I know this is a debatable topic and I know I should be checking the archives, but I'm just looking for a quick answer right now, seeing that I'm at work. The manager of my dealers service dept. claims I should wait til' like 15K miles to make sure it is completely broken in. If I do wait, it will only be til' 10K, since I plan on chipping come spring. Thanks!<p>JT 99' 1.8Tqms(w/400 miles shy of 5K service)

<br>8^)

I say wait until 10K.<br>Cars have run on conventional oil since the very beginning, so 5k more won't do any harm and you can ease your paranoia about proper break in.<p>Just decide already!! ;-)<p>

If what the service depts. are saying is true, that the 1.8T can take 5-10K miles to fully seat the rings, then using conventional oil for while might help in the long run. <p>No direct harm would be done by going synthetic early, but a car with improperly seated rings can/will use a lot more oil than a properly broken in engine. Could get expensive topping off the oil with Mobil 1 every 500 miles. I know that's true because I owned a Chevy.<p>Anyways, I don't know for sure about the 1.8T, but all the service depts. seem to be saying the same thing here.<p>Robbie<br>991.8Tq<p><br>

FWIW, I waited until 10k w/our 30v and am happy to report that a) the engine loosened up considerably in the 7-10k mile range (read: more power), and b) I'm not burning any oil (read: the rings seated).<p>I'm now running Synthetic, and have been for 10k miles.<p>Scott Stiles<br>'98 A4 30v qm/sport<br>'99 M3 Coupe (being built)

I switched to Mobil 1 15W-50 at my 1st service (5K miles). At that point, the car was no longer using oil, and now at 12k miles it still uses hardly any oil. For me, using synthetic oil ASAP to help protect the turbo from the Texas heat was a high priority. There have been others here that have switched even earlier with no problems as well. If your oil consumption has trailed off and stabilized, you should be fine.<p>Dave M - '97 1.8tm