Re: Tech: Oil Change Frequency and Weight

[Marker510 <Marker510@aol.com>]

In a message dated 97-12-23 02:53:49 EST, coolidge@tidalwave.net writes:

<< Hi All,
 	I noticed that VW has changed oil change frequency from 7500 miles to
 10,000 miles on '98 VR6s. Being that they pick up the tab for earlier oil
 changes in the life of the car, I am wondering for what reasons this was
 done.  >>
You hit the peverbial nail on the head- reduced costs.  The engine will last
100K miles using this interval, but how much longer after that?  I reccomend
to all of my customers (THIS ASSUMES THEY WANT TO KEEP THE CAR A LONG- i.e
150K miles or more) TIME, OR JUST TAKE CARE OF IT LIKE THEY WERE GOING TO)
that the oil gets changed every 5,000 miles with SYNTHETIC and a TOP quality
filter (No, for you 4 cyl guys- a Fram filter isn't).  Most of my customers do
it themselves and run the car fairly hard, so it's not terribly expensive.  As
for weight, depends on where you live.  In the NE, I run Mobil1 15W50 in the
late spring to early fall then 10W30.  For my next changes, I'm going to try
Mobil1s new 0W30(?).  That should be slick for all of those -20F nights at the
office.

We are truly blessed by a great filter design and large capacity on the VR6
engines.  Yes, it makes oil and filter changes more expensive, but any racer
will tell you that a large capacity sump and a filter design reminicient of a
Mecca filter sure keeps the temps down and the particulates out.

I practice what I preach, and it does work out in the long run.  Some of my
customers are waiting until the warranty period is all but over before doing
cams, etc.  If they ran thier cars they way they do and didn't do frequent
synthetic oil changes, when 100K miles came around, we'd be doing a whole head
rebuild instead of just cams and springs.

Mark Rosenkrantz
Marker510@aol.com