Your thoughts on use of long life oil

[bacillus]

I was over on the golfgti forum and one poster has posted this:

Coming up to a 20,000 mile service, so decided to get a quote from a well known VAG specialist as well as local dealers.
Asked for Long Life oil, as per the perceived wisdom that many on this site advocate.
Said it had already been changed at 10,000 miles, so it wasn't the first service.
Was a bit surprised to see in the response that as a matter of course they will not put long life oil in the cars that they service, unless explicitly told to do so by the customer, because of many previous problems when using that oil.

So, I phoned up to discuss.
Reason given was that over many years of experience, they have encountered several failures of VAG engines, including the 1.8T and 2.0 FSI, due to the oil uptake pipe on the suction side of the pump clogging up, obviously a potential engine killer.
They said this usually manifests itself from 8 years - 80,000 miles upwards.
Their experience tells them that it is the long life oil that is the cause of the problem.
Obviously, not many 2.0 TFSI engines have done that mileage, so they haven't come across a problem with it yet, although they have had an A3 2.0 FSI engine with the problem.

So they highly recommend an engine flush to make sure that all gunge is removed then to use a 10W40 oil instead.
Also said that the 5W30 long life oil will take longer to warm up and this in itself doesn't do the engine much good.

I guess the other variable is that the spec of the long life oil (now at mark 3) has changed over the years.
Don't know if that makes any difference ?

They are an outfit that has received a lot of good press on this web site from many frequent and trusted inhabitants, and they are very familiar with highly tuning all variants of the 2.0 TFSI plant, as well as routine servicing.
They didn't want to be named because of potential problems with VAG themselves, so I won't do that.

Anyone else on here heard of similar problems later in a VAG engine's life that could have been put down to use of long life oil ?

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=98261.0

[182_blue]

i think the problem isnt the long life oil, its leaving the cars so long before servicing them IMO of course, i will be doing mine yearly and had longlife oil put in at no extra cost

[Top Cat]

Yes i agree with Shaun The problems are surely with people who use long-life oil then neglect to change it every 10,000 thinking there is no need to. I remember TT stating that the properties in the long-life are much better, but no way should a turbo or high performance engine go longer than 10,000 without a oil change.
As far as how long the 5w30 takes to reach operating temp then i wouldn't have a clue but is this not what VW set there gauges on. What i mean is it may take longer than other oils but this does not matter as long as the gauge in your car has reached its tolerances,

[RunRabbit]

It's obv had a lot of R&D gone into the oil, i'm used to nursing my cars and changing the oil every 3k but this long life oil has made my life easier

[tony_danza]

I don't know about just blaming it on the oil, I'd attribute it more to laziness of the owners and not keeping it topped up. Plenty of people don't bother checking their levels and think the oil light is a reminder of when to refill... the damage is already done by this point. The little oil that has been in will have got too hot and its properties will have changed causing the terminal gunge IMO.

Variable servicing just makes the problem worse as it goes longer and longer being neglected of a fresh addition or change, so it's damaging itself on the crap boiled oil.

VW will have tested longlife by running the engine properly, not starved, so as long as it is being maintained then Longlife may well indeed be fine. On the flip side though, every 150PD MKIV I know that had cam lobe failure was on variable - not quite the same, but it's something to think about. 

Mine gets dropped every 10k and checked once a week... for the sake of a few quids worth of oil, why not?

[vRStu]

I think fixed intervals are the best option, especially for performance cars.

You've only got to look at the number of Turbo failures on PD140's at upwards of 50k miles.

[Scrappydo]

Purposefully raised this thread again because maybe thoughts have 'moved on' since 2008! TBH I've not come across long life oil before - I've always bought the proper grade for whichever vehicle I'm running at the time and from a well-known manufacturer. So, my questions are;

1. If I want long life oil can I buy it from my local accessory shop or does it need to come from a specialist supplier.

2. Do I still buy the recommended viscosity.

3. How long should it last (probably best to change every 10k anyway - as above)?

4. What do you pay for long life as opposed to 'normal'

Excuse my ignorance!!!

 

[bacillus]

1. If I want long life oil can I buy it from my local accessory shop or does it need to come from a specialist supplier.

You can get Castrol edge from Halfords, Asda or best yet from euro car parts using one of their promo codes

2. Do I still buy the recommended viscosity.

I still use 5W-30 viscosity thought a few on here are using 5w-40

3. How long should it last (probably best to change every 10k anyway - as above)?

10k or annually

4. What do you pay for long life as opposed to 'normal'

Cheapest place for long life is euro car parts using one of their promo codes

[Gene Hunt]

My mate works for VW & they recomend it for all servicing weather on long life or the time & distance. Always use it in my ED 30.

[Scrappydo]

Any particular brand better or more trusted than others?

[stealthwolf]

Anything that is "vw504 approved". Anything less eg to vw504 standard is unacceptable.

I normally use castrol edge.

[MC71]

Opie Oils are pretty good and have a discount for forum members

http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,53626.0.html

Also Castrol Edge from Halfords and it's 20% off at the moment.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_210681_langId_-1_categoryId_165581

[Scrappydo]

Thanks folks - off to Halfrauds tomorrow maybe - nothing like living life on the edge eh!

[micky 32]

Been using longlife since day one and at 126k with no clogging problems, but i always change at 10k regardless. I don't use it for longlife reasons i thought maybe it's a good oil because it's supposed to last longer etc.

[richtung]

Been using longlife since day one and at 126k with no clogging problems, but i always change at 10k regardless. I don't use it for longlife reasons i thought maybe it's a good oil because it's supposed to last longer etc.

I change mine every 5k with Castrol Edge... probably overkill but at least i know its running spot on! 

Rich