Do you do your first oil change early?

[tigeo]

Yeah, I agree. I just said "Looks dirty". I can't tell if it IS dirty. I guess I was thinking that I've polished metal and watched the rag turn black, I've seen rivets and metal on metal work over extended periods of time and seen the black compounds produced as a result. I've seen oils changed early and seen the color. I've seen the oils changed late and seen the color. Not scientific at all, but probably some element of correlation that can be drawn to metal on metal wear exposure to heat/combustion and color. I'm thinking a lab result would substantiate. If blackstone says a pitch black quart of oil that came out of my car, shows "Like new" properties, I'm not going to put it back in... Ya know? Just makes me feel better.

Understood, and by all means....if changing it at some X interval makes you happy/feel better, cool! The notion about the wear metals in early mileage oil being a big issue is somewhat un-founded b/c of course the oil has more wear metals in it, plenty of BS tests show it but to me, that's the whole point of the oil filter. For every person that does early change intervals to "get the metal flakes out" there are a bazillion folks that don't with cars that last well into the 100-200K mileage range just changing the first time at the typical 5-10K. My UOAs have been excellent (v. low wear metals) on my current tuned/modified GSW just doing it this way and my MK4 Jetta went well north of 200K without anything more than regular oil 5-10K oil changes and no special break-in change.

 

[LGriff86]

This is a great direction for a controversial topic... my question would be how do we qualify the right thing to do. Changing the oil as specified by the manufacturer may get you the "life span" and "reliability" the manufacturer wants but as an enthusiast, what is the difference in degradation of HP or MPG(depending how you use your car) over its life. There's no right answer I don't think but its very interesting to discuss and think about.

 

[tigeo]

This is a great direction for a controversial topic... my question would be how do we qualify the right thing to do. Changing the oil as specified by the manufacturer may get you the "life span" and "reliability" the manufacturer wants but as an enthusiast, what is the difference in degradation of HP or MPG(depending how you use your car) over its life. There's no right answer I don't think but its very interesting to discuss and think about.

I can tell you how I quantified it - I just got it tested and nerded out on the data. Based on my data over ~30K miles, I do 5-7.5K changes (based on driving - more city/short trip lower mileage and more highway/long rip longer) b/c the data point to that being optimal for both the additive pack (enough left) and the viscosity/fuel dilution (fuel dilution decreases viscosity which decreases with miles anyway). There you go! No issue with ear metals. No issue with silicone from the K&N filter.

 

[LGriff86]

Did you get your FIRST oil change oil analyzed or only subsequent ones, when did you start? I'm on my 2nd oil change now and intend to get an analysis. I've used the vw508 Castrol 0W-20, used the OE filter and drain plug both changes. Be interesting to compare mine that was first changed at 1,264(I mistakenly stated 1,266 before) and changed again at 5k and what yours was when changed at 10,000mi.

 

[tigeo]

Did you get your FIRST oil change oil analyzed or only subsequent ones, when did you start? I'm on my 2nd oil change now and intend to get an analysis. I've used the vw508 Castrol 0W-20, used the OE filter and drain plug both changes. Be interesting to compare mine that was first changed at 1,264(I mistakenly stated 1,266 before) and changed again at 5k and what yours was when changed at 10,000mi.

Yes, I got my factory fill analyzed at ~7.5K miles. Attached are my data to date if you are interested. The longest I went was 9K. The notes from BS for each change aren't on these - I have the individual ones but this cumulative is fine...there wasn't anything of concern on any of them and they will say that higher wear metals from the first one are well within the normal range - the concern seems to be not whether or not it's normal, but if that causes damage which again...I don't subscribe to. I also included a plot of TBN for my changes past the first when I switched over to Liquimoly Leichtlauf (just shows the additive left and shouldn't go below 1) as well as the viscosity which shows that you do dip into 30W territory north of 5K miles (but again, this isn't really "bad", just something to note...all of the oils will decrease in viscosity over time and clearly by my low wear metals this isn't causing any issues). Also note I have used some additives so the ~30K change has Ceratec and the most recent had MoS2. Enjoy!

