Oil change interval. Days or KM’s?

[supreme_gti]

I don’t drive my GTI often. Mostly during weekends. So the days for changing oil has decreased but the KM interval is up there.

Should I change the oil based off days?

Since the oil has been in the oil pan for almost 6 months now?

I only drove about 4,000KM, I checked the engine oil level. It’s at a decent level.

Some do 8,000KM (5000miles) oil changes even with a tune but I’m gonna do 4000km changes because I don’t drive my GTI often and I do my oil changes every 6 months regardless of how much I drive.

 

[GolNat]

If I don’t hit the mileage interval then I change it after a year.

 

[supreme_gti]

If I don’t hit the mileage interval then I change it after a year.

Damn. Don’t you think that’s a little too long? Now you got me thinking if I should wait another 6 months lol… I would reset the oil change internal so I don’t get annoyed with the “service now” message.

Thank the VW engineers for leaving the oil dipstick present so we can manually check.

The BMW guys don’t have the dipstick anymore.

I’m gonna change the oil anyway. Next oil change I’ll push it off for one year or 9 months.

 

[AM407]

Changing oil every 4,000 km is insane.

Once a year is fine.

 

[GolNat]

Damn. Don’t you think that’s a little too long? Now you got me thinking if I should wait another 6 months lol… I would reset the oil change internal so I don’t get annoyed with the “service now” message.

Thank the VW engineers for leaving the oil dipstick present so we can manually check.

The BMW guys don’t have the dipstick anymore.

I’m gonna change the oil anyway. Next oil change I’ll push it off for one year or 9 months.

I adjusted my maintenance light with OBD11. I have it set to 7500 miles or 1 year. I use a high quality full synthetic so I feel comfortable waiting a year.

Yes I would hate not having a dip stick!!

 

[supreme_gti]

Changing oil every 4,000 km is insane.

Once a year is fine.

I am going to change it just this ONE time at 4,500KM interval, yes, I know, waste of money and hurting the environment (a little bit, not as much as the big corps). After this oil change, I will do 5000miles oil change, or 1 year... whichever comes first

Thinking back, 4k km oil change doesn't make sense lol but I want to do it just this ONE time spoiling my GTI lol...

 

[supreme_gti]

I adjusted my maintenance light with OBD11. I have it set to 7500 miles or 1 year. I use a high quality full synthetic so I feel comfortable waiting a year.

Yes I would hate not having a dip stick!!

I have it set to every 10k km oil change and I think its 180 days... so when I reset the oil maintenance light it will say 10k KM oil change or 180 days.

I use Liqui Moly 2332 Leichtlauf High Tech 5W-40.

Oil dip stick for the win!!!

 

[supreme_gti]

So I’m that guy that did 4,000KM oil changes (No not proud lol). The oil came out clean…

Never again.

I’m gonna do 7,500 - 9,000Km (Max) oil change intervals. - never doing 4,000KM oil changes ever again.

I didn’t dump the entire 5L jug of engine oil.
Only used about 4.8ish, kept the .2 if needed to add later.

Will keep an eye on engine oil levels moving forward.

 

[GolNat]

So I’m that guy that did 4,000KM oil changes (No not proud lol). The oil came out clean…

Never again.

I’m gonna do 7,500 - 9,000Km (Max) oil change intervals. - never doing 4,000KM oil changes ever again.

I didn’t dump the entire 5L jug of engine oil.
Only used about 4.8ish, kept the .2 if needed to add later.

Will keep an eye on engine oil levels moving forward.

Send in a used sample for analysis so you know how long you can go. I sent a sample in at 5k Miles and it had plenty of life left so I went to 7500. Was gonna have another sample sent but I typically don’t drive it more then 7500 miles a year.

 

[uglybastard]

If I don’t hit the mileage interval then I change it after a year.

This

 

[Gino]

I am in the same boat, my GTI was hardly driven in a year. It took me 18 months to put on 3k miles. I sent the oil out to Blackstone and was told that for our modern engines, time is not so much important as is the mileage. Oil came back with no issues. I was told if my next oil change took over 18 months that it is fine. If I had replaced the oil at the year mark I would have have been around 2k miles. I'm told its safe to run longer and with that information came some peace of mind.

 

[supreme_gti]

Send in a used sample for analysis so you know how long you can go. I sent a sample in at 5k Miles and it had plenty of life left so I went to 7500. Was gonna have another sample sent but I typically don’t drive it more then 7500 miles a year.

Yes I will send in a sample for analysis. The only way to know for sure. But from what I’m hearing from everyone, it’s fine to run engine oil for a long time. As long as it doesn’t pass a certain amount of miles/kms.

 

[supreme_gti]

I am in the same boat, my GTI was hardly driven in a year. It took me 18 months to put on 3k miles. I sent the oil out to Blackstone and was told that for our modern engines, time is not so much important as is the mileage. Oil came back with no issues. I was told if my next oil change took over 18 months that it is fine. If I had replaced the oil at the year mark I would have have been around 2k miles. I'm told its safe to run longer and with that information came some peace of mind.

Okay. Thank you for sharing. Gives me peace of mind as well.

I used to work 10/20/30km’s away from my residence. Now I switched jobs and I work 2.6km’s away from my residence so I don’t even drive my GTI to my workplace because it’s 2.6km one way distance. I feel spoiled driving to work. Unless I have to go somewhere else after or before work. But that doesn’t happen all the time. So I save A LOT of gas/oil/other fluids from being used. With that said; I was concerned the oil/fluids will go bad over time but if it’s less than one year, I’m not going to bother changing it. Also going with mileage rather than timeframe AND will check engine oil level once engine is warm and on a flat surface to ensure correct oil levels at all times.

Thanks again for everyone’s input.