My Garage - Changing the Oil and Filter on the Passat W8

With my 2002 Passat W8 quickly approaching the 140,000 mile mark, it is once again time for an oil change. As crazy as it may sound to a gear head, I have always taken this car to the stealership to do what is a pretty simple maintenance operation. This because it is usually combined with some other service and my work schedule has made it pretty challenging to keep up with the maintenance requirements of all my cars especially my daily driver.

This time however I find myself with plenty of time in my hands and so I want to do the work myself. The owner's manual specifies that the beast wants SAE 5W-40 synthetic that follows VW 503.01 specification. The service records show that this car has always been given a diet of Castol Syntec 5W-40 so we are good there. But are we? Really? I keep finding all sorts of discussions in the forums concerning what oil to use in these cars. It is painful. I looked around and found a reference concerning VW specifications @ Opie Oils. With a 140Kmiles running on Castrol Syntec without any issues, I think it will be OK. The question really is... Is all this technological complexity really worth it? For a daily driver? A bit ridiculous... This is definitively NOT like my old Dasher (Passat B1). ;-)

Spotted - Aston Martin DB7 Vantage

Came across this beautiful Aston Martin DB-7 Vantage this morning at the Le May museum Coffee Cruise-In:

My Garage - Replacing the Secondary Fan on the Passat W8

Well, the secondary fan on my W8 finally gave up the ghost the other day so I decided to bite the bullet and replace it myself. The challenge, there is really NO SPACE between the serpentine belt and the radiator to perform any kind of work.