Crazy Bimmer

OK well the audi is eating gas

Im at 3700 miles and low on oil. Manual says they have a 0w-30 Synthetic in it from the factory. It says its ok to use a 5w-30 but can i top off the 0w-30 thats in there right now with the 5w-30 castrol Synthetic that i have laying around?


So i have a free oil change from Audi at 5k miles. But they dont use any Synthetic and their free maintance intervals at every 10k. How fawked up is that? No wonder most audis arent reliable after older aging unless you take care of them. Guess i gotta bring in my own oil


Anywho, my question is can top off with 5-30w to my car but has 0w-30 in it?

Crazy Bimmer

someone help!

NiteQwill

you should be fine. the weights are neraly identical. The 0W is for cold weather and economy, the 5W is a end of winter/spring weight. just don't mix synthetic with dino oil.

btw, most cars now are maintenance intervals of 10k. Two of my VWs have service intervals of 10k, with over 6 oil tests, there is no difference with servicing at 5k or 10k. Trust me, and I'm pretty anal about my veedubs. Just makes sure to use synthetic.

Crazy Bimmer

yea i know its fine to go 10k with synthetic, but it seems that audi doesnt use synthetic after the 5k oil change.

So they are doing 10k intervals on regular oil.. doesnt that seem strange?

NiteQwill

Actually it varies from dealer to dealer. At my Audi/VW dealer, they put in Pentosin (fully synthetic, very popular in Europe [like our Mobil 1/amsoil]) 5W-40 with every oil change in every car. If you verbally opt out, they just put Castrol 5W-30 dino oil, saving the customer about $10-15.

fender4

Not really,,, it's just our mindset is to change every 3-5k,,, I have been on the 10k program now for 30k miles and by analysis my base TBN number after 10k miles is about 7,, new petro oil is 7-8 sooo my 10k oil is as good as new oil. I use amsoil 0w30 and change the amsoil sdf44 (oversize) filter every 5k miles. I have been trying to find the best synthetic oil out there and proved to my self that 10k changes are possible. Real synthetic TBN's are in the 12-13 range.
The weak link is not the oil it's the filter.

Crazy Bimmer

you post confused me

fender4

Your ok to use synthetic for 10k miles just change the filter every 5k miles.

Crazy Bimmer

i know that.

But audi doesnt use Synthetic and they dont change the oil till every 10k miles

Only time they use synthetic is when the engine is first new from the factory, but i hear they go back to regular oil once the first oil change is scheduled, which is 5k miles.

fender4

very interesting,, kinda backwords,, I would check your sources

sgmotoring

Can't you go back to your Audi dealer and ask them to top it off? It have become more and more common for newer car to have 10k miles oil change interval. Currently Acura TSX and RSX have a 10k miles oil change(no filter) interval. How would you like to change your first oil filter at 20K? No thanks, I will change my engine oil at half the recommended interval.