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I have just bought a new diesel engined car and being a sad sack was watching an infomercial on a product called Duralube, it got me thinking, do engine oil treatments like Duralube, slick 50 etc have any benefit? If they have I assume you put them in after you have run the engine in and what about the warranty is that invalidated?
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If you do a Forum Search on "slick" you will find that such oil additives are very much *not* recommended, are unlikely to give any benefit and can make trouble. In addition, as you suspect, the car maker's warranty will be invalidated.
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I know there's a lot of negative responses to Slick50 and similar additives, but serveal yrs ago when Slick50 was first launched I put it in my (1982 mk1) 1.3litre Astra engine that had already covered some 44,000 miles. I later sold the car with 104,000 miles on it and the engine was still as sweet as a nut and didn't use any oil between 6,000 mile oil changes. I used bog standard mineral based 15w40 Shell oil. I sometimes wonder how many miles that engine carried on for, and whether it would have been in as sound mechanical condition had I not used the Slick50. For reference the Astra only had a 4 speed manual gearbox, and back then being a young hooligan, it often got thrashed well into the red range of the rev counter. No rev limiters in those days.
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I know there's a lot of negative responses to Slick50 and similar additives, but serveal yrs ago when Slick50 was first launched I put it in my (1982 mk1) 1.3litre Astra engine that had already covered some 44,000 miles. I later sold the car with 104,000 miles on it and the engine was still as sweet as a nut and didn't use any oil between 6,000 mile oil changes. I used bog standard mineral based 15w40 Shell oil. I sometimes wonder how many miles that engine carried on for, and whether it would have been in as sound mechanical condition had I not used the Slick50. For reference the Astra only had a 4 speed manual gearbox, and back then being a young hooligan, it often got thrashed well into the red range of the rev counter. No rev limiters in those days.
DD - I've come to the conclusion that we are the same person ...
I did exactly the same thing to my Astra with Slick 50 many years ago and then covered the same number of miles .... scary ! Perhaps it was the engine design that was good rather than the '50 - we'll never know !
We both now have Vectras (? - I know I do anyway).
Steve
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We both now have Vectras (? - I know I do anyway).
Steve, yes, spooky or what? Yes, I still have the Vectra.
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Steve, yes, spooky or what? Yes, I still have the Vectra.
Since the astra, privately owned, I've had two cavaliers, a vectra, and then the vectra I've got now ...
Steve
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Under no circumstances use these additives. If you read your handbook you will probably find comments about NOT using additives. If something goes wrong your warranty will be invalid. It is a very simple matter for manufacturers to check for contaminants in engine oil. Modern diesel engines use very specialised, state of the art, oils. If you don't believe me check out the price of oil for your car - especially if it's a VAG group (i.e. VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat)!
It is essential that you use the correct oil for your engine and change it at the correct mileages.
(Sorry about the lecture!)
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Don\'t waste your money. Choose a good quality oil and change it, and the filter, as the manufacturers suggest. I\'ve had 5 cars, petrol, which have covered more than 140,000 each without additives. None had a problem. They were company cars, driven hard.
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Slick 50 is oil with fine particles of PTFE in it (the same stuff on non-stick pans and the bottom of Tefal Irons etc...)
What happens, is you pour it in, and most of these particles accululate in the oil filter. Being non-stick PTFE washing around in oil, it is no surprise that they DON'T coat the moving parts of the engine!.
This is not the way PTFE is applied to metal, in fact it requires a cathodic undercoat prior to application.
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To save my typing finger, take a look at my post in this thread:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=15483&...2
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I checked my 2.0 petrol Passat last night (14,000 miles) and noticed that the oil level was below the minimum. This is the second time that this has happened (it happened at 6000 miles also).
Is this normal.
Can I top it up with Castrol 10/40 stuff that I have in the boot?
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Halmer
the 2 litre 8 valve VW petrol engine is very greedy of oil, especially if used for short journeys (and by short, I mean just 10/12 miles !!)
