Oil change or not?

[tartan_rob]

And once you have it off, cut a small hole immediately below the drain plug to that you never have to do it again.

R

[RI_RS4]

OIl change - yes.

Special oil - come on as long as meets or exceeds what is in the servcie book, that will do the trick surely?

Rob

Rob, it depends. If you are not going to keep your RS4 long before you move on, then by all means use whatever oil you care to. But, if you plan on keeping it and would like to have the longest engine life possible, then the oil that you use makes all the difference in the world. Titan GT1 5w-30 VW504.00/507.00 meets all of the Audi specs for the RS4 in Europe and is one of the best oils in the world. It will make a difference in internal engine wear and friction, especially when compared to Castrol Edge 5w-30.

[VARSITY]

What do Audi recommend?

[Daz]

Considering the oil cap in the car is stampted with the Castrol logo I guess their recommendation would be Castrol.

[RI_RS4]

504.00 is the longlife standard in Europe. Just because your oil cap is stamped with Castrol does not mean that is the only oil to use. It is the oil that Audi uses at the Factory, but ... you can't get what Audi buys, it's a special blend. For racing Audi uses Shell Helix oil. The Castrol stamp on the oil cap was not always there. It is new. My RS4 does not have Castrol on the cap. This is just good co-marketing to make you believe that you should use Castrol. Your manual should tell you what type of oil is allowable under warranty. I believe you'll find that Audi/VW 504.00 oil is the standard in Europe, which is low in sulfur and ash. I know for sure that Audi/VW 502.00 is the standard in the US.

[t_urbo]

Some of you guys are under estimating the capabilities and life span of the synthetic oils used in engines these days.
I dont see any reason why you would need to change the oil before the service interval display tells you to do so, even if you have tracked the car a few times.
Porsche fill their engines with mobil 1 and recommend either 2 yearly or 12,000 miles and there is no mention in the handbook about early changes even with the car being used on track days and this is on the twin turbo 996 and new 997 models and bear in mind that the turbos on these cars are OIL cooled and the oil reaches much higher temps than the oil in the RS4 engine.
Seriously its just money down the drain.

[Andyuk911]

Hi Turbo,

if you read a bit, you will find comment that the oil get contaminated with petrol due to the FSI, so it's worth changing.

We have a chap on here who has sent his oil to a lab ...

[RI_RS4]

"Some of you guys are under estimating the capabilities and life span of the synthetic oils used in engines these days."

Turbo, nope. I have hard data on 10 RS4's in the US. 30 oil analysis samples across these engines, from 600 miles to 17000 miles shows that FSI causes massive fuel dilution of the oil, which breaks down the oil, decreases viscosity and decreases oil flash point (that's the point at which the oil will vaporize) to dangerously low levels where deposits will form on the valves. IN our case the record is a flash point of 220 F on oil that has only been in an engine for 3K miles. (Oil out of the bottle has a flash point of around 400 F).

When the oil degrades this badly, elevated temperatures can cause the oil to vaporize. Some oil will end up going out the tail pipe. This will show up as increased oil consumption the longer the oil remains in the engine. However, some of the burnt oil will form deposits on the pistons and valves. This is where trouble can happen.

Also, when the oil has fuel dilution, the acid content of the oil increases and there is lag time before the oil acid fighting additive package has a chance to neutralize the acid. Until that time, the higher acid level of the oil will cause higher engine wear on the bearing surfaces and cam lobes.

I trust that you believe these might be bad things?

The oil analysis I refer to have been made on RS4 engines running some very well known synthetic oils like:

Castrol
Motul
Elf
Amsoil

We are currently testing a new custom blended oil in the US.

You have several choices with approved oils. Change your oil often (every 3000 miles). Leave your oil in until the "magic" Audi oil change meter says to change it, and trust that you don't have increased wear and engine deposits. Have an oil analysis lab test your oil periodically. Monitor it's performance, and the performance of different oils and determine which is the best for RS4 FSI V8, based on measurable facts, not conjecture, myth, or marketing. I've done the latter on US engines and have concluded that all Audi approved oils in the US are crap in this engine, and have had an oil formulator create an oil specifically designed to work well in this engine. So far the data says that it is.

