Service question

[monkeyhanger]

K M Powell:

Are you sure long life service regime is covered? According to this below (taken from Lookers website), you must be on fixed service interval as part of tge terms and conditions. You'll get a minor service at 10k miles (oil and filter) and a major (oil/filter/inspection) at 20k miles.

When you go variable, your oil/filter and inspection get split up. If you were able to use the service packs on long life regime, you'd miss out on an oil change because you'd get service 1 at 14k - 18k miles and your inspection service is due at 20k miles which presumably you'd be taking up only a bit of your service 2, the oil and filer component of service 2 would be going to waste.

If your car is on variable servicing, book a service before your car is 1 year okd/less than 10k miles and ask them to change your regime while they're doing it. Mine was left on long life at PDI but I bought the service pack. They did first service and changed to fixed.


Volkswagen Service Plans
Spreading the cost of your service is easy with a Volkswagen Service Plan.

We offer a range of Service and Maintenance plans available so we can take care of your Volkswagen at an affordable and predictable price. The next 2 scheduled services that your car will need are provided with Volkswagen Service Plans, with options available for cars under one year old, cars over one year old and electric vehicles.

Terms and Conditions
Cars under 1 year

†e-up! and e-Golf excluded.

Terms and conditions apply: All cars must be set to the fixed service regime by the Retailer. Maximum age of car is 12 months (must be taken out before first service is due). Additional work, including wear and tear is excluded. Servicing must be carried out in line with the requirement of the service schedule. All work must be carried out at a Volkswagen Authorised Repairer.

Offers may be varied or withdrawn at any time. Plan validity is dependent on required payments received.

Administered by Volkswagen Financial Services, Freepost Volkswagen Financial Services

[candy turbo]

IMO

- Car registered (and started being used) 1st week of Jan 2019.
- Owned from new (with service pack)
- Current miles - 11,750 (90% of those either motorway and/or longish journeys)

Showing Oil service due in - 6000 miles or 186 days
Showing inspection service due in- 8400 miles or 225 days

Am I going to book it in before it says it needs doing, no. Do I think I know better than a global company who makes engines and tests tolerances to within scales no back-street/specialist could ever achieve, no.

It's 2020, not 1980, the need for an oil service every 5000 miles on a mainstream car is a thing of the past. Some of the attitudes towards oil servicing are laughable.

#ItsJustAGolf

 your right its not 1980 but these engines and componants were nt designed in the 80 s either
the long service intervals sells cars , non car people dont want to be having regular services
the difference between a back street garage and main dealers is the guy who owns the back street garage probably done his apprentiship at the main dealer but moved on , he cars about your car and your returning custom , the main dealer use mainly un qualified “kids” to do service work
and they dont really want your car to last , if it makes it out of warrenty without costing them money , they are happy if it goes bang .
your car your choice but you did ask for other opinions

[candy turbo]

and there is no sensor in the engine that measures oil quality , only what the oil has done

[Toeman]

So general consensus is get it serviced as soon as I can after garage reopens   

[monkeyhanger]

So general consensus is get it serviced as soon as I can after garage reopens

Yep. The wife's Polo GTI+ is due first service in 4 days time, but will wait until Pulman group reopen.

[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

That's your OCD, definitely not normal behaviour I'd advocate replicating.

Oil intended for long life use is always fully synthetic for purity and long-term heat stability and intended to last the whole long interval. Couple that with modern lubricity increases, consistent viscosity throughout the operational range so even on a cold start  the oil is pumping normally, tighter machined tolerances for the moving parts means less wear and less particulate matter getting in the oil for the filter to capture.

Its not ocd as an ex mechanic I see it as cheaper to do an oil and filter than a rebuild


Look at oil after 5-6k then look at oil that’s done 18-20k

[monkeyhanger]

^ Change every 1000 miles and it'll be cleaner still. Oil discolours over time, even high grade fully synthetic stuff, doesn't mean it's any less effective in lubrication and guiding particulate matter to be captured in the oil filter. Every 5k miles to change oil is OCD on a modern car using fully synthetic oils that resist acidic sludging. I'd be more worried about carbon build-up on the back of the intake valves on a purely DI engine.

[barrym381]

I can remember fifth gear doing this section with a fellow r32 owners car he got slated for ages for allowing the oil to get this bad

https://youtu.be/M7VxOlUVjoA


I’ve split enough engines in my time to know I won’t go wrong doing mine every 5-6k and sooner on something like our last s3

[monkeyhanger]

I can remember fifth gear doing this section with a fellow r32 owners car he got slated for ages for allowing the oil to get this bad

https://youtu.be/M7VxOlUVjoA


I’ve split enough engines in my time to know I won’t go wrong doing mine every 5-6k and sooner on something like our last s3

I wonder how old that video actually is to be showing a MK4 R32?

That MK4 R32 will be between 15 and 18 years old now, and even if that video was showing the effects on a (then) 5 year old car, you're talking about an old tech car that isn't built to todays tighter tolerances and oil advancements have come on leaps and bounds since 2005. Don't forget that fuel is a hell of a lot cleaner these days too, with detergent additives that weren't about in 2005.

Nice to see the AAS in use (Atomic absorption flame spectroscopy) - I used to work on one of those daily. Some of the science as explained was a bit iffy. Telling you about changes in viscosity without defining the specification to meet.

The oil that comes out of a newish car after its second or third oil change will be nowhere near as dirty as the stuff in that video. If I had a 15-20 year old hot hatch I would absolutely change the oil every 5k miles.

Modern cars are not subject to old tech servicing requirements due to advances in fuel oil and engine manufacturing. It's not a big loss to do an oil and filter change twice as often as the manufacturer recommends, but it seems wholly unnecessary on a modern car using clean fuels and advanced oils.

If there was a  big benefit in doing extra oil changes, the first would be most critical, with any extra wear debis attributed to the running in process.

[Yusee]

it's an interesting discussion. IMHO-

There is a difference between "acceptable" and "optimal" maintenance, and though the engineering may have improved, the principles are very much the same- oil goes bad over time and becomes less effective.

I doubt there will be anyone intending to keep their car long term ( say more than 5 or 6 years) who will have opted for long life servicing.