Service question

[Toeman]

Have a dec 2018 gti performance has done 11000 miles  when it was bought dealer had it on long life service interval  of 20000 miles it s now coming up oil service required  is that normal  and can it wait until garage reopen from this lockdown. I have local mechanic but don’t want to void warranty thanks for ur help

[SRGTD]

Service intervals on VW’s long life’s/ flexible service regime are up to a maximum of 2 years or 18,000 miles, whichever is the sooner; not everyone on flexible / long life servicing will be able to drive for 2 years or 18,000 before their car needs servicing. Various sensors monitor oil quality, and the quality of the oil will be influenced by such things as the number of cold starts, journey types etc. If you’ve been driving mainly short journeys where the engine oil doesn’t always get up to optimum temperature, and you have lots of cold starts, then the car will need servicing sooner than one which is driven mainly on long journeys with the oil up to the optimum temp for most of the driving duration.

As for the warranty implications of not being able to get your car serviced because of lockdown - this is from the Covid-19 FAQ’s on VW’s website;

If your service is carried out late due to disruption caused by COVID-19, the servicing delay will not invalidate your vehicle’s warranty. What’s most important is to get the service done as soon as you can, so please contact your local retailer to discuss availability and options, eg collection and delivery, and any specific concerns you may have.

Link to VW’s Covid-19 FAQ’s below;

https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/covid-19

[Toeman]

Thanks a lot  all my questions answered in  within a few minutes great service from the forum members

[candy turbo]

18000 miles till first service is just wrong , the life of the engine and other componants must be shortened considerably
im no vw mechanic but im pretty sure there is no sensor that tests for oil quality and condition the ecu uses time and mileage to decide when a service is due
if my new car had 11000 miles on it it would have had at very least an oil change 5000 miles ago

[SRGTD]

18000 miles till first service is just wrong , the life of the engine and other componants must be shortened considerably
im no vw mechanic but im pretty sure there is no sensor that tests for oil quality and condition the ecu uses time and mileage to decide when a service is due
if my new car had 11000 miles on it it would have had at very least an oil change 5000 miles ago

From VW’s website;

This Flexible regime has been made possible due to the development of new Volkswagen engines with the latest technically advanced longlife oil. These engines use built-in sensors that continually monitor the oil quality, making it possible to enjoy reliable and confident motoring for up to a maximum of 18,000* miles or 24 months (whichever occurs first).

https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/service-plans/regimes

[Watts]

My 2003 Audi A4 was on long life servicing, had it 12 years and just under 100k miles with no engine issues. Sold it to a friend at work who has had it since and still no issues.

[candy turbo]

18000 miles till first service is just wrong , the life of the engine and other componants must be shortened considerably
im no vw mechanic but im pretty sure there is no sensor that tests for oil quality and condition the ecu uses time and mileage to decide when a service is due
if my new car had 11000 miles on it it would have had at very least an oil change 5000 miles ago

From VW’s website;
do you believe all the marketing sh!te ?

This Flexible regime has been made possible due to the development of new Volkswagen engines with the latest technically advanced longlife oil. These engines use built-in sensors that continually monitor the oil quality, making it possible to enjoy reliable and confident motoring for up to a maximum of 18,000* miles or 24 months (whichever occurs first).

https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/service-plans/regimes

[fredgroves]

It's definitely not just time and distance. I'm a mile muncher and it's definitely not bang on 18k. It uses data from sensors just as described above.

The only advantage of sending it to the dealer more often than two years if you have a garage queen is that they inspect the vehicle visually, check the error log and carry out any recalls too.

[monkeyhanger]

18000 miles till first service is just wrong , the life of the engine and other componants must be shortened considerably
im no vw mechanic but im pretty sure there is no sensor that tests for oil quality and condition the ecu uses time and mileage to decide when a service is due
if my new car had 11000 miles on it it would have had at very least an oil change 5000 miles ago

From VW’s website;
do you believe all the marketing sh!te ?

This Flexible regime has been made possible due to the development of new Volkswagen engines with the latest technically advanced longlife oil. These engines use built-in sensors that continually monitor the oil quality, making it possible to enjoy reliable and confident motoring for up to a maximum of 18,000* miles or 24 months (whichever occurs first).

https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/service-plans/regimes

The only sensor I'd imagine could be in there to directly monitor oil quality would be a conductivity sensor monitoring the conductivity of the oil (more metal in the oil increases conductivity, presumably - I don't know for sure whether clean oil is a good electrical insulator).

More likely there's a set of algorithms that decide when to call time on your oil due to how long/fast/hard.you've been driving your car between services e.g. lots of cold start short journeys are going to shorten the interval vs Mr Motorway Mile Muncher doing 30+ miles per journey.

Modern fully synthetic oils are fine going to 20k miles as long as your filter is effective in removing particulates attributed to engine wear, their stability under operating conditions over extended intervals is fine.

My only issue with high mileage service intervals is for TDI engines with plenty of interrupted active regens - induced regens through injecting fuel into the exhaust system to raise DPF temps. If you interrupt tgat cycle by ending your journey, that fuel ends up in the sump, diluting your oil. Hopefully the car would have algorithms to know that is happening or knows through reduced oil pump work that viscosity of fuel is reduced.

[barrym381]

None of our cars oil gets past 5k before I have a meltdown and need to change it and if a buy a car that’s been on long life oil that’s the first thing I change after dropping the sump to clean oil pick up and oil feed for turbo