Motoring Discussion > False economy. Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Old Navy Replies: 7
View Threaded 

 Sat 23 Oct 10 22:28 
 False economy. - Old Navy
Or ignorance. Today I was told a story from a local well respected independent garage. Recently they have had two VW PD engines virtually written off by the use of cheap oil. Once they had assessed the damage they declared them beyond economical repair and would not repair the engines.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Sat 23 Oct 10 23:24 
 False economy. - Londoner
This sort of false economy is hard-wired into humans it seems. The expression "Spoilt the ship for a ha'porth of tar" is centuries old. (Though originally it was "sheep" not "ship", apparently)
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Sat 23 Oct 10 23:53 
 False economy. - bathtub tom
Use the oil in the spec is my excuse.

I recently found a low priced oil (Planet, supplied by my factors) that meets the OE spec.

This is a product supplied, apparently, by Comma, who also appear to supply Mobil.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Sun 24 Oct 10 00:57 
 False economy. - rtj70
>> VW PD engines virtually written off by the use of cheap oil

But the PD engines needed particular oil. Not a story IMO. Use the correct specification oil. Then if a problem then you have an argument.

Mazda diesels also need oil that is capable of dealing with massive dilution with diesel. Whether this is possible is irrelevant. You have to use the right oil.

It all reminds me of the challenges in Monty Python's Holy Grail. Where's my shrubbery? Or have they changed their requirement again?
Last edited by: rtj70 on Sun 24 Oct 10 at 00:58
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Sun 24 Oct 10 04:37 
 False economy. - idle_chatterer
>> >> VW PD engines virtually written off by the use of cheap oil
>>

How can you tell - PD engines are so dreadfully uncouth and peaky I'm not sure how you'd know they were broken.....

My 170 PD (shudder) used to drink extremely expensive VAG 507 oil (say 50% more than a quality oil used in a BMW) and people seemed to accept this thirst as 'normal', obviously they'd never tried anything better....
Last edited by: idle_chatterer on Sun 24 Oct 10 at 04:40
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Sun 24 Oct 10 10:12 
 False economy. - hobby
Must be the higher powered ones that are peaky, I've never experienced it with the 100, 105 and 130hp versions... I know when they first came out the 505.1 spec they used was damned expensive, and VW wouldn't recognise any oils from the independant oil manufacturers but that now long past - in fact in a review of the Fabia Estate I had in 2001 that was the only thing I found to criticise... But the cost for the 505 or 506 spec oils is now on a par with any decent "ordinary" oil. As said earlier its just cheapskates!
Last edited by: hobby on Sun 24 Oct 10 at 10:13
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Sun 24 Oct 10 20:21 
 False economy. - Skoda
I think the 170 was universally derided. The 130 and the others seemed to get all the attention.

The PD, when given oil changes on spec, is notoriously long lived.

EDIT: P.S. The VW testing the oil has to go through to get the vw505 / vw507 badges is extremely intense. It's not comparable to the ACEA labels which are very course grained and i think you can get a "C2" rating or whatever for just showing up...
Last edited by: Skoda on Sun 24 Oct 10 at 20:25
Reply to this message | Report message
       
 Sun 24 Oct 10 21:35 
 False economy. - Marc
Yet another reason to stay away from modern diesel cars. Thanks for the heads up.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
Latest Forum Posts