WI had a Bora with the same engine, and not long after it had been serviced, the dashboard lit up with 'low oil' just as i was accelerating onto the M6.
The dealer then said they use a lot of oil, and browsing here and elsewhere backs that up. The manual also said that something like 1/2 litre every 1000 miles (or was it kilometres) was within spec.
If you check the handbook, the tech spec at the front gives to the vw spec for the oil, which is something along the lines of VW-5nn-nn, and somewhere in the 'maintenance' section it tells you that it should be A1 or A2
this is further complicated that different oils are required for the same engine if it is set up for 'variable servicing', in which case you may well be limited to VW's own or some very expensive castrol
Bora - what Bora ?
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p.s.
i've just checked the oil consumption spreadsheet on the floppy in my briefcase (sad, sad, sad) and when I had the Bora, it was using .8 of a litre per 000 miles, on an average trip of 25/30 miles a day.
the handbook says consumption of UP TO 1 LITRE PER 1000 MILES is acceptable
also for the Bora (Passat might be different, so check) the Oil should be to ACEA A2 or A3, and preferably to VW-500-00 or VW-502-00.
So look around and read the labels - I found the best/cheapest to be Texaco from Asda - about £11+ for 5 litres
you'll just have to get used to checking your oil regularly - I used to have a reminder on my pc at work that popped up every monday lunchtime.
now - time to go home - where's my anorak ?
Bora - what Bora ?
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Since posting I spoke to my local main dealer who basically told me what you have posted above thanks.
Told me also that the engine is designed to use this amount of oil for first 40,000 miles to prolong its life?
Ironic that my 15 year old Golf never has a top up between services!
He laos told me that I would be OK using Castrol 10W/40. or 15W/40.
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"Told me also that the engine is designed to use this amount of oil for first 40,000 miles to prolong its life?"
This is absolute nonsense. VAG clearly have a problem with these engines - whether it down to a design flaw or a component problem I don't know. There are plenty of engines that don't burn oil from new and carry on to clock-up 250k mi. without trouble. I work in the industry and I can tell you that no engine development engineer in his right mind is designing engines that use oil on this scale. Sure, the handbook says 1 litre/1000 miles is acceptable, all the manufacturers say that, its a useful get-out when a customer complains.
Any engine buring 1 litre/1000 miles will shorten the life of the cat, not to mention sooting up EGR valves etc. There is also the risk that some owners will run very low on oil and damage the engine (not VAG's problem then, of course!).
I would be intrigued to know what lies behind this VAG 'issue' - someone must know.....
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"Told me also that the engine is designed to use this amount of oil for first 40,000 miles to prolong its life?"
Aprilia - I've never signed up to that particular story either. As for root of the issue, hasn't there been another posting recently about somebody getting the piston rings replaced because they were fitted upside down ?
(although if such a discrete problem were the cause, I'd expect the problem to be better known and acknowledged by dealers... mug that I am 1
Bora - what Bora ?
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>> "Told me also that the engine is designed to use
that I am 1
1 = !
Bora - what Bora ?
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That's what I was going to say!
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Can I top it up with Castrol 10/40 stuff that I have in the boot?
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Depends what spec. the Castrol oil is. It could be OK, or it might not be. Check the spec. on the can against the info in your VW's handbook.
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Our 94 2.0 8v Passat uses 1 litre every 800m now, but has done 227,000 without incident on Comma semi-synth 10-40 every 10,000. We're just running it till it breaks, now, having had our moneysworth.
It [just] passed its emissions MoT 2/52 ago - guess it needs another catalyser soon [the first failed soon after limping to a garage in the depths of France on 2 or 3 cylinders when the HT leads failed after 90mph French motorways, circa 130,000]
The VAG tolerance for these engines is 1l per 1000 Kilometres,[625m] so it clearly could do with new piston rings!
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I think you mean 1 litre per 1000 *miles*. At 1 litre per 1000km you are nearly driving a two-stroke!
Mind you, this sort of consumption is excusable at 227k miles - its a different story when the engine has done less than 50k miles!
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