Switching from long life to annual service, good idea?

[Stevemr]

I have a 3.0 TDI A4 cab 2007 with 40000 miles on the clock. I have had it for 5 years and its used for holidays and days out. I do about 6-7000 miles a year.
Its a car I intend to keep for ever.

At the moment its on long life service oil so it gets serviced on time after 2 years and about 12000 miles.

I am going to chip it with a superchips bluefin.

I am thinking I might be better off going to normal oil and getting it serviced every year.

Would welcome opinions from those in the know?

[cuprabob]

Stick with the longlife oil but service it annually / 10 k miles.

[SmithyAG]

cuprabob said:

Stick with the longlife oil but service it annually / 10 k miles.

+1

Especially with so few annual miles. I'd want it doing at least once a year.

[MGJohn]

In my car owner experience extending over fifty years, all my cars have been both high mileage reliable and owned for well over ten years, some much longer.

Some completed high mileages close to 150,000 plus and were still going strong when I passed them on to the next owner. A couple I intend to keep indefinitely.

Not Rocket Science or simply good luck. I change the oil using the manufacturer recommended spec at around HALF the recommended mileage change interval. With more than one car available, others are little used, sometimes only say 4,000 per annum. Oil is not that expensive and with longevity of ownership in mind, money well spent.

Some cars at the end of their useful life I drove to the scrapyard were in poor shape having had a hard life. Not their engines. Their engines all were still performing well despite age and mileage. Two engines transplanted lived on in other cars.

[Dr G]

SmithyAG said:

cuprabob said:

Stick with the longlife oil but service it annually / 10 k miles.

+1

Especially with so few annual miles. I'd want it doing at least once a year.

+4 billion.

[Stevemr]

OK so annual service, but is the long life oil that much better its worth using annually?

Also as its now 8 years old do I need to think about changing the oil in the manual gearbox or the diffs?

[DuraAce]

I'd change the box/diff oils if you're keeping the car.

Does yours have a DPF? If so then it needs LL/507 oil anyways I think. I'd stick with that oil regardless. Shopping around your can get some deals on oil especially if you buy in bulk, 4 x 5 litres is what I usually get.

[Stevemr]

Yes it has DPF unfortunately!

[MGJohn]

Stevemr said:

OK so annual service, but is the long life oil that much better its worth using annually?

Also as its now 8 years old do I need to think about changing the oil in the manual gearbox or the diffs?

If it's more expensive, pointless buying long life oil for the engine unless specified precisely by a manufacturer. Changing annually negates the need for "long life" especially as the annual mileage is not excessive.

Many manufacturers fit lubricant designed to last the life of a car into gearboxes and differentials. Maybe rear wheel drive differentials as well. Even my Montego had last for life of car lubricant in its PG1 Gearbox with integral Differential and when I read that, I was a bit wary. The gearbox was fine still after about ten years and 100,000 miles mainly driven by my wife. So being a bit wary, just out of interest I drained it to check the condition and quantity drained to compare with the specified capacity. I drained out the required Gearbox Oil capacity less a little which I suspect remained in the box. What really surprised me was to see that Gearbox Oil was crystal clear like you'd expect new oil to be! Not ten years old stuff after 100,000 miles. I put it back in and 30,000+ miles later I drove the Montego on the last day of its hard life valid last MoT to the breakers and the gearbox was still working perfectly with the same lubricant it left the production line in it! Remarkable.

If you have the user handbook/manual for your car, read it and see what it says about transmission lubricant and if it's for life or needs changing at intervals.

[Stevemr]

OK going to do as recommended and use long life oil and change annually.

Its on Mobile 1 5/30 full synthetic longlife oil at the moment. Have ordered some quantum long life 111 5/30 oil as apparently thats what Audi recommend, I should not have any issues changing to that should I.

I have also ordered
Oil filter
pollen filter
air filter
fuel filter
sump plug
All genuine audi parts.

Is there anything at all I have forgotten?
Looking at the service book, there does not appear to be any recommendation to change the gearbox or diff oils, so at 40000 miles I will leave them for the time being.

Is it worth using injection cleaner at all? Fuel is shell optimax whenever I can get that.

[jamesson]

I have a 3.2 A3 on long life which has now covered 150,000 miles with absolutely no engine problems. However, I change the oil and filters myself twice between garage visits, something I've been doing since around 60,000 miles as I stopped doing long journeys and started doing more shorter journeys.

I had the gearbox oil drained and replaced at around 100,000 miles as one of the gears was a little reluctant to engage. This cured the problem but unless there's an issue with the gearbox, I'd leave the oil be.

[anonymous-user]

If you get it serviced by Audi they will use the same oil, the difference is how the service indicator is set.