ADAM: Your Golf R is looking good at 21,500 miles. In fact, iron is reading much lower than universal
averages, so we certainly have no complaints about the steel parts. Universal averages show typical wear
levels for this type of engine after about 6,100 miles on the oil. The TBN shows a lot of active additive left
for a longer run if you’re ever interested. 1.0 or less is considered low and it read 5.8 here. No excess fuel
or coolant turned up and the air and oil filters kept silicon and insolubles. Just keep taking good care of this
engine.
My main concern with the car is that I’m doing damage that’s irreversible. It’s a risk of modding a vehicle and pushing it to the limits on a drag strip or track. It’s because of this, I decided to send in my oil sample of 5K miles into Blackstone labs now that my car is at over 20K miles which is well beyond a normal break-in period.
I’ve been changing the oil ever 5,000 miles. Based on the notes from Blackstone, it appears 10K is entirely reasonable of a change interval going forward. Maybe I re-asses at 50K miles to make sure that’s still the case.