 

[LGriff86]

Love it. Thanks man

 

[Ghost GTI]

Need your guys' opinion on this...I recently purchased a '19 that was probably at the lot for a while. Car has only 450 miles since I haven't been driving much during this whole thing, but oil reminder is coming up in 25 days. I more than likely will not even reach 500 miles by then. Change or wait?

 

[Gptuners]

Need your guys' opinion on this...I recently purchased a '19 that was probably at the lot for a while. Car has only 450 miles since I haven't been driving much during this whole thing, but oil reminder is coming up in 25 days. I more than likely will not even reach 500 miles by then. Change or wait?

Same here. I got the car with 163 miles and a "Service Now" message.

I'm just driving it. I've already put 3K on it in the past two months. Hopefully no one tells me that was bad...

 

[LGriff86]

My opinion: as I see it oil break down while not in use is ultra minimal. I'd go by mileage. I changed my oil way early compared to most 1,264 miles(my goal was 1,250) and forgot to reset the reminder - it told me to change my oil about 500 miles after I changed it(2,300 miles). I changed it again at 5,000 miles anyway which was my plan all along. If you had 10,000 miles on that oil, and then was going to park it for 12 months - I'd change it beforehand, yes. That's not your situation though.

 

[eajr]

How dirty did the oil look at 10k when it was changed first? Is yours a 502 or 508 spec?

Im not sure since I took it into the dealer and it was covered.

 

[jimlloyd40]

I change mine every 4K and I've had it analyzed and was told there was a lot of life left but I over maintain everything and it certainly can't hurt.

 

[tigeo]

I change mine every 4K and I've had it analyzed and was told there was a lot of life left but I over maintain everything and it certainly can't hurt.

Yep...for sure not going to hurt a thing to change it more frequently. For me, and driving sometimes upward of 25K a year, it's just not something I want to spend money/time on every few mos. (4K changes would be 5-6 changes a year) vs. 2-3 when the data support it's not actually necessary. If I was a low mile driver (10K a year) I'd just do it at 5K and be done with it so twice a year. Your money, your car, your change interval!

 

[tmw2442]

Need your guys' opinion on this...I recently purchased a '19 that was probably at the lot for a while. Car has only 450 miles since I haven't been driving much during this whole thing, but oil reminder is coming up in 25 days. I more than likely will not even reach 500 miles by then. Change or wait?

it definitely won't hurt....

 

[Strange Mud]

Need your guys' opinion on this...I recently purchased a '19 that was probably at the lot for a while. Car has only 450 miles since I haven't been driving much during this whole thing, but oil reminder is coming up in 25 days. I more than likely will not even reach 500 miles by then. Change or wait?

I would change it sometime between 1000-1500. Just like always....oold school and like the IDEA of early change but don't know it's needed. I don't see much of a difference in sitting in bottle and sitting in car, unless you don't drive a extra month won't matter. reminder (w/o reading thread) oil related failures are extremely rare. I think in the manual it mentions your dealer should reset the service items as part of pre-delivery. yeah that ain't gonna happen

 

[Shane_Anigans]

I think in the manual it mentions your dealer should reset the service items as part of pre-delivery. yeah that ain't gonna happen

I can pretty much guarantee you that it doesn't. Since the object of the game is to leave as little time as possible for comparison shopping between the first contact and delivery, the sales staff are not going to waste even a minute getting the car back into service to have the maintenance reminders reset. I took delivery of my car a day or two after finalizing the price/trade-in/etc, and since I'm friends with my salesperson, she knew I wasn't going to back out once I committed to the sale, so you'd expect that they'd have taken the time, in that instance if no other, to do everything on the PDI checklist, right? I took delivery on 10/27, and the annual service reminder first lit up just before Labor Day the following year.