Someone told me that 2006 volkswagen passat need special oil for oil change.
Oil is oil my a–. NEVER listen to the VW dealer. VW had a MAJOR warranty problem because incompetent dealers (some who overfill your oil) were using "normal" oil, most likely 10w30, which in the end created sludge problems and damaged engines / turbos. Only if you had ALL your oil change receipts were you reimbursed by VW for the engine repairs. Some of it was no doubt due to owners taking excessive liberties in their oil change interval. The problem occured with the 1.8T engines Turbo engines that generate a lot of heat or have confined spaces need special oil to deal with it, same goes for other German engines with tighter engine tolerances. Would you put .99 cent 5w20 that is for a Honda, into a Ferrari?
Both the 1.8 4cyl and V6 engines require 5w40 oil, which meets VW / Porsche 505.01 specs. Mobil 1 0w40 qualifies. Your owners manual will also state this, and that if this oil is not available you CAN use other weights, but it’s not recommended long term. These oils cost about $6 a quart. Other oils which you have to buy online cost roughly the same, but are manufactured in Europe and imported. Those being Pentosynth, Motul, ELF. I just switched to Pentosynth for my twin turbo A6 because I read about quality changes in Mobil 1. It’s worth the expense to make sure my turbo is lubed and cool at high temps. Personally I’m so confident in these synthetic oils that I run it until the 8,100 mile service indicator comes on. But since mine is out of warranty and I do all the work, I can run it that long, and I would only have myself to blame.
If I were you, I’d just buy the oil online like I do and the majority of knowledgeable VW / audi owners do, and change it yourself and keep the receipts, or bring the oil to the dealer and have them put it in and stamp your owners manual for the visit. It prevents them from getting the chance to overfill and ruin your engine as well.
Realize dealers (including VW/Audi) buy oil in bulk because they usually sell more than 1 brand of car, and it’s cheaper to do that, use the minimum spec oil to save money across all brands of cars. So they’re not going to accommodate you with the proper weight oil unless you fork over $$$, or it is mandatory, like for diesels or using 5w20 oils in newer asian / US cars, which they only invented to save gas since it’s so thin and it hardly protects. And they won’t have the German brand anyway because it’s imported.
I suggest you call your dealership and ask the service writer what oil they use and if they have any other brand that is available at higher cost, and they will most likely say no. I did that and was not satisfied with their answer (and I told them what engine it was for) for my expensive baby A6 twin turbo. I will ONLY accept the best oil and the oil that is recommended for it, which they wanted to use a cheap 5w30. UNACCEPTABLE for such an expensive to replace high performance engine.
When I had a ‘02 B5.5 Passat 1.8t, I used 0w40 at the second oil change and every 5k mi. I never had a problem for 40k miles when I got rid of it.
!!! NEW INFO: Apparently sludge can just as easily occur with the V6 as evidenced by a new post on yahoo answers in the Audi section.
8