Long life / Time and distance service mix up?

[russs99]

Hi

I've got an 08 plate GTI (DSG) - had from new May 08. When I had the car I was under impression it was on long-life service. However, service light came on at 10,000 miles and thought it was best to have service and oil change done anyway. As my mileage was quite low at that time, I opt'ed to move onto time and distance, and the semi synthetic oil (whatever VW use) was used rather than Castrol fully synthetic.

My mileage started to increase (lots of motorway) so when 20,000 service came up, I went back onto long life, this was around last September time. The invoice said long life oil was used and I thought nothing of it. I've probably put about 1.5 litres of top up in and the car is up to 28,000 mls (I am told they do use oil). Anyway, today my service indicator came on.

I am now worried that they didn't use long life but the other oil and I've been topping up with fully synthetic - what could the ramifications of this be? How will I know if they DID use long life and just didnt change the setting on car from T&D to long life? I don't really want to fork out for another service after so little time, however, if only to set my mind at ease I may have to - what would impact be of running on the semi synthetic T&D stuff for another 10,000 or so (assuming that that is what they used). I don't want to do harm to the engine that may manifest itself as a serious problem x years down the road and end up causing failure and costing lots of money out of warranty..

Thanks

Russ

[stealthwolf]

Start off by having a read of this thread >clicky<.

Basically, unless you stick to the longlife criteria, you should be on T&D. All dealers should be using longlife oil across all services since it's been shown to be better than the T&D oil but you still need to ask.

The car itself will tell you when it needs servicing. If it's on LL (I think all GTIs are unless specified when first picked up), and you do lots of short journeys, you will need to service sooner.

Sometimes, dealers will service a car and forget to reset the indicator or to switch it, meaning the reminder comes up sooner than it should have. How many miles did you do between your last service and now?