Service interval question

[dayslikethis]

My 2014 DSG 4Motion is now 18 months old and clocked just over 13000 miles. To date I've not had an oil change or service. I've checked with my dealer and they've told me to have a service at 20K or when 2 years old. However my service computer on the MFD shows the attached - I'm a little confused as to what this means - overdue or miles to go? Any advice welcome.

 

[GrannyJen]

Its miles to go 11700 miles to a full oil change at 25,000 miles

either 6800 miles or 91 days to the comprehensive inspection.

On that inspection they check lots of things, including toping up the oil levels.

5,000 miles after that they then throw all the old oil away and fill it with fresh oil.

 

[dayslikethis]

Its miles to go 11700 miles to a full oil change at 25,000 miles

either 6800 miles or 91 days to the comprehensive inspection.

On that inspection they check lots of things, including toping up the oil levels.

5,000 miles after that they then throw all the old oil away and fill it with fresh oil.

Brilliant - thank you

 

[WelshGas]

Inspection at 20,000 and oil change at 25,000 miles, but manually check oil level as you might need a top up before then.
The MFD is showing miles to go.

 

[GrannyJen]

I never checked oil levels

The man in Elgin was most patient as I burst into his workshop in floods of tears because Albert had a red light.

He ever so patiently showed me what a dipstick was and where it goes.......

I'm not sure though what dipstick he was referring to when he said it was not very bright

 

[jts46]

You make my day Granny Jen x

John

 

[california kid]

Hi Dayslikethis, With reference to your service schedule , I to was confused with the info on the Cali's screen , but upon speaking to my local dealership all was explained, as follows.
Inspection in miles and days, does in fact mean minor service, oil and filter change, and inspection and checks ,
I got offered two types of oil, the more expensive oil VW claim you can get more mpg from your Cali, I personally went for the cheaper oil as we do not do the mileage, on collection of our Cali it has now been reset, and reads next service in 365 days of which will be a major service.
If you look on the VW web site you will see prices for fixed servicing and info on what the service consists of. Hope this info helps.

 

[dayslikethis]

Hi Dayslikethis, With reference to your service schedule , I to was confused with the info on the Cali's screen , but upon speaking to my local dealership all was explained, as follows.
Inspection in miles and days, does in fact mean minor service, oil and filter change, and inspection and checks ,
I got offered two types of oil, the more expensive oil VW claim you can get more mpg from your Cali, I personally went for the cheaper oil as we do not do the mileage, on collection of our Cali it has now been reset, and reads next service in 365 days of which will be a major service.
If you look on the VW web site you will see prices for fixed servicing and info on what the service consists of. Hope this info helps.

Thank you - very helpful

 

[CALI FATE]

I never checked oil levels

The man in Elgin was most patient as I burst into his workshop in floods of tears because Albert had a red light.

He ever so patiently showed me what a dipstick was and where it goes.......

I'm not sure though what dipstick he was referring to when he said it was not very bright

Theres 2 x dipsticks in a T5 SE 4 motion ..... one under the bonnet and one behind the wheel

 

[blondebier]

Do most people tend to stick to the interval and do what VW recommend?

Even with long life oils 25000 miles / 2 years seems like quite a long time. I'm not sure I'd want to leave it that long even if VW say it's ok.

 

[snowy55]

I like my oil changed annually and in the overall scheme of things the extra expense is not worth considering for the peace of mind.

 

[WelshGas]

Mine will be annual, but then I will have covered 21,500 miles in the 1st year.

 

[barry]

With respect to servicing, I've usually been driven by the demands that appear on the dash on startup.
Just recently, though, my local van centre has been phoning inviting me in for a free van health check.
This is a new departure that seems to be resulting from a relatively recent takeover of the centre by a large company. The centre does the servicing etc and MOTs.
We'll see what they come up with ;-)

What worries me is that as part of a national recall, my wife's BMW Coupe had an airbag modification and was given a free health check at the same time 'for botherment.'
The car has been regularly inspected and serviced by BMW, yet she had a staggering list of essential and advised things that needed doing (a couple were major) that don't seem to have been capture in recent garage visits.

Fingers crossed

 

[T6 CFO]

My experience of main dealer services is that the list of advised items is in order to restore a vehicle to an as new state. It is a long story but having taken up an offer price for cam-belt change I had the vehicle mot done at the same time. The list of essential and advised repairs was enormous. I declined collected my vehicle and had an interesting chat with the service manager who was taking big steps backwards on what really needed doing. I took my vehicle to my regular trusted mechanic who had been in favour of me getting the cambelt done under a deal. I challenged him to find all the faults that needed rectifying. Suffice it to say the vehicle passed the MOT with no failures and has done so for the next 6 years with only the normal service items being required. Beware of "free" checks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Andy]

The health check is VW wintwr vehicle check. The do not do any work without conzent. You can only benifiet from it.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[jts46]

I am on longlife service and have been since 2006, van gets serviced when service light comes on, usually at 20,000 miles interval.

