7500K service - who's getting it done?

[Maltopia]

Salesman was saying that it is 15K intervals after the 7.5K service, so it sounds like they are doing the 15K service at 7.5K. Will find out more when I go in.

[Corey_R]

Personally I would trust the engineers in VW Germany who consulted on the manual, than a sales guy. No disrespect to sales people, but they're there to make money, and they are not necessarily mechanical.

[moniker]

I was going to book my Mk 6 Golf TDI in for its 7500Km service today, and was informed by the service department (VW Osbourne Park WA) that the oil is not changed on the 7500Km service.

Reason stated by the service department is the oil that comes with the car is different to the oil used during a service so to replace the oil at 7500Km would make the warranty invalid!

All they do is inspect and top up for $200, I can quiet easily do that myself.

Never heard this before, they just talked themselves out of a service.



2010 VW Golf 103 TDI, DSG, Sports Pack, United Grey, RCD510 (installed myself)

This is extremely strange to say the least.

They should talk to the dealer just 10 km or so north of them, run by the same overall dealer conglomerate if I'm not mistaken.
That dealer says you DO need a 7500km service, they DO change the oil and they DO charge for it...

So wait, changing oil TOO early will void the warranty?, now I've heard everything.

[Corey_R]

Again... I say... rather than listening to people who are trying to make money from you, why don't you consult your manuals? The service schedule is documented in there

[MIRSAD]

Which oil can be used to top up before doing your first service or more specifically....
is it good idea to top it up with synthetic oil like Castrol SLX III 5W-30 : (found at VW dealers)

It is not for GTI (service done on 8.5K km) but for 90TSI (7,800KM 7 months old)

Thank You

[Transporter]

Use the VW504.00 oil which is what you get from the dealer, if you ask for the oil for your car. Also look at the production date and if the car was made 12 month ago, you can safely change oil even if you've done much less than 15,000 or 7,500 or even less. Remember it is 15,000km or 12months which ever come first. I changed oil in Golf6 1.4TSI that was 12 month old and done only 1,500km.

[Golfitup]

There seems to be quite a bit of debate over changing oil before 15,000km because its said that there may be a break in oil in there that needs to be run for the full 15,000km.

I asked my service guy about this. He said that this is what they have been told by VW Australia. In essence, VW use a “special” break in oil that should not be changed before the 15,000km service. Changing prior to the 15,000km may void warranty.

Now, I asked him what oil is being used out of the factory and he said they don’t know, they tried to find out but VW won’t tell them. BTW I kind of know this guy, I doubt he would make that up.

So what I don’t get is what happens if, say within the first 1,000km, some sort of repair is needed where the oil needs to be drained. Lets say damaged sump for example.

What the hell are they going to fill your car up with? If they don’t know what the “special” oil is, then it has to be the VW recommended Castrol oil.

Just seems strange to me.

[brad]

Which oil can be used to top up before doing your first service or more specifically....
is it good idea to top it up with synthetic oil like Castrol SLX III 5W-30 : (found at VW dealers)

It is not for GTI (service done on 8.5K km) but for 90TSI (7,800KM 7 months old)

for a top-up, any 502 or 504 spec oil. if you call in at your dealer, they will do it for free

[Transporter]

Many car manufacturers use fully synthetic oil right from the factory and not just in the engines without any problems.

So, IMO changing your oil earlier will not do any harm. By the time you done 1,500 km your engine is already run in, and running it beyond 1,500 km with oil that contain a lot of metal shavings will only produce more (excessive) wear on the engine components.

If VW put special additives in the oil to help running in process, than for sure it is better than synthetic oil right from the factory and it is even better news for us who want to change the oil earlier, because for sure the engine with their special oil has to be already run in.

After all, if your engine will be in better mechanical condition because you changed oil in 1/2 the recommended intervals, than by the time you used your car for 180,000km you used extra 50L of oil for doing extra oil changes, but because of that the engine will have less wear, it will produce less pollution (also using less oil).

Now, I'm thinking about that turbocharger in the engine that done over 100,000km, hmm... I'm not sure that following blindly that servicing sticker in your car that say 15,000km/12Months is a good idea. I would be checking the fine print "driving under severe driving conditions" and think if any of these points there don't apply to me?

[Corey_R]

The 15,000km service intervals ARE for "severe driving conditions" though right? Otherwise we'd be on the 24 month / long service intervals?

There seems to be quite a bit of debate over changing oil before 15,000km because its said that there may be a break in oil in there that needs to be run for the full 15,000km.

I asked my service guy about this. He said that this is what they have been told by VW Australia. In essence, VW use a “special” break in oil that should not be changed before the 15,000km service. Changing prior to the 15,000km may void warranty.

For what it's worth, this is in line with what other service depts have told members. WhiteJames in particular has written a lot about the mineral/synthetic "break-in" oil VW use from the factory. But the basic premise is that the regular synthetic oil used after the first service is too thin to allow for a proper mating of the piston rings to the cylinder walls. Once they have bed in, you can then change to the regular synthetic oil as recommended by VW. During the break-in period, if you need to top up the oil, using the recommended synethic oil is fine.

Once the car has broken in, you can revert to the service requirements as per the VW manual, or as per Transporter's advice or your own ideas.