My 1999 VW Passat has 134 K on it, and my daughter is driving it to school and errands daily.
Car only has 1000 miles on it in the first 6 months of her driving, and we are trying to keep it cheap.
Synthetic oil was almost $100 dollars at the first oil change, so I declined the synthetic.
Tell me, will this create a problem as the manufacturer recommended Synthetic?
Read the owners manual. If it’s says “required” then use synthetic. If it’s only “recommended” then I would use conventional oil.
Is this a gas or diesel motor in the Passat? If it is a gas motor, conventional oil should be OK. Just figure to change the oil about every 5K miles. Synthetic oil is always better, and it sounds like the drving pattern for the car is mostly “town - stop and go” driving which is tougher on the oil. $100 for an oil change is very steep. If you want to use full synthetic you can buy it at Walmart and do the oil change yourself. Or, price full synthetic oil changes at several other shops for future changes.
Conventional oil in the car now won’t hurt anything at all. Just get it changed out on schedule at 5K or so miles. If the mfg’r is recommending full synthetic AND 10K oil change intervals, the conventional oil isn’t going to be good for the car when it has 10K miles on the oil.
You need to read your owner’s manual closely. It appears your oil needs to meet VW spec 502, which is mostly a synthetic oil requirement. Running conventional for 1K miles between changes is not a big deal, but long term I would stick with the 502 spec. It appears that VW doesn’t want you to run an oil for longer than 5K miles, even if it is synthetic.
My owners manual says the following:
“use any high quality petroleum - or synthetic-based il with the correct specifications”. This Passat is not a diesel, manufacturer does not recommend full synthethic. I plan to stick to a schedule and change at 4K because this car gets lots of stop and go city driving. Thanks to all for your information!
Jayhawkroy - if my oil needs to meet VW spec 502, then I think I should go with the synthetic. There is a synthetic blend that is a little cheaper. Is there any issue with leaving the standard oil in for 1 oil change (4 K) and then going back to the synthetic?
If it has a turbo, then yes, you need synthetic oil. Otherwise, no, though I would probably use it anyway. If there is dino oil in it now and you do have a turbo, I would switch back as soon as possible.
I would follows oblivion’s advice. Based on current driving habits, you may hit a time interval for the oil change well before 4K miles, anyway. Only once have I found much savings in using synthetic blends vs synthetic in my cars. I would want to make sure I trusted the shop that will do the oil changes, to insure getting the exact product I specified.
If you have the 4-cyl turbocharged engine, then you should use synthetic. My guess is that you have the 6-cyl because the owner’s manual states that synthetic oil is optional.
Your car requires VW spec 502 oil which is synthetic .
$ 100 for an oil change ? Highway robbery even with synthetic oil which costs around $9/qut and your car , if it’s the 4 cylinder , takes around 4 quits ! Using regular oil is a good way to sludge this engine .
“genex” is correct. $100 oil change?? I wonder what else was included in that charge.