There was a question on another message board. A brand new Golf IV burns about a liter of oil per 1000km. The car was taken back to service, but they told him that the engine cannot be changed unless it burns more than 1.5 liters per 1000km, since up to that number is considered normal (It’s in the manual too :eek: )
What struck me as very unusual though, is the oil they use on the car. 0W-30!!! Suposedly the car comes from Germany with that oil, but the greek VW Service wont use something thicker.
Isn’t that a bit extreme, especially for a warm climate such as Greece?
Most U.S. cars that I have seen are recommending 5W-30 these days. No cites, but from my experience a newer car will go through less than 1 quart of oil in 5000 miles if there are no oil leaks. To me 1 liter per 1000km being acceptable on a new VW doesn’t speak very well of the product. Dishonest or no, if it was my car, I would probably drain the extra 1/2 liter myself.
Our 1998 Golf MK4 uses so little oil that I generally don’t have to top it up between filter changes. I do those twice a year. The cat only does slightly less than 10,000 miles a year so it’s doing about 3000 miles between oil changes.
In Europe, you’ll find that quite a few cars reccomend a full synthetic 0W-30 oil, and that all Euro-market OW-30 motor oils are in fact highly engineered, highly durable product. They have to be, to meet the ACEA’s A3 specification that the Euro-market OW-30 oil must meet.
As a result, I would be totally unconcerned with the “staying power” that the motor oil in question has. That motor oil has undergone pretty serious anti-shear, anti-wear, etc testing.
Remember that the “0W” in 0W-30 refers to the behavior of the motor oil at very cold temperatures, not to the behavior it will exhibit at highway speeds with the engine warmed up. The “30” describes its viscosity when the motor is at temperature.
Here’s a Chart showing various W-weights of oils versus their cranking resistances (max) at various degrees celsius.
0W 6200 at -35 (-31F)
5W 6600 at -30 (-22F)
10W 7000 at -25 (-13F)
15W 7000 at -20 (-4F)
20W 9500 at -15 (5F)
25W 13,000 at -10
The thing to take home from that is that both 0W30 and 5W30 will actually flow extremely well at temperatures that most Americans will never drive their cars in.
Many automakers have policies similar to VW’s “1.5 liters per 1,000 km” policy. GM, Ford and Toyota all have similar policies. To my knowledge, all automakers have a policy like that… at least I’ve never heard of one not having such a policy.
Yes, that policy would p**s me off pretty badly if I owned a new car of any description and it was still under warranty and burning oil.
Note that some engines in some years just DO burn oil. There was a Caddilac V-8 a couple years back that can’t not burn oil. And diesels always burn some oil, by reputation.
Cite:
Chart comes from the publication entitled SAE Viscosity Grades for Engine Oils — SAE J300 Dec 99