St.1 Oil Change Interval

The video is OK but it may make things more confusing than necessary. It's also worth noting that the 0W-20 oil that tested fine after track use was Redline oil which is considered to be a high quality group V base stock fully synthetic oil. So it potentially might endure more thermal stress without issue than some other synthetic oils. It's likely that he chose the Redline oil hoping that it would give him the best protection under the high oil temps during track conditions. He also completely skipped over required oil specs such as VW 502. Using the correct spec oil can be as important if not more important than oil viscosity.

Seeing as though VW mandates 5W-30/40 oils for most applications there isn't any reason to be using other viscosities oils for 99% of VW customers. If you live in Alaska or some place where the high temp for the day is typically 32 F or lower for months then maybe a 0W-30/40 might offer a minute advantage. If you live where the high temps are typically 90 F plus eight months a year then a 5w-40 might offer a minute advantage. If you track your car then the 5w-40 would offer a small advantage. If your track temps exceed 265 F you need an additional oil cooler.

If your VW calls for 0W-20 then that is what you should use as the engine clearances are designed around that viscosity oil. The jury is still out on what changes if any are advisable for those vehicles that are tracked with an oil requirement of 0W-20. Maybe a 5W-30 VW 502 oil is acceptable? Without actual testing and disassembling the engine for inspection it's going to be difficult to determine the optimal track oil viscosity for these engines.

TechGuy32 said:

If your VW calls for 0W-20 then that is what you should use as the engine clearances are designed around that viscosity oil. The jury is still out on what changes if any are advisable for those vehicles that are tracked with an oil requirement of 0W-20. Maybe a 5W-30 VW 502 oil is acceptable? Without actual testing and disassembling the engine for inspection it's going to be difficult to determine the optimal track oil viscosity for these engines.

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I find a bit of playful irony here. Using a non speced oil can void a warranty or possibly cause damage. And so can tracking the car. So which way should we go? A conundrum I suppose.

However, there are gonna be folks that want to use a different oil/spec than what is called for because they want to, or possibly to get something better, a bunch of reasons, regardless of high level testing required to find out for absolute certainty. If things go sideways and a warranty is denied for it, then the poop is on them. Same goes for tracking/racing, regardless of extensive testing. Sometimes reasonableness and some good old fashioned trial and error produces tangible results. Just ask the budding NASCAR guys from a couple decades ago. I digress.

But there are things out there to make the possibility of those consequences a bit lower. From race hardware thats more durable/reliable to oils that could produce benefit. Won't know til they are tried. Worth the risk? If not, color inside the lines by following manufacture recommendations for everything (*yawn* BORING ). But if you want to play, and have some fun, or push some limits, it can either bite you in the ass or put a big shit-eating grin on your face. The choice is for each their own.

^^^ The problem with engines who's clearances have been tightened up to allow 0W-20 to be effective make it difficult for heavier viscosity oils to flow thru tight places when the oil is cold. As such you can starve areas of the engine if the thicker oil can't get there in time before metal to metal contact occurs.

Many race car engines have the engine oil heated before the engines are started in colder weather to prevent the damage that would normally occur from cold ambient temps. That isn't practical for most street driven cars.

People are certainly free to do whatever makes them happy but there are few people who have more insight into the VW engines than the engineers who developed them.

anotero said:

My question is: should I go to 5k oil changes, or is 7.5k enough?

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I do roughly 4-5k unless the car sees any road course then that oil becomes specific to that event.

TechGuy32 said:

^^^ The problem with engines who's clearances have been tightened up to allow 0W-20 to be effective make it difficult for heavier viscosity oils to flow thru tight places when the oil is cold. As such you can starve areas of the engine if the thicker oil can't get there in time before metal to metal contact occurs.

Many race car engines have the engine oil heated before the engines are started in colder weather to prevent the damage that would normally occur from cold ambient temps. That isn't practical for most street driven cars.

People are certainly free to do whatever makes them happy but there are few people who have more insight into the VW engines than the engineers who developed them.

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did the engine code change to take into account the tighter clearances and effects of engine wear going to a lower HTHS requirement oil, for the sake of up to 3% better fuel economy?


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I have no idea if VW's did. I was talking in general about engines where the clearances are tightened so that the thinner oil is effective. They may not change the engine code just clearances for different years.