Today, I ordered all of the necessary parts to do my 20,000 mile service on the 2016 Volkswagen Golf R. As many of you know, I have a Golf R that’s been modified and has enjoyed a few days at the drag-strip and track. I’ve owned the car for only 12 months but averaging 1700 miles a month has certainly put some wear & tear on it. In addition, for 18K of those miles, I have had a Stage II setup which means my engine has around 400 horsepower and 390 ft/lbs of torque through a dual-clutch transmission to all 4 wheels.
This means, a responsible car owner should actually be moving up maintenance time-lines to keep the vehicle working efficiently for many hundreds of thousands of miles. I certainly plan on keeping the car for a decade or more. Also, I still expect a sub-100K mile engine rebuild at some point due to the stresses I’m putting on it and at that time, I’ll take up the task of upgrading:
- Pistons
- Intake manifold
- Larger Turbo
- High Pressure Fuel Pump
- Multi-port Euro-Spec direct injection (which comes on the European Golf R)
- engine mounts
- sub-frame (move to aluminum from steel)
- Upgraded AWD Haldex controller
- etc.
I want to wait until there’s a reason to dive deep into the engine before doing that sort of work. I’m afraid just throwing on a larger turbo will cause more harm than good at this point. Remember, it’s still only a 2.0 liter engine.
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Volkswagen’s Recommended 20K Mile Maintenance is pretty simple:
At 30K, they recommend the Haldex (AWD) fluid is flushed and at 40K, they recommend brake fluid and the dual-clutch transmission fluid is flushed.
Keeping in mind this is a highly modified performance vehicle which sees hard driving year-round, I chose to do the DSG and Haldex fluid at 20K instead. Here’s what I bought today:
The Spark Plugs were done at 17K so they’re good until my 25K mile oil change. The Oil Filter Housing Socket is going to make doing this myself much easier. I also grabbed a rear wiper blade since mine hasn’t been changed yet. If you take out the optional stuff, the cost to DIY is actually pretty low. $110 for DSG (I already have the tool needed), $35 for plugs, $62 for oil + oil filter, $13 for the cabin air filter and $30 for Haldex Fluid.
I added the DSG oil filter housing because it looks cool and it’s not plastic which I tend to break. I love Engine Bling and it’s ribbed to possibly allow DSG fluid to be cooled faster? I really don’t care too much about that but it will make changing the fluid easier.
I’ve actually noticed a slight hesitation going from 1st to 2nd gear when the car is just warming up. I think doing this every 20K instead of 40K is absolutely necessary. The Haldex fluid, not so much.
Finally, this oil change I’ll be saving some of the oil and sending it to Blackstone Labs for analysis. They give an estimated recommended interval based on the minerals found in your oil. VW recommends every 10K and I’ve been doing it every 5K.
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On another note, I scheduled my 12K service for the BMW R1200 GSA today. It’s a small service but since I’m new to the BMW world, I opted to do it at a dealer and have them show me how so I can do it myself next time.