OhNoMrBill

What is your rule? The 10k miles between the dealer based program seems too much to me. I was thinking to do the oil every 5kmi instead.

My commute is hwy and 30min. Plenty of time to get the engine good and warm to evaporate the water. So 5kmi should be good.

BB

MP4.2+6.0

Oil change interval debates are in the same general group as brake pad choices, religion and politics. Let me guess: about as many opinions as replies.

I don't know motor, so can't even provide my own experience. I would go by specific motor as well as driving style as you are mentioning.

If you want a science type answer, I expect if you do a general search across all AW forums in last 4-5 years the motor has been around you will find owners who have done the full OCD Blackstone Analysis stuff. Motor has been used in about a zillion Audis now, so lots of posts probably out there. The hard data ones to me would be the most informative, especially if person describes driving style. I would also maybe factor your driving style against the stereotype of the other vehicle. Thus if it were an S4 or S5 driven hard, maybe not such a great comparable. Any motor mods, chips, pulleys etc. in the post or signature with an analysis, move on. If a 3.0T in a stock average cross sectional owner in an A6, A7, Q7, many Q5 3.0T's, A8, then sure. In total many around, and probably posts including Blackstone OCD's too. With that you will have hard data others have already taken time and effort to gather and actually test analytically.

I suspect 5K may come up as somewhat short, but may find some data saying 7.5K or some such. Just speculating; might say out to 10K works for that matter. If you do Audicare, easier obviously to do 5K tweeners paired with the Audi 10K changes for those who want to do extras. If you are on your own/post AudiCare, obviously you can do any interval you want. Report back if you look into that more, at least for the 3.0T owners here.

Return For Deposit

Big sumps and modern full synthetic oils mean longer intervals than the ol "every 3,000 miles " from the old days (which was the severe service interval btw). One of the best marketing programs ever to sell oil changes. 10k changes with OEM filters leave plenty of margin for the way most people drive. Constant short mileage trips, racing, operation in extreme low or high temp conditions could all be considered "severe service" and many shorten that 10k interval.

Modern oils have come a long way , and lots of perfectly good oil is drained out with lots of good service remaining, meaning wasted money. I have a hard time going the full 10k in my wife's S5 even knowing it should be fine. It's more mental than anything. I do it once a year or at 7,500 miles. Hopefully it will cut down on the carbon buildup with cleaner oil vapor being routed to the intake by the PCV system. My D2 A8 gets 5k changes to help keep the cam adjusters alive as long as possible.

A 8

I was under the impression that the car monitors the oil quality and calculates when it needs changing. You can see it in the MMI and if you drive hard the remaining milage will go down. I know there are a few settings in vcds where you can set some of the parameters that go into the calculation.
Having said that I still change the oil every 12mth's or 15,000km which ever comes first. I usually get a range of 26,000km a few weeks after an oilchange.
I am in Europe and if I remember correctly the US market don't have the same long life oil spec.

MP4.2+6.0

Correct, as you remembered the U.S. ones do not have the variable service interval system enabled, so use a fixed one year or 10K miles/16K km interval. The cars are programmed to turn on the oil change warnings at around 9,000 miles and a little under a year.

I mentioned in my first reply not knowing 3.0T--each motor is specific. I'm not a believer in the old 3,000 mile type change cycles either, was comfortable w/ 7.5K mile intervals for years, and got comfortable with 10K intervals per Audi, but on N.A. motors in general. But here is a specific one on 4.0T that was a bit of an unsettling wake up call. My CPO 2015 was very low miles--3,400 at purchase. It had the 5,000 miles change done (by prior owner) at the original selling Audi dealer based on time at 3,200 miles. Well, another year had run with my watch, and dash warning came on based on time a few months ago. I have AudiCare, but prefer to stretch its use to later and get to 15K miles per the "normal" interval relevant to 2015's. Thus, changed it at 8,500 and will get it to dealer by 15K. Thus, two 6,500 mile intervals. All fine on the mechanics of doing the change DIY. I went to reset the oil warning stuff, which cannot be done solely w/ the MMI menu choice, at least for the USA ones. So, I went into the various specific blocks/fields in VCDS to reset. Lo and behold, the oil quality field says "DIRTY" ! 6,500 miles! System/sensor could not even be enabled on my 2006 D3 W12, but I guess the sensor is enabled for D4's here. Disquieting. Could be though it throws that flag automatically if it is on the fixed cycle once it hits time or miles? Will look at again in future.

