car asks for oil change - dealer clueless

[scanesare]

Can someone explain to me how the above works and based on what are the oil changes calculated when not in fixed plan? GTI Clubsport in Sweden, 11600km and aparently on this flexible/variable oil changing scheme according to which the first (yes, first!) oil change and service is scheduled at 30,000 km. I obviously did an early oil change myself at 5K but as the car was approaching 1 y.o. it warned me about upcoming oil change needed in 29,28... days etc. Incidentally (or maybe not?) the 0 days coincided with exactly one year after I picked it up on September 2016.

Upon purchase I had also bought a 3 year service plan without asking what it actually includes (I thought well, first 3 years of services, right?) so I thought ok car now asks for an oil change, let's book an oil change as it's free. Dealership calls back and says they're puzzled as the car should not ask for an oil change before 30,000km when the first major service takes place. I take it to them and then the BS starts. I was asked: do you drive short journeys?  I say yes, sort of. "Oh that's why, the car feels that it is not regularly up to temp and that's why it asks for an oil change now" (Total crap as I check the oil temp every time I drive the car and it always has enough time to get to 90+ degrees C)  Does such a sensor exist anyway? First time I hear about that.

So all in all I told them I have paid for a 3 year service schedule, if the car needs an oil change then do it and I expect not to pay anything. They say they have to hook it to the computer to verify whether it's on variable servicing or not so I'll be going back this afternoon (they were too busy in the morning). What I now suspect is that when they sell you this sh!tty service plan they put the car on variable servicing which means only one major service in 3 years for them to swallow, and in case the car asks for extra oil changes you have to cover for them which I will definitely not accept and will raise hell as to why it was not explained at the time of purchase.

[fredgroves]

read page 2 of the service schedule book...

[scanesare]

Do you mean the part "In the flexible service you only need to have an oil change service carried out if your vehicle requires one"?  that sounds pretty re-assuring, let the car figure it out etc... Sounds even sillier than "First ever oil change and inspection is ok at 30,000km" to anyone with a slight mechanical sympathy. So what exactly does the car monitor to base its decision upon? I can confidently say that my "driving style" and operating conditions can in no way be identified as "extreme" (mostly boring commute miles with the occassional blast maybe once a week). So if under such typical driving as this the car "felt" it needed an oil change within a year, I am right to assume it will do so at least once every year and in fact no different than the fixed service schedule. Which further supports the theory that the service plan VW Sweden is selling is a nice scam as no car will ever get to 30,000km without asking for an oil change earlier which, well, you will have to cover since it's not included.

[fredgroves]

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/under-the-hood/car-part-longevity/oil-life-indicator.htm

[Watts]

I got 3 years servicing included when I bought my PP and it has been in twice so far, no problems or questioning. Can you not go to another dealer or was it the dealer that gave you the offer rather than it being with VW?

[fredgroves]

Also...

http://www.vwroc.com/forums/topic/7174-fixed-or-variable-service-intervals/?page=3

[fredgroves]

Long life service is UPTO 18700mls and 2 years, and a minimum of 9300mls or 1 year. It's split into two parts - oil and inspection.

 

The oil change part will monitor driving style, and journeys taken ie short journeys not letting it warm up etc. If you drive it hard, and do short journeys, you're never going to reach 18700mls before the service light comes on as the oil will have degraded. If you drive 100 miles a day, down a motorway, you will.

 

The inspection part is different. This is fixed at 18700mls or 2 yrs, no matter if you're on fixed servicing or flexible.

 

The indicators are set at PDI, so if you have a car that was in dealer stock for a few months, the countdown has already started - most of the time it relates to registration date, however, like I've just mentioned, sometimes it doesnt

 

if you're on long life, but only reach 13-14k in say 18 months, before the oil service due flashed up, you have two choices - have the oil & inspection done early, or just the oil and return at 18700mls for the inspection. I always give the customer the choice, as some people just like to have it all done at once to save returning. This will then reset the inspection part for another 2yrs from that date, NOT when the car is 4 yrs old.

 

The reason its 18700mls is because this is 30000kms

[scanesare]

Yes the car uses an algorithm to estimate the quality of the oil and warn you about a change when it thinks it's required. I say thinks because it has no sensor to actually measure oil quality. If it did, it would have seen fresh oil going in only 4K ago... Furthermore, if a year of driving under typical conditions is enough to trigger an oil change warning this means the 30,000km expectation for the first oil change is a big joke that such servicing plans very well exploit to the dealership's benefit - that is what I am currently pissed off about.

But it gets even funnier as when I told them I did an oil change myself 4K ago the tech said, well in that case we could reset the warning from the car if you wanted but you would lose the warranty    So, an oil change with the correct oil and an oil filter that I actually bought straight from VW, is not considered a proper oil change. No, you have to pay extra to have the dealer charge you 100 eur per hour, on top of your fully paid (but useless in reality since more oil changes will be required by the "smart" algorithm") servicing plan. VW lives up to the name I guess...

[fredgroves]

It does have a resistive sensor which can detect the amount of carbon in the oil though - this is used in conjunction with driving data (oil temp at start, distance driven, time taken).

I think this is a case of you trying to out think the computer and VAG... which is why you are banging your head against the system...

Go with the flow man, unless you are a race team in which case VW warranty and service plans probably isn't for you ;-)

[scanesare]

The main reason I got so upset was the rep saying either no oil change should be done now or that I will have to pay for an oil change even though I have paid for a 3y servicing plan, only because the oil change warning came on earlier than the 30,000km (but of-course it would).

Anyways, just got back from there, tech ran a scan etc. and the conclusion is that the car should indeed have an oil change and that it is covered by the servicing plan. He also told me the rep guy (no salesman or tech, someone who works at the customer service) I talked to is new so he is now gradually learning about... cars. All good I guess minus the half day lost back and forth.

PS. Still, that resistive sensor must not be very great if it thinks an oil change is needed after barely 4k boring miles since the last oil went in.