John

 

[Freeley]

I am on longlife service and have been since 2006, van gets serviced when service light comes on, usually at 20,000 miles interval.

John

Same here but I'm starting to think that I may start getting it serviced annually with a normal oil ie not long life.
Ours does little mileage and sits on the drive for long periods

Sent from my Galaxy S6

 

[Kaydee]

Do most people tend to stick to the interval and do what VW recommend?

Even with long life oils 25000 miles / 2 years seems like quite a long time. I'm not sure I'd want to leave it that long even if VW say it's ok.

Got to say I agree with you blondebier,I change the oil every 12 months regardless of mileage,diesels aren't kind to oil.doesn't matter if the van has done 5k or 12k that year,oil is cheap engines are not.I know what the motor industry claims for its long life oil,.never yet met a mechanic,franchised or not who agrees.If its a customers vehicle they follow the letter of the law,if its their own vehicle ....well ,different rules apply

 

[dannosail]

In the last 20 years of car ownership running my cars over 100k miles it's not defects resulting from poor oil that have killed them. Fresh oil generally won't do any harm but not sure that changing more often than manufacturers service interval is worth the money or hassle of the garage - unless you do it yourself which I suspect most don't. Each to their own!

 

[Kaydee]

In the last 20 years of car ownership running my cars over 100k miles it's not defects resulting from poor oil that have killed them. Fresh oil generally won't do any harm but not sure that changing more often than manufacturers service interval is worth the money or hassle of the garage - unless you do it yourself which I suspect most don't. Each to their own!

Up to you what you do,most blown turbos and cam wear problems occur on vehicles with long life servicing .like I said oil is cheap,engines aren't.
What I find interesting is that there are people who think nothing of paying several thousand pounds for auto gearboxes ,and 4 wheel drive systems and dont mind the increased maintenance and subsequent costs involved but seem to give less thought to what is arguably the most important component in your vehicle..the oil..it only takes about an hour ,a set of ramps and a spanner or two,it really is very very simple.but maybe its not for some,
But thats fine we are all free to spend or not .

 

[Hotel California]

Guess all Cali's are in VW workshops at least every 12 to 24 months ( if not more often) for some kind of repair.... so whats the more-coast of an oil change than? Not to much imo.

 

[WelshGas]

Up to you what you do,most blown turbos and cam wear problems occur on vehicles with long life servicing .like I said oil is cheap,engines aren't.
What I find interesting is that there are people who think nothing of paying several thousand pounds for auto gearboxes ,and 4 wheel drive systems and dont mind the increased maintenance and subsequent costs involved but seem to give less thought to what is arguably the most important component in your vehicle..the oil..it only takes about an hour ,a set of ramps and a spanner or two,it really is very very simple.but maybe its not for some,
But thats fine we are all free to spend or not .

Interesting to hear/see the evidence. Is it the oil, vehicles lying idle for long periods of time or something else.
Long Life service interval is 20k miles. So if you do 20k/year then what would you do? Change the oil once/year, or every 6 months. I don't think you would find many commercial companies running T5's changing the oil every 6 months/ 10k miles.

However, some Forum members travel significantly less than 10k miles/year and I do think that having engine oil exposed to air, absorbing moisture etc: rather than being used, heated etc: on a regular basis, can do more harm. So low mileage vehicles should have the oil changed, maybe more frequently.

 

[campandfly]

If I did an oil change myself would the service interval gadget know what I have done and reset?
Or would I need some electronic device to update the MFD computer?

 

[briwy]

The van measures the viscosity of the and this is how it knows when it needs changing on variable service. But it's not just the oil that gets changed is it at a service. You also get a safety check which for me is a necessary thing at least once a year. Do you know if one of your tyres has a cut on the innner wall? Do you know if one of the CV joint boots or a track rod end gaiter is split? These things imo are more important than whether the oil is up to standard. A failure of one of these items could have drastic consequences.
We recently had our van serviced. 15k miles from new so I wanted the oil changed anyway but the service picked up a 1mm wide band round the inside edge of each rear tyre worn right down. I regularly check the tread but his wasn't visible until the van was up on the ramp. This was just before a 2500 mile round trip to Spain so apart from being illegal it could have had a nasty outome if a tyre had burst.

 

[snowy55]

The van measures the viscosity of the and this is how it knows when it needs changing on variable service. But it's not just the oil that gets changed is it at a service. You also get a safety check which for me is a necessary thing at least once a year. Do you know if one of your tyres has a cut on the innner wall? Do you know if one of the CV joint boots or a track rod end gaiter is split? These things imo are more important than whether the oil is up to standard. A failure of one of these items could have drastic consequences.
We recently had our van serviced. 15k miles from new so I wanted the oil changed anyway but the service picked up a 1mm wide band round the inside edge of each rear tyre worn right down. I regularly check the tread but his wasn't visible until the van was up on the ramp. This was just before a 2500 mile round trip to Spain so apart from being illegal it could have had a nasty outome if a tyre had burst.

How does the van measure the viscosity of the oil?