is it OK for a low-SAPS oil to have Phosphorous below 600 ppm? This UOA is showing 461 ppm. That puts it below the API minimum Phos content for SN oils. Or does that even matter in the VW spec?

Iron content is pretty high, and it's not trending down very quickly. I recommend shorter OCI's, and an oil with higher zddp that still meets VW 507.
 
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