A new low mileage for oil change light to come on....3231 miles...On full rotella syn

[rrnut-2]

I have a '10 with manual & 2:42's. If I let my wife drive it to work, I wind up changing the oil in 1900 miles, and she will average 13mpg. Same road, commute is twice as long and I can get 16mpg, and 3500 miles between oil changes. I don't let her drive it much anymore!!! I have also bought a car for the commute!

 

[HBarlow]

Me too. I bought a Volkswagen TDI. It's small, maneuverable, fun to drive and epa rated at 42mpg. My truck has been abandoned to the barn.

 

[Tryingit]

I got a 1997 vw golf for 250. 00. Put about 1,500. . in parts and my wife drives it everyday to work getting 32mpg. I have her 09 mazda to drive daily while my truck takes up space(most of it) in my driveway.

 

[HBarlow]

$250 for a driveable VW TDI is a heck of a deal. They are great cars for fuel economy and fun to drive quotient.

 

[NIsaacs]

Now I usually only put 75 dollars at a time to ease the monthly cost... .

I never figured it cost any more to run on the top half of the tank than it does the bottom half



Nick

 

[HBarlow]

If I owned the pickup version of the ISB6. 7 I would probably reset the alarm and change the oil and filter at twice the interval the ECM is calling for. I wonder how much the oil service algorithm was weighted toward assisting dealer service departments padding their bottom line.

I change oil and filter in my truck at a 10k interval - same as I did with the 24 valve '01 and the HPCR '06. The engine has not complained at all.

 

[jgillott]

That's a very good point. I asked in another thread at one point if anyone had sampled the oil changed at these early intervals. Not many in that thread had. It would be interesting to see what the fuel contamination level, soot, etc. would be when these change lights are coming on. I'd venture to guess that many could realistically go well beyond that change light.

I don't sample my trucks all the time, but I do it at least once a year, just as a checkup on what is going on inside those engines. Not once has the oil come back showing that it couldn't have gone thousands of miles more.

 

[DiamondDiver]

Interesting thread. I,ve had my truck one month and put about 1300 miles of highway and milk runs on it. I'm taking a major 5th wheel trip out west in april. I'm following the board closely to see how I'm going to handle oil changes. My truck has the latest flash and I've seen it go into regen twice, although I might have missed it once or twice, I had about 500 miles on it before I started monitoring the EGT with the Bully Dog.

I'm getting about 15MPG by the Ram computer and the BD reads about 18MPG, Calculating by hand gets about 17MPG. I've been driving super conservatively trying to max mileage, prepping for the big RV trip.

I have a couple of small RV trips planned for late Jan and Feb, I'll post how the mileage and oil change pans out.

 

[Wingate]

Next door neighbor has a 12 model 2wd that now has 15K on it and just got its second oil change today. His has consistently went 7500 miles between OCI. Running 300 mile highway trips unloaded and pulling their tt on weekends. Running Cat 15/40 DEO.

 

[Bob4x4]

If I owned the pickup version of the ISB6. 7 I would probably reset the alarm and change the oil and filter at twice the interval the ECM is calling for. I wonder how much the oil service algorithm was weighted toward assisting dealer service departments padding their bottom line.



I change oil and filter in my truck at a 10k interval - same as I did with the 24 valve '01 and the HPCR '06. The engine has not complained at all.

I doubt anybody at any dealer wants to change the oil in a 6. 7 that shoots out like... . well to stay g rated

There is no profit in changing oil. There are so many coupons that barely cover the cost of oil. :-laf

 

[rwitt]

My 09 has never had the oil change light come on. It always gets changed between 6500 and 7000 miles. One time I let it go to 7300 because of being on a trip but still no oil change light.
Rich

 

[Wiredawg]

Friends,

I've never had a change oil msg. I was spoiled on oil changes for my '09 C&C as they were free from Chysler for the first three years every 3500 miles. That expired in Jun. I'm approaching 5K miles now with most of it making short trips (6 miles each way) and a couple of trips towing the new 18K lb toy hauler (about 1,500 miles). I plan on changin oil at 7,500 miles.

I haven't been following maiontenance reports on C&Cs and not sure how they compare with the HD P/Us. My truck has a clean idle certification and not sure how that transllates to oil sooting. I will report as I extend the interval on my truck.


Wiredawg

 

[Wingate]

I doubt anybody at any dealer wants to change the oil in a 6. 7 that shoots out like... . well to stay g rated

There is no profit in changing oil. There are so many coupons that barely cover the cost of oil. :-laf

They bait you in with the cheap oil change, then try and convince you of all the "flushes" your vehicle needs. Battery maintenance service on maintenance free batteries, Mopar/Amsoil full synthetic window washer fluid, nitrogen filled tires. .

Usually the only thing getting flushed is your money down the drain. .

