Oil change interval + do I have to clean screen each time?

[mrdctaylor]

I have a 1968 Beetle with 53K miles. I've had some recent work done to it and it is running well. My daughter is going to just drive it around our small town so I only expect maybe 2K miles per year max.

My questions are:

1) How often should I change the oil? I go 7500 miles with synthetic in my other vehicles, but obviously this is out of the question for my VW. 1500 miles? Yearly?

2) Is it necessary to clean the screen every time? Or is it acceptable to clean every other time? What if I just changed the oil at 1000 or 1500 miles and did a full screen clean every other time?

I'm just trying to get a feel for what is acceptable for these engines. I did a search on this forum and didn't really find anything addressing it. My apologies if this is something that has been gone over many times.

[Q-Dog]

You should clean the screen at every oil change. VW even eliminated the drain plug on later engines so the entire plate had to come off just to drain the oil.

As to how often ... I do 2000 to 3000 miles, depending on how dirty the oil looks on the dipstick.
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Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[djkeev]

I do 3000 miles or 6 months. The screen is your oil filter, not to clean it would be total folly!

BTW, when you change your oil, adjust your valves and brakes shoes as well.

Dave
From my iPad
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https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[torsionbar]

every 3000 miles or 12 months, whichever is shorter, if driven regularly.

every 1500 miles or 6 months, whichever is shorter, if only driven occasionally, and/or only for short trips.

there are other even tighter oci recommendations depending on your climate and driving conditions. see your owners manual: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/73bug/73T1-62.jpg

you need to take the screen off and clean it and inspect it only for the first few oil changes after you buy a used beetle. there's usually crap in the crank case from neglect, and from the car sitting outside abandoned and undriven. dead animals and insects, leaves, etc. after the first few oil changes, you will have caught all of that on the screen and cleaned it out.

the screen is not an oil filter! every car has an oil pump pickup screen inside the oil pan. it is not unique to beetles. on nearly all other cars however, it is not accessible because it's inside the oil pan. the reason it's accessible on the beetle is that air-cooled engines can run hotter that watercooled engines, and this caused the old 1960's and 1970's oil formulas to sludge. the original reason for removing and cleaning the pickup screen at each oil change was to clean away the sludge! modern oil formulations are much more highly resistant to sludge, and if you use a synthetic oil, the issue is completely non-existant.
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[vwible]

I took the oil screen out of my car after I added the Berg 1.5 quart sump on my 1600 beetle. The oil drain plate my engine has does not have a drain plug.

I attached a strong magnet to the bottom of the oil drain plate. The entire plate becomes the magnet, rather than only a magnetic plug (as on some other cars). I got the idea from TheSamba, of course.

Most of my driving is short trips of 15 miles or less. I definitely remove the plate at each oil change (1500 miles). There's always a small accumulation of gray gook on the plate, which easily wipes off.

Another plus is that all those electromagnetic waves circulate within the engine -- providing a little bit of downward pull on the crankshaft counterweights on every revolution!
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[torsionbar]

[jlex]

[dembus]

[vwible]

I agree with both of you.
1) non-ferrous stuff will still circulate, so the screen would be better. However, the mesh of the screen is too large to catch much of anything except sludge build.
2) It's true BS about the magnetic waves. But I thought to be an interesting concept to toss in!
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1970 Tin Top Walk Through Bus

[PatterBon]

As far as things being farrous and non-farrous, the bearings, though coated, are farrous, as well as the cam and crank. So actually, having a magnet in there isn't too bad of an idea. The only non farrous parts that come to mind is the brass drive gear on the crankshaft that drives the distributor. But if you are getting chunks of metal on your magnet..You'll have more to worry about than just wear. As far as the silverish sludge you're getting on the bottom of the plate, that is bearing material, the coating that's on them. It's pretty normal to see when your engine is first built and also when the bearings start wearing and the crank starts having more play...How I love having worked at a VW shop
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[torsionbar]

[Fordman49]

Really...do you perform oil changes in your car without changing the filter?

It takes all of a few minutes to clean the screen, and even though it mainly grabs sludge and large objects...it's better than nothing.

[torsionbar]

[cferry7]

[Q-Dog]

[burdpete]

The screen on a VW only protects you from items that would be in your oil after you engine has gernaded itself. Small damaging metal particles will flow through the screen like water through a sieve. Thats why modern vehicle use an oil filter and then on their forums they argue on how small of micron filter they need to protect there engine.
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72 Beetle

[cferry7]

I don't think VW intended for the Lip around the Drain Nut to withhold sludge. I tend to believe it [Lip] was required to have sufficient material in the Drain Plate for Drain Nut threads.
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[Cusser]

[burdpete]

[mnussbau]

I suggest cleaning the screen at every oil change when you get a new beetle. After a few changes you will learn how much crud/sludge accumulates in the engine over 1500-3000 miles.

For me, armed with that info I now only clean the screen every other oil change.
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Mike
Sold my sedan
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