Volkswagon TDI

I have had great success with a good brand of Fully synthetic 5-30 weight, year round.
I have the oil changed about every 7 to 10 thousand miles.

The cars are: a 1996 VW Passat TDI (turbo deisel). I started using synthetic oil when the car had 100,000 milkes and have used it for the past 150,00 miles. The car now has 250,000 miles on the odometer. The engine has not been touched and still does not burn oil.

A 1975 VW Cabrio (convertible). I bought it with 40,000 miles on it. it's now at 100,000. Gas engine. No problems.

A 2004 Chrysler Pacifica. It's on a maintenance plan. Meaning they choose the oil. But when the plan ends, we will switch to sythetic oil. We have 30,000 miles on it the first year, so that won't be long.

I think any synthetic oil is suitable for turbo diesels, but check the label to make sure it says so.


I buy my own Mobile Synthetic oil, take it to an oil change place and have them do it. They charge me $20.
Plus, I paid, I forget whether it's $3 a or $4 quart. So it costs about $32 - $40 an oil change. But, remember,
I don't change it every 3,000 miles. I said 7 to 10 thousand miles. True believers in the 3,000 mile oil change pay more than I do. And, I only have my oil changed about 10 or 11 times in 100,000 miles. They need 33 oil changes during the same time.

Tires, brakes, stability, lights etc. -- have all improved enormously in the past 20 years or so. So has oil.

New Diesel cars don't change oil before 20,000 miles nowadays (even my 1999 Diesel didn't have to be changed before 10,000).

Your (syntetic) oil should be identical to "VW 506 01".

Walter - At one point VW had a suggested oil change of 12,000 miles (or more) for German buyers, about 8,000 miles for the rest of the world, except for the US., --- about 5,000 miles for US buyers.

It was not because of any difference in the cars, it was cultural. US car owners still go by the religious belief in the
3,000 mile oil change. I once had a young auto enthusiast tell me he could feel the loss of power when the oil reached 3,000 miles.

An ironic thing occured when VW asked new owners to go at least 7,500 miles before the first oil change because it was a break-in oil. Tests were done at 100,000 miles that showed those engines with first oil change done too early
showed more wear than engines that were given he recommended oil change.