Great forum everyone, glad to be a new member. I have an '08 A3 2.0. I only put about 5k miles per year on the car. My question is should i only change the oil when i am prompted to or every 3k miles like have done with every car i have ever owned? also what type of oil is used in the A3? also service center or any other reputable place that does oil changes?


thanks chris

 

Your car MUST use a very high quality subset of the synthetic oils available in on the market, specifically oils that meet at the very least the VW 502.00 oil spec (and preferrably the 503.01 oil spec). There are maybe a dozen or so oils that you can buy around the country that meet 502.00, however, as far as I know, there are only two oils that are certified to meet both 502.00 and 503.01 (here in the U.S. at least), and they are Castrol Syntec 0W-30 and Mobil 1 0W-40. Pretty much any 502.00 or better oil will easily be good to go for a one year and 5,000 mile oil change interval. Changing your oil any sooner would be a waste of time and money.

As for who should change your oil, if you are disinclined to do it yourself, your dealer is probably the best bet. That said, I still hear sporadic reports of VW/Audi dealerships using your basic rot-gut Quaker State or Pennzoil (i.e. bulk conventional oil typically in the 5W-30 grade) in their customers cars, so before you actually let them do the work, I would question the service department extensively as to EXACTLY what oil they are using (a generic answer of "Whatever your car needs" is unacceptable).

Another popular alternative for folks in the know regarding the care and feeding of their engines is to go out and purchase their own Mobil 1 or Syntec (in the proper grade and spec of course) and to pay either their dealership or their local indy mechanic to do the work for them while they watch.

I guess this is just sort of a long way around saying that you should under no circumstances trust Jiffy Boob (or other quickie lube shops of their ilk) to do the job properly. Period, full stop, the end.

I hope this helps.

 

chrisfargo, I purchase my own specified Castrol Syntec oil and appropriate filter and bring it to the mechanic who does my oil changes.
I simply pay flat labor and don't have to deal with recycling/disposing of the hazardous used oil. It's great you're also able to enjoy low annual vehicle mileage.

 

If it were my only car (which it is) I wouldn't be able to deal with 5000mi/yr.
Even at 7000mi @ 6mos, I really get a driving jones whenever I'm stuck at work or at home.
I need my A3 fix![8D]

btw, I'm getting ready for my DIY oil change at 10000. Castrol Syntec 0W-30.

 

Shipo,

You really know your stuff! I wish I had just one tenth the mechanical knowledge you have! Can I ask you, should I use the same type of oil (503.1) for a 2.0 TDI engine? I have chipped the car, so I want to take extra care with preventative maintenance.

Thanks!

 

VW/ Audi has many oil standards, including 502 00, 503 00, 503 01, 505 01, 506 00, 506 01. A bit confusing, and there is some conflicting information out there if you Google this stuff, or read the boards.Here in the US, I think that we generally look for 502 00 oils for our gasoline powered cars, and 505 01 oils for diesel. Here's the last update I've seen - Early '08.

http://www.audiusa.com/etc/medialib/....0023.File.pdf

I'm thinking that 503 00 and 503 01 are extended service interval oils, for European spec ( including S3). I don't know what S and RS vehicles use here in the US.
FYI, not all 502 00 and 505 01 oils are synthetic - read the list carefully, and you'll find a few oddballs.

 

Here's some info I found;

http://books.google.com/books?id=UTd...ubNM&hl=en

 

Okay, quick answer, no, you shouldn't use a 503.01 oil, as hesaputz correctly stated, 503.01 is a gasoline engine spec (originally designed specifically for the high output 1.8T engines in the TT, S3, RS4 as well as the Passat based W8 and W12 engines). That said, many oils that are 503.01 are 505.00 certified as well, and the 505.00 spec is for many of the VW/Audi diesel engines. Unfortunately my bet is that you have one of the later "Pumpe-Duse" diesels that require 505.01 and/or 506.01 oil, stuff that is virtually impossible to come by here in the States outside of a VW/Audi dealership.

Now, Taipei on the otherhand may well be a different story. Assuming that your car requires either 505.01 and/or 506.01 (both of which are supposed to be superceded by 507.00), here are the oils that I'd look for:

505.01 -- Castrol TXT 5W-40
505.01 -- Pentosynth TS 5W-40
505.01 -- Shell HelixUltra VX 5W-30
505.01 -- Total Quartz Ineo MC3 5W-30

507.00 -- ELF Solaris LLX 5W-30
507.00 -- Mobil 1 ESP 5W-30
507.00 -- Total Quartz Ineo 5W-30
507.00 -- VW LongLife III 5W-30

I hope this helps.

 

Thanx for the input everyone (especially Shipo). Is it true that I should change the oil once per year? Because it will take me about 2 years to drive 10k miles. Furthermore I might just take my car to an indi mechanic (Bruno's VW/Audi in Queens, NY) , after reading what audi actually does to the car @15k, 25k, etc. what they will charge me does not seem worth it

 

Initially it was thought that synthetic oil was only good to go for a year, that concept has since been debunked. That said, were I in your shoes I'd change the oil yearly anyway. Why? A number of reasons actually, primarily because Used Oil Analysis (UOA) results that I've seen from these engines indicates that they have a tendency toward fuel dilution, and while the oil is still apparently in pretty good shape, fuel dilution numbers after 5,000 miles were reaching a threshold that many experts consider too high. Combine that with your low annual mileage (which implies lots of short trips and/or long periods of not being driven at all), and I'm thinking that 5,000 miles would be safe enough. If you want a more definitive answer, send a sample of your oil off for analysis.