2003 vw passat 1.8 turbo oil type

Should oil changes be done at every 8,000 km's or 5,000 km,s?

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (George61)

according to VW, 5000 miles. which is about 8000 km. i would take that as a maximum.

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (maybeTDI)

Thank you

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (George61)

For a 1.8T, 5K is way too long - especially if driving in the city and geographic regions with extreme temperatures (Northeast, for example).
To be safe, and what I do, is to change the oil, with VW approved synthetic, at a 3 month/3K interval.

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (shadowblue)

shadowblue, you should consider doing an oil analysis, when I ran them in the past 5k was ok for me (M1 0W-40). your method is ok but you could save a bit of $$ (and oil) by sticking to the 5k, or 4k if you want to be conservative. An analysis is inexpensive if you want to test based on your driving conditions. //****************.com/smile/emthup.gif

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (scotty_passat)

For me, it's every 6 months or 4,250 miles (6,800 km) or 200 gallons (757 litres) of fuel burned, which ever comes first. Mobil 1 0w-40 in the sump.

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (Altair 4)

For mostly-city driving, I have our 1.8T on a 6 month or 3k mi = 5k km OCI, which is conveniently about the same thing, since we currently accumulate about 6k mi = 10k km per year. I have my Blackstone Labs kit ready for a UOA at the next oil change, to see whether this is indeed overkill with Mobil 1 0W-40 and the Purolator L40316 mega-filter.
By the way, after the first 10k mi / 16k km, the 2006 2.0T's recommended OCI rises to 10k mi / 16k km.

Modified by John_E at 11:54 AM 9-29-2006

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (John_E)

John, I'll be interested in hearing your UOA results. I think I'm in the same situation as you are, driving-wise, but I've stretched it out to my 4,250 miles. Plus, I'm using the diesel filter from my dealer.
BTW, do you know the volume of oil that the 2.0T takes? Is it much more than the 1.8T? Or have they tamed some of the characteristics that degraded the oil in the 1.8T?
I'd also be curious how the owner's manual reads on the 2.0T models...have they addressed the need to be a mystic to discern what oil is required and have they addressed a severe usage maintenance schedule?

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (shadowblue)

Thats what I do. Did it in my corrado, my old 1.8T Jetta, and my S4. I do it in my sister's 1.8T jetta. I guess I'm just old school. What I really don't understand is all the new models going 10k mileage intervals.

i waited 4,000 and used synthetic blend.

Re: (scpassat03)

Why a synth blend? Are there any that are 502 approved?

Re: (hang_tin)

Not last time I checked.

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (CorradoG60)

We're both old school, I guess.

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (Altair 4)

the 2.0T takes 4.4 qts, and has a 7.6 qt cooling system capacity.
A 1.8T Passat with the big filter is about 4.2 qts, the early 1.8T with small filter was just 3.9 qts.

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (scotty_passat)

2.0T (bpy) takes 6.3 qts. Cooling system capacity is 8.5 qts for passat, gti, jetta. Regular 2.0 (aeg, bbw, bev, avh.....)which they don't make anymore is 4.4qts

Here in the UK, the standard service interval is 10000miles/12 months or up to double that for extended servicing using long-life oil. There are no significant issues with oil sludging here or in Europe. Why are the US service intervals so different??

Re: Recommended oil change 1.8T 2003 Passat (shadowblue)

That is totally insane.

Re: (hannahntilly)

US oil change intervals are so short because MOST Amercan drivers go for the cheapest oil changes that they can and think that synthetic oil is overkill or snake-oil. Also, American drivers have been conditioned to change their oil at 3 month or 3,000 mile intervals (probably good since nobody is using synthetic oil). Most Americans freak out when they hear about Mercedes or Porsche and their 10K mile changes done at the dealerships.
The 1.8T engine is designed to use synthetic only (small oil capacity, turbo, etc.), but when I bought my car (in 2004), the dealer was selling "special" oil for the turbo that wasn't even a synthetic blend (100% dinosaur)! I'm willing to bet that the "1.8T sludge problem" was non-existant in Europe. Who the hell would even THINK of using non-synthetic oil in a turbo engine?

I change it every 5000 miles using Amsoil oil and filters. Last week I got a oil pressure light. The light comes on only if the car is in gear. At idle it won't come on.
The dealer said it is the oil pump. He wanted to see the records for the oil changes which if forwarded to him. He now wants more proof of oil changes even though I documented the changes as per VW requirements. I'm still waiting to hear back from them on the warrenty issue. It seems to me VW is trying to get out of paying for the repair.
I'm getting to the point of never considering a VW again at this rate.

Re: (rscalzo)

There's a VW tech on PW that had written on a forum there that performing your own oil change would invalid the "Sludge" warranty.
I'm guessing that your original warranty is still intact, though. How many miles on your vehicle? I assume you performed the oil changes yourself? What was the nature of the documentation that you provided to your dealer? Receipts of purchases, installation dates?
You might get a chance to see how well Amsoil stands behind their warranty. Good luck to ya.

Modified by Altair 4 at 8:29 PM 10-8-2006