...BTW your Bieber avatar is awesome.-Malone
My ahu which would be considered a first gen requires synthetic as well. I would not use dino oil. I have only done two changes of my own on that engine, but I know the previous owner did use only synthetic oil. I myself per recommendation from the local tdi mechanic. Use Rotella T6 in intervals of 8-10k miles. The car has over 210k on it and the engines camshaft looks brand new!!! This pleases me.
I mean it is ok to use regular rotella or similar oils, but like you have suggested the oil change interval is drastically shortened. The synthetic oil should help in the winter as well. The way I see it is though even if you do 5k mile oil changes that is $12.99 a gallon for Rotella 15w40, but you change it twice as often or more (you suggested 3k mile changes). So it seems it would be more expensive then every 10k miles spending $21.99 a gallon for Rotella T6 5w40. You would be changing and buying filters less often as well. Reason i mention T6 is it seems the most readily available also Delvac 1. These are both found at all auto parts stores and walmarts. Also about the Dmax that is quite impressive. Luckily it is a newer generation which is why he has had excellent luck with injectors. I hope this means that the newer duramaxs are going to be more capable of high mileage because that is a weak point of a lot of them. Especially compared to Cummins.
Thats all good input. And like whoabeats touched on, its the price of the synthetic every 3000 miles that is hard to deal with. I have been considering using the T6 and going 4000 OCI's, but that will still be pretty pricey. On top of that I am consuming about 1 quart every 3000, so that is adding to the over all expense. This consumtion seems to be pretty normal, from speaking to other A3/B4 owners and the turbo appears to be in good shape as per my butt dyno.My manual says to use 505 00. I have heard of many people with the PD engines using full synth all the time and still wiping out the cam. I never used snyth in my 1991 IDI and that cam looked awesome at 340,000 miles. To top it all off, I have a real hard time believing that a VW HAS to use synth when you have all those Cummins and other big diesels that use the dino Rotella for hundreds of thousands of miles without any issues. So, I guess I am in search of A3/B4 single owner who has used dino oil for the majority of the engines life and see what he has to say.Any and all other opinions still welcomed.Thanks