What oil for the R36

[gerhard]

Why buy oil for the top up - go to the dealer - they do it for free.

[Jayse]

Why buy oil for the top up - go to the dealer - they do it for free.

I'm with Gerhard on this one Andrew. When i got my car the dealer mentioned this to me and just before i did the xmas trip up to Sydney i dropped in and they DID a free top up.

Good luck with it.

Cheers,

Jayse.

[Steve]

Dragging up and old thread...!

My R36 told me it needs oil tonight, but I couldn't find any at any of the petrol stations that were open on my way home (all were BP).

Where's a good place to get oil from? I used to feed my Commodore whatever it needed and I could get it from a nearby Mobil, and I can get oil for Mum's GTI at the same Mobil too... but not so sure about my R36. Where should I look?

[Cro]

If you want to just top up the oil you already have (Castrol 5w30 Longlife III) you will need to buy it from VW. There is no other distributor available for this exact oil. I bought a 5L bottle for under $100 (can't remember the exact amount).

If you want to flush your system, go get any vw 504/505 compliant oil and a compliant filter.

[Steve]

I just called the service guys and they said that the Castrol stuff that's in there is hard to hunt down (no ****) but any fully synthetic 5w-30 oil is "perfectly fine."

That makes life easy!

[GHW]

Each to there own but, for me, I will only ever use the recommended oil and I don't care about the extra $20 mark-up.
Much better than giving VW an excuse to refuse warranty, not that I'm sayimg they would but this was used as a major excuse by Audi on my A4 and it cost me $13k.
My last car was sold, serviced exactly to spec (right down to the replacement tyres) so there were absolutely no excuses in case of an issue and, besides, who am I to think I know better than the engineers who built this thing? (and therefore specced the appropriate oil) I don't believe for one second it's "buy the cheapest to make the most profit' as they wouldn't risk the warranty claims. My 2c.

[Lance B]

Each to there own but, for me, I will only ever use the recommended oil and I don't care about the extra $20 mark-up.
Much better than giving VW an excuse to refuse warranty, not that I'm sayimg they would but this was used as a major excuse by Audi on my A4 and it cost me $13k.
My last car was sold, serviced exactly to spec (right down to the replacement tyres) so there were absolutely no excuses in case of an issue and, besides, who am I to think I know better than the engineers who built this thing? (and therefore specced the appropriate oil) I don't believe for one second it's "buy the cheapest to make the most profit' as they wouldn't risk the warranty claims. My 2c.

By law, Audi *cannot* refute warranty if the oil you used is the same spec as what is recommended in the handbook. If the handbook states that 5W30 semi or full synthetic to API/ACEA/MB/VW/BMW/Ford or whatever, they *cannot* refute warranty.

As for oil specs, a good quality synthetic that meets all the requirements laid down by VW would be as good or better than that specified. Diester based synthetic oil is supposed to be the best and dearest and I would guarantee that it would be better then the VW recommended semi/full synthetic. Engines are *not* that fickle that they require such a specific blend.

In your case above, one would wonder how they could refute warranty if you did what you said you did in that you had it serviced as per the handbook. I would say that you have a great case against them.