Hi,

I am not an S2k owner(GTI), but as a fan of great cars I check this and few other forums daily.
However, I have friend who just bought 02 S2k and he is type of guy who has no clue about cars.
Couple days ago I spoke with him on the phone and asked him how many miles he's put on the car so far( answer is 3000 in two months). So I asked if he ever checked oil(of course he did not), next I told him to pull over to first gas station wait 10 min and check it out. He did and engine was almost dry!!!!! I told him to check manual ti find out what grade oil he needs and to add it. After that I hung up and went my way.
Next day he tells me that they did not have the right oil so the guys at the gas station asked him if we wants them to change oil in the car and put Syntetic which is much better for his car. So he did it!!!
From treds in this forum I know that oil shouldn't be changed ( only added ) until 7000 miles cause of additives factory is putting in. And another thing he claims that since that oil change his MPG droped a lot.
I am posting this and hope to here from you guys cause I hate when people buy nice car and treat it like piece of junk. What damage, if any , he may have coused??


Ranko
1999 1.8T(sold)
2000 GTI VR6
2002 MB S. Coupe 230K
2002 S2000(very soon)

 

I forgot to use the spell check, so pardon my English, it is my third language.

 

that's not bad english at all. we've some members in here that speak english as their first language, yet they still can't spell, use proper grammar, punctuation, etc. it's embarrassing...


as for running the engine nearly dry, there's bound to be something wrong; what that is, i'm not exactly sure. though i'm sure someone will be able to help you (where are you UL?)

 

All sorts of bad stuff can happen when you run an engine with low oil, especially one that is still breaking in. One must remember that the oil acts like a coolant in some respects. You need only read the "Oil Banjo Bolt Update" threads to see how important a good flow of oil is to cooling the pistons. The pistons can shed heat in two ways, through the rings because they contact the cylinder walls that are being cooled by the water passages in the block and through the oil being sprayed on the undersides of the pistons themselves. If you significantly reduce the oil flow not only do you raise the temps by the increased friction on parts getting starved for oil but you also lose some (most) of the cooling ability provided by the oil. When the engine is still breaking in the parts that are still mating in to each other generate more heat due to their various high spots. A good supply of oil is required to shed this excess heat. If you are three quarts down you have lost 3/4 of your oil cooling capacity. This compounds your problems by overheating what oil is left hastening it's breakdown.

A low oil supply will also not allow enough oil to build up between parts and bearings to keep them from making contact with each other and thus cause scoring and burned bearings.

Another job of the oil is to carry contaminants in suspension until they can be filtered out by the oil filter. Cut the oil supply by 3/4 and what remains gets contaminated much faster (especially since stuff is going to wear much faster because of the low oil to begin with) and soon becomes overloaded. So not only do you have an insufficiant oil supply you have one that is oversaturated with contaminants and is breaking down fast.

The longer it is allowed to run like this the worse it gets until you have a major failure.

 

Keep after your friend about his car. Maybe he'll get so tired of hearing you, he'll give you his car and then you can take care of it. Actually, that may not be a good thing since he may have caused engine damage. Why on earth did he get a car he knows nothing about?