Longlife oil and 20000 miles changes

[rlw]

Our R has just gone over 10000 miles and I'm inclined to get the oil changed. The car lives in London and does lots of silly little, stop start journeys.

My local VW dealer thinks I'm daft. Am I?

[Roy_01]

For short journeys you can better change it with time interval then mileage.
10.000 miles is fine or 1 year what ever comes first.
Long life is more for people that drive decent mileage every day.

[Cuprabob]

Personally I use "longlife" oil but change it every 12months or 10k miles, whichever occurs first.

Longlife regime is not really suited to your mileage and driving profile.

[rlw]

I will go into the dealer next week and organise the oil change. The receptionist I spoke to on the phone, who is probably very pretty and sweet but knows FA about cars, told me that modern oils are dseigned to last 20000 miles and that, while it was my choice, she thought it was unnecessary. I queried this, saying that it was London car with the odd long run, but mainly used in traffic in town. Same answer. Utterly useless. Presumably it would be fine to do the LM 24 hours 5 times as well before changing the oil.

[Delberthot]

Personally, a combination of a high powered car and mainly short journeys mean that I wouldn't go longer than 12 months without changing the oil.

My May 2016 R only has 9200 miles but I've booked it in for it's second service in 2 weeks time so that will be it's second oil change as well. I do longer journeys at the weekends but during the week they are mainly very short 3-4 mile trips to work and back.

[LHM]

for the price of oil and a filter, do it yourself every 5k or 6 months. You can pick up 5L of Castrol Edge 5W30 for £40-£45, and a genuine filter for £13. Takes 30 mins to do the job too.

[Psycho Kirky]

10k miles, especially short journeys with a cold engine is not frequent enough in my opinion. No such thing as 20k mile oil in reality it's a load of rubbish. Oil will go black long before that and wants changing to prolong the life and servicability of the engine. It can be left for 20k, but that's just stupid and pure ignorance.

Receptionists never know anything. Same as if you ring a doctors surgery/clinic, they havn't got a clue!

I'd be tempted at between 6&8k oil changes. It is cheap and easy, save yourself some money!

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

[Paradox1]

I dont use longlife.

Use quantum 5w40.

Especially if you drive your car hard or if its modified I change mine every 5k or at least 3 times a year, depending on how many miles I do.