MK7 GTD - Real Life MPG

[KyleB]

Well at 8400 miles on the clock, my "1000 miles to service" message has just appeared in the dash. Won't be long before I find out for myself whether the first oil change brings any noticeable improvements in mpg or whether there are a few warranty ECU tweaks to be performed while it's in.

Were the servicing intervals shortened due to the 184 engine needing more regular inspection or is it to generate more revenue for dealers? Call me cynical!

I'd put it down to MH's commute (I think it's fairly short). I got to 10,000 miles without a service reminder coming on. I only booked it in because it was on a service plan.

[monkeyhanger]

Well at 8400 miles on the clock, my "1000 miles to service" message has just appeared in the dash. Won't be long before I find out for myself whether the first oil change brings any noticeable improvements in mpg or whether there are a few warranty ECU tweaks to be performed while it's in.

Were the servicing intervals shortened due to the 184 engine needing more regular inspection or is it to generate more revenue for dealers? Call me cynical!

I'd put it down to MH's commute (I think it's fairly short). I got to 10,000 miles without a service reminder coming on. I only booked it in because it was on a service plan.

I thought that only happened when you go variable/longlife. My commute is 13 miles long - not drastically short. I'm on a fixed plan, my last Scirocco asked for 1st service at the same time (9400 miles). The Scirocco before that was on long life and asked for one at 18k miles. I've been in the same job 12 years and my commute hasn't changed in the time of ownership of the 3 cars.

[mcmaddy]

Should be getting the reminder at 9k if you're on a yearly or 10k service schedule. Anything else and the service reminder has been incorrectly set.

[monkeyhanger]

9400 miles is a common time for VAG cars to want a 10,000 mile service (with 1000 miles grace), purely because it is 15,000km, the service interval on the continent. If you google "9400 mile service" you'll see all sorts of VAG owners saying theirs is due then, be it Audi, Seat or Skoda. At 600 miles earlier than expectation for it to be officially due, i'll not sweat it. If there is a fine tune to set exactly 10,000 miles rather than the mile equivalent of 15,000km at PDI then it hasn't been done on mine for the past few cars at least. My dad had the same on his, so I would guess mcmaddy is due the same, being from the same dealership.

[Skinnee D]

I bought the 3 year service plan a few weeks following delivery.  At the time I remember looking at the unique vehicle codes and deducing that the car had definitely been configured for the default variable servicing in the factory (i.e. using the "long life" map for predicting service intervals).  So if some other people on fixed servicing intervals are set up the same way that might explain differences in servicing messages approaching 10000 miles.

[Skinnee D]

I've never seen the noticeable long term running-in gains that some report to have seen, with 6 new TDIs before this one.

I must say that's been my own experience too with the two previous ones I had.

Assuming there must be some tolerences in production that affect how relatively tight one engine end ups compared with another when they leave the factory, then that could go some way to explain variations in how much loosening up and apparent running-in gains are experienced by the first owners.

[mcmaddy]

All cars are set to long life from the factory. To be honest even if the car is on time/distance or variable servicing you can get your serviced whenever you like. They use the same oil in diesels for both servicing regimes so it's just a case of the supplying dealer being capable of doing a proper pdi and changing the service indicator. As people are finding out most dealers are useless at this 

[monkeyhanger]

It's in the dealership's interest to get you on fixed interval servicing by taking you off the factory set long life regime - they want to get frequent servicing revenues from you. If you've bought (or been given) the service pack you will certainly be on the time/distance regime because the service pack doesn't cover the cost of long life services. With my car being due on 9400 miles (nearest rounded up imperial equivalent milestone to 15,000km - the continental service standard for distance), it is certainly on time/distance as i'd be expecting a long life service to be kicking in around 17-18k miles based on the last time I had a car set to long life.

[monkeyhanger]

I've never seen the noticeable long term running-in gains that some report to have seen, with 6 new TDIs before this one.

I must say that's been my own experience too with the two previous ones I had.

Assuming there must be some tolerences in production that affect how relatively tight one engine end ups compared with another when they leave the factory, then that could go some way to explain variations in how much loosening up and apparent running-in gains are experienced by the first owners.

With modern manufacturing tolerences being so so tight these days, i'd imagine that the vast majority of your "loosening up" happens in the first 1000 miles and even then there's not much of that. The old legend of VW engines not being run in until they've done 30k miles is long gone. If the engines had significant running in to do these days, we'd still have a first oil change at 1000 miles to get rid of all the metal generated from running in like we did 20 years ago. For those who bought their car last year and are now seeing those "running in" (summer) gains, let us know what mpg you're getting in 6 months time and see how it compares with last Nov/Dec's figures.

[KyleB]

Apologies MH, thought you had a short commute. My car is indeed set up for the variable servicing but I'm not arsed, I'll chuck it in every 10k as per the service plan then I'll get it serviced yearly by my friends dad who I know will do a better job (if I even keep the car that long)