quattro digest, Vol 1 #3180 - Troubles w/baby

[l.leung at juno.com]

Hi Dee,

Sorry to hear of baby's new diet, but I'd find it HIGHLY unlikely that it w=
as DUE to the Mobil 1, or in fact ANY motor oil. Without breaking down the =
motor, I think your service tech is making a rather hasty conclusion. That =
it leaks down and has potential blow-by seems undeniable from the evidence =
that you state (the compr and leak-down test), but there is probably other =
causes. Not to question how you've treated the car, but did you buy it new?=
 If so, I am wondering if you varied speed enough (and kept the revs down) =
during break-in (yes, I know, newer cars don't seem to need this as much, a=
s they are often factory run in during their set-up). AND I am aware that o=
il consumption should have been an issue from new if this was so. Just sear=
ching for other possible answers. But I can't imagine that the M1 or any oi=
l is the cause of the wear, unless you had them add sand to the oil while y=
ou were at it. I personnally have used Mobil 1 and Pennzoil full Synthetic =
(when I had a "sponsor") in the GTi for 123K miles, and that car was Autocr=
ossed for nearly 15 - 20 weekends a year from new until it was stopped by a=
 falling tree, and I have had in my used (don't know what was in there the =
first 80K miles) Mobil 1 and Castrol Syntec in both my 4KQ (sold at 188K mi=
les, friend finally retired it at 220K miles when he couldn't get into the =
car (team doorhandle strikes again!) and my 200Q which is currently at 173K=
 miles, none of those engines are showing any oil consumption (leaking, yea=
h, consumption, no way) issues, and the GTi's compression and leakdown are =
just fine. I'm not sure what happened to baby, but it's sooo unlikely it's =
the oil. And BTW, I change oil every 5K miles, which sounds less often than=
 you (and I don't think more frequent changes can cause the problem either.

LL - NY