[t_urbo]

I will be tracking my RS4 a few times between oil changes and going by the magic service indicator.
I will let you know if the engine fails.

[tartan_rob]

Anyone used MOTUL 0w20? WOuld it be okay in the RS4? Looks like a good oil and I used to run Motul in my M3 for several years wwithout any probs.

[RI_RS4]

0W-20 is too thin for this engine. It will not provide a good ring seal, and may very well cause bearing failure due to excessively thin oil films. You'll want to stay with a good 5W-30 oil. Fuchs Titan GT1 is supposed to be an incredible European oil, and is Audi approved. If I could get it in the states, I would have tried it. It is a state-of-the-art oil according to my oil tribologist here in the States. He's helped to have a similar racing oil formulated like it specifically for the RS4 over here.

You can get Fuchs Titan GT1 5w-30 VW504.00/507.00 here:

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/performance_l ... fuchs.aspx

[Teutonic_Tamer]

OIl change - yes.

Special oil - come on as long as meets or exceeds what is in the servcie book, that will do the trick surely?

Rob

Rob, it depends. If you are not going to keep your RS4 long before you move on, then by all means use whatever oil you care to. But, if you plan on keeping it and would like to have the longest engine life possible, then the oil that you use makes all the difference in the world. Titan GT1 5w-30 VW504.00/507.00 meets all of the Audi specs for the RS4 in Europe and is one of the best oils in the world. It will make a difference in internal engine wear and friction, especially when compared to Castrol Edge 5w-30.

What a load of tosh. Castrol are the OEM partner to VW AG. The 504.00/507.00 standard was developed in partnership between VW and Castrol - therefore, if anyone knew how to make the "perfect" oil, then I would have no doubt at pinning my flag on the mast which bears Castrols name!

[Teutonic_Tamer]

504.00 is the longlife standard in Europe.

Nope. 504.00 is the "worldwide" VW LongLife III standard for petrol engines.

Just because your oil cap is stamped with Castrol does not mean that is the only oil to use.

Fine, but having Castrol on the cap is a positive endorsement from the factory which made it - so by using the correct spec Castrol, you will be perfectly OK.

It is the oil that Audi uses at the Factory, but ... you can't get what Audi buys, it's a special blend.

Nonsense. The oil which is factory fill is identical to what you can buy at your local stealer or other authorised 504.00 sellers.

For racing Audi uses Shell Helix oil.

And . . . . Shell also make a 504.00 oil !! Furthermore, VW Racing also use Agip or Castrol - what does that say??

The Castrol stamp on the oil cap was not always there. It is new. My RS4 does not have Castrol on the cap. This is just good co-marketing to make you believe that you should use Castrol.

See above!

Your manual should tell you what type of oil is allowable under warranty.

Exactly.

I believe you'll find that Audi/VW 504.00 oil is the standard in Europe, which is low in sulfur and ash.

Correct. It also has an additional high temperature specification. And that standard can also be used in US/Cdn.

I know for sure that Audi/VW 502.00 is the standard in the US.

But 502.00 is a lesser quality oil. It has no HTHS rating. If you watch the temperature of your oil on the DIS, you'll soon see why a 504.00 is required.

[Teutonic_Tamer]

you will find comment that the oil get contaminated with petrol due to the FSI, so it's worth changing.

Huh - how can FSI affect oil contamination?

We have a chap on here who has sent his oil to a lab ...

And, what are the results?

[Mikeyboy]

I do find it very hard to believe that Audi/VW would develop a fuel injection system that would shorten the life of an engine and its lubricating systems.

This is the company after all that decided that the Veyron should do 100,000km of testing when the car itself will probably be lucky to break through 20k in its entire lifetime as it's hidden away in people garages.

whats more FSI was developed for endurance racing!