Why not? My engine is currently at 26000 km without oil change. Next oil change is in 3000 km.

The intervals in Malaysia are a bit excessive. Then again, better safe than sorry I guess? Maybe I should check my oil before I send the car for service... see how it looks like.

It's up to 30000 km, the engine keeps record of how you drive, and under what condition, and calculates when it is time to go for an oil change. French and Italian manufacturers go up to 35000 km between oil changes (or even 50000 km for diesel engines). However VW demands inspections at other intervals it seems, which is good because there they hopefully find any upcoming defects before they get serious. IMHO that is very important, 35000 km between oil changes... not much of an issue I believe, but not noticing a small defect that causes other, bigger ones... that is.

wow. Never drive below 3000 rpm? I rarely ever drive above 3000 rpm... usually in town I'm at around 1000 rpm, maybe 1300. Shift gear at 1500-1700. Only on the highway the rpm is higher, because I run out of gears... May I ask why your revs are so high?

I don't fuel up 97 because it's more expensive. Usually I fill up with E10, which is roughly RM 0.10 cheaper than regular 95 (the ethanol content is 10% rather than 5%). 97 is roughly RM 0.50 more (at 50 liters a week or so that makes a difference).

Yup, it's this "intelligent" system I suppose. Without long life oil and with the monitoring turned off the interval is 15000 km. Also, that's for people that mostly do long distance drives (since the engine is already warm... cold starts are the big issue). If you're mostly doing short distance journeys, don't expect to get a 30000 km interval. Some people are reporting significantly less than that. In Malaysia manufacturers seem to prefer to play it safe (or you may say they want to cash in), and truth be told I guess the average driver mostly drives shorter distances.

On the other hand even a cold start in Malaysia is at significantly higher temperatures, and it takes forever for the engine to cool down. Like I could return to my car hours later and the engine was still warm... not 90°C, but above 30°C. In Germany I can be at a traffic light and watch the oil temperature drop with the engine on... A cold start can mean the engine has -20°C when starting on some days, which is much harsher on the oil than it ever could be in Malaysia. Basically, IMHO Malaysia is rather gentle on cars (apart from potholes... but we've got cobblestone, so that's perhaps even worse).

I found an overview of oil change intervals in Germany: Fiat and Alfa Romeo generally get their cars back at the 30000 km mark (diesel 35000 km), which is rather... optimistic. Then again my old Renault diesel was also 35000 km I believe, and the engine was still going strong after 255000 km. Citroen 20k (petrol) 25k diesel. Audi is like VW, 15 to 30k depending on driving style and conditions. Hyundai and Kia are usually 30k, while Toyota is 15k. Not so confident in their engines, it seems.

Ah, no wonder. Yeah, on the motorway my revs are higher too. My car could do with another gear, or a longer 6th, I'm around 2500 rpm at 110 when the engine could easily do that at lower revs. Yes, higher revs would warm up the engine faster (higher loads even more so... so full throttle). However I don't want too high revs at low temperatures when lubrication isn't good. What is really damaging is idling though. Don't idle when the engine is cold, because it does very little to warm it up, so the engine is running forever at low temperatures, leading to premature wear. Start engine, put on seatbelt, go.

I haven't heard an expert suggest that in a long time. In those days of carburetors perhaps it still made sense, but how many of those are still around? All modern cars don't need to be warmed up, and shouldn't be warmed up by idling.

I believe my Xsara was always serviced every 20k or 25k, using normal oil, and up until 150k there was no issue. I did end up having a leaking head gasket, but is that related to the engine oil? From what I know that particular engine is rather tough, except for the head gasket. (Fortunately on that engine it's relatively cheap to fix).

I don't know of any higher engine failure rate, and you can find hundreds of Mercedes for sale that have 500000 km or more on the clock.

But I'm not aware of any statistics about engine defects... maybe it's worse than in Malaysia, maybe it isn't.

How to do the blotter test? Can I use normal printing paper? Like 80g, and relatively fine? Just take out the dipstick and let it drop onto the paper? I have one week to do it... oil change is coming up at the end of the month.

So... I just pull out the dip stick, and let it drop onto paper? I've got some, mh, 150-200 mg higher quality printing paper that I'm going to use.

OLM?