Also to add to the nuances here: is your fill a 504/507 extended drain oil on your 4.2 FSI? I'm guessing it is for Europe. Std. dealer oil here is still generally 502/505 spec., and what is likely in O.P's 3.0T today. Also what almost all the veterans on these kinds of boards will say from U.S. side, a (very) few of whom have some knowledge about 504/507. I actually looked into it on D4 to see what is really going into these for U.S. spec. Owners manual says in at least the last few years that either 502/505 or 504/507 is to be used. As of at least my 2013 Q5 2.0T, it only referenced 502/505. On gas motors, they are using 502/505 in both the 3.0T and W12 for the EPA testing of new vehicles, in 502/505. But in the 4.0T flavors (A8 or S8), they are actually using 504/507, in 5W30. In USA 504/507 has been more debatable and disfavored because of esoteric fuel differences, esp. sulfur, as well as generally pricier. But 504/507 is the long life spec, has somewhat better fuel economy, wear and sludge specs. Boiling all this down, you are likely using a different spec oil than O.P. is, besides it being a different motor. But they are putting 504/507 in the 4.0T apparently here, and CA has had the low sulfur fuel spec like Europe for several years; apparently it was just cut in by the US EPA as the spec for rest of country at start of this year. For a motor where EPA test was run on 502/505 like 3.0T (or 2.0T), that tells me what factory apparently decided. Thus for Q5 2.0T, I am still planning to continue with 502/505 like always, and then it also implies not pushing interval as much. But for those of us with the 4.0T, I am looking into it further. Dealer will probably still fill it with 502/505, though I will ask on next AudiCare change.

LexusLSguy

With my newely purchased 14 A8 I was told every 5k miles for oil changes. Audi changed this to every 10k mile in 2015. Does this sound correct to you guys?

MP4.2+6.0

No, not correct, but Audi has also made it more confusing. For a 2014 for any motor, first change was at 5,000 miles. All subsequent changes after the first one were/are every 10K miles. Thus, 5, 15,25,35,45, etc. Technically it is shorter of a year, or those intervals.

To add to confusion, starting in 2017, they got rid of the shorter 5,000 miles step and now just do 10K mile steps. Thus 10,20,30,40,50, etc. FWIW, that is something I would never do--run a motor with original oil for a full 10K miles. 5K like before maybe, but no way 10K with no first change. I liked that my 2015 CPO S8 it got one at dealer at 3,200 (based on one year time); I might have DIY'ed one at 2,500 otherwise if I had bought new. The Blackstone tests I referred to earlier and have looked at do often show higher levels of various metals and other things in the opening oil changes, esp. below 5K and somewhat even below 10K.

LexusLSguy

Hmmm, wonder why they told me this. My service reminder on the vehicle says to take the car in like 4600 miles so it was programmed by the selling dealer for an oil change in 5k miles.

MP4.2+6.0

Well, they screwed it up plain and simple and/or dealer overrode programming. Or more likey, dealer botched it and either used the MY 2017 programming or created some bastard child case in how they filled out the fields when they did the last change. Only other scenario is a weird interaction between the years interval and the miles one, depending on when and how many miles yours was done previously.

The definitive intervals are what I said. Read it here in all the gory detail https://www.audiusa.com/content/dam/...-Year-2014.pdf Meantime, consider finding a new dealer absent some weird nuance like I mentioned above--95% they just screwed it up. And as always, feel free to post 'em up here on Hall of Shame wall. Frankly good for folks to know who either knows what they are doing, or are out to lunch/sources of crap info or service, especially for a new car and servicing dealer and staff. If dealer gets wind of that stuff, sometimes folks get a nice size 12 boot imprint where they need one.

LexusLSguy

If my vehicle was built in 2013 but is sold as 14 model year does this make any difference?