 

[rrnut-2]

I have been oil sampling and again, if my wife drives the truck, the oil change message comes on at 1900 miles and the oil sample will read 3% fuel dilution. Usually, with me driving, the oil changes will test at 2% dilution.

The truck is mostly a driveway ornament now.

Harvey, the next car is going to be a Volkswagen TDI. I talk with a group of guys in the morning on ham radio, 2m. One of them has a Volkswagen Jetta TDI and is getting 45-49mpg. He does on the average of 5000 miles a month. Yes, he has had the 100k service.

Jim B
KB1TOW

 

[HBarlow]

Jim,

There is a lot to learn about VW TDIs before you buy if you're not already knowledgeable of them.

Many claim the '03 and earlier were the best because they were simple and durable like the 12 valve Cummins. The earlier automatic transmission models are reportedly somewhat fragile.

The '04 through '06 models are nice cars with lots of features but have the "pump duese" engines which, I think, were similar to our 24 valve Cummins engines but likely to wear out cam lobes. Some used models with around 100k miles may be afflicted with a worn camshaft and lifters but a rough idle may be a clue according to what I've read.

The '09 and later use a Bosch HPCR fuel system similar to our Cummins HPCR engines. If the hpcr fuel pump fails, for whatever reason, tiny metal flakes tend to damage fuel injectors and the contaminated fuel is recycled back into the fuel tank and fuel transfer pump if this happens. A very expensive repair according to website info.

I've read a lot of whining on VW websites about how terrible the HPCR cars are and how greedy and evil Volkswagen of America is for not replacing their engines, even out of warranty, or their cars in the event of a failure. The facts I've been able to find reported by some mature owners suggest only a 2% failure rate of HPCR engines and it is most often blamed on accidental refueling with gasoline or with contaminated diesel fuel. I don't know the cause myself.

I bought a used '09 Jetta Sportwagen with 59k miles and love it. Cold weather and longer warm up times reduce average mpg some but longer road trips will produce 40 to 42 mpg, never less than 38 mpg.

"myturbodiesel.com" is an excellent website for all things VW TDI including buyer's guides. Some good information can be found on TDI Club but participants seem to me to be a younger group with a "someone else is responsible for my problems" attitude in some cases. Jetta Junkie is another site.

I've always liked German cars. Have owned a lot of VW beetles when I was younger and bought an '86 Golf new as well as an '87 BMW 325. My wife drove a BMW from '92 through '05 and loved it.

 

[jgillott]

I have been oil sampling and again, if my wife drives the truck, the oil change message comes on at 1900 miles and the oil sample will read 3% fuel dilution. Usually, with me driving, the oil changes will test at 2% dilution.

By comparison, my 5. 9's are showing <1% fuel dilution at ~7500 mile change intervals. Please pardon my lack of knowledge of the 6. 7L, but is the fuel dilution caused by the EGR. I thought I had read that at some point.

 

[HBarlow]

It has reportedly been caused by the regen process in pickup versions of the ISB6. 7 engine. I think early ECM software reflashes improved if not eliminated the problem but a duty cycle consisting of frequent light load, short trips may subject even the Gen IV trucks to some degree of fuel contamination of crankcase and sooting.

 

[jgillott]

It has reportedly been caused by the regen process in pickup versions of the ISB6. 7 engine. I think early ECM software reflashes improved if not eliminated the problem but a duty cycle consisting of frequent light load, short trips may subject even the Gen IV trucks to some degree of fuel contamination of crankcase and sooting.

That makes sense.

 

[crispyboy]

Jim,

The '04 through '06 models are nice cars with lots of features but have the "pump duese" engines which, I think, were similar to our 24 valve Cummins engines but likely to wear out cam lobes. Some used models with around 100k miles may be afflicted with a worn camshaft and lifters but a rough idle may be a clue according to what I've read.

We sold our TDI back in 09 and I used to follow the TDI stuff a bit. From what I remember the "pump duese" engines would have cam trouble if the wrong oil was used. VW was very specific on the oil used in these engines. It was a Castrol product if I recall. I liked the vw forum http://forums. tdiclub.com/

Our VW tdi was a 97 A3 model. We really liked the car and it was pretty dependable but in the end it had some rust and electrical problems. Fuel mileage always hovered around 46 mpg. MPG was better until the ulsd fuel was introduced. When I look at the new models it seems like they hired a designer from Toyota and just look like another Asian econobox on the outside. They have lost the German flavor of styling in my opinion. A friend of mine who drives a lot of miles for work commuting had a 2010 Jetta. It was plagued with electrical problems so just before the 3/36 warranty was up he traded on a 2012, so far so good for him.

 

[Tryingit]

I never figured it cost any more to run on the top half of the tank than it does the bottom half



Nick

I used to have to fill it every week for my commute. Now that I'm retired and it's an ornament in my driveway it gets the ocassional 75. 00 bucks worth of fuel. I add fuel about every other month unless I need to use it more.