Variable servicing- not happy

[roblatus]

I had my octy put on variable servicing at about 15300 miles.

Now the milage at the minute is 24065 and i have noticed that the service indicator says to service it in 900 miles. I am guessing it came on yesterday during a trip to Birmingham.

Anyway i am seriously not happy with this as it will be less than 10k from when it was put on the "long life" service

I check the oil every week without fail. I have topped it up a couple of times but using the correct longlife stuff.

I am not sure what to do next really? Can i just change the oil and filter myself and reset the service indicator? Will that set it back to fixed servicing??

I am not paying £250 for another variable service less than 10k after the last one.

My car is under warranty til Jan 07 so i am not sure what to do.


I am not happy though and the dealer that it was serviced at will be hearing about it too when it goes in on Wednesday for ARB bushes and Radiator mounts.


So what are my options guys regarding servicing???

[Dr Zoidberg]

Sounds like they didn't change it on the ECU to me

[cheapskate2003]

Are you sure that the car was setup for variable servicing, just seems a bit of a coincidence that after almost exactly 10k its service reminder has come up?

[roblatus]

Originally Posted by cheapskate2003

Are you sure that the car was setup for variable servicing, just seems a bit of a coincidence that after almost exactly 10k its service reminder has come up?

It was done at my local dealer. How can i tell?? In the service record it says "1st Variable Service" next to where they stamped it.


Not sure what to do next?

[roblatus]

Just got my receipt out from when i had it put on variable servicing and it has the longlife oil listed on it.


have workde out that by the time the service indicator counts down to "service now" from the 900 miles it says at the minute i will have had a total of 9432 miles for the £204 quid i paid for my variable "long life" service.

[Johnnyc]

On my OctyII I inadvertently reset the car back to fixed servicing by holding the trip computer reset button and turning on the ignition.

[fordfan]

Sounds like the service interval has been set on the dash buttons, rather than zeroing channel 2 on the dash panel, don't suppose you know what the dash panel coding is?

I take it that it is less than 2 years since the last service.

You shouldn't have had to have it put on variable, it would have been on that when it left the factory.

[roblatus]

Originally Posted by fordfan

Sounds like the service interval has been set on the dash buttons, rather than zeroing channel 2 on the dash panel, don't suppose you know what the dash panel coding is?

I take it that it is less than 2 years since the last service.

You shouldn't have had to have it put on variable, it would have been on that when it left the factory.

I bought the car from a non-skoda dealer with 5k on the clock. They serviced it before i took delivery.

The service indicator came on at 15k thats when i got it put on variable

[SkodiRS]

Best to get a dealer to check it.

Also remember though, the way the car is driven will determine when the indicator comes on. So if you drive hard or do lots of short journeys you'll probably have the indicator come on sooner....the sensor measures the viscousity of the oil I think.

[roblatus]

Originally Posted by SkodiRS

Best to get a dealer to check it.

Also remember though, the way the car is driven will determine when the indicator comes on. So if you drive hard or do lots of short journeys you'll probably have the indicator come on sooner....the sensor measures the viscousity of the oil I think.

I will get them to check it when the car is in this week.

I mainly use the car for work and it is around about 15 miles there and the same back obviously. I don't drive it hard all the time either especially from cold, i always gie the engine time to warm up.

[fordfan]

The service indicator came on at 15k thats when i got it put on variable

May be they didn't check/change the dash panel coding then, can't remember exactly which way round but the second from last digit determines the servicing regime, 1 for variable and 2 for fixed i think.

[roblatus]

Talked to the dealer on the phone today and they are going to check it when it goes in for some other stuff on Thursday.

They did suggest that they just did an oil and filter change and reset it again to which i told them not to do anything but investigate it first.

If they find nothing wrong i will either do and oil and filter change myself or take it to a non skoda garage and get it done. I am not paying nearly £100 for an oil and filter change.

Are there any warranty implications from doing your own oil and filter change???

[cheezemonkhai]

Yeah no warrenty on affected parts, eg your engine, not to mention lowered resale value.

Oil is about £35, a filter is £10, a plug is about £2, and then you have your time and the effort to dispose of the old oil. You also can't reset the variable service indicator without a VAG COM or dealer tool.

IMHO not worth it.

[roblatus]

Originally Posted by cheezemonkhai

Yeah no warrenty on affected parts, eg your engine, not to mention lowered resale value.

Oil is about £35, a filter is £10, a plug is about £2, and then you have your time and the effort to dispose of the old oil. You also can't reset the variable service indicator without a VAG COM or dealer tool.

IMHO not worth it.

Going to go back to the fixed servicing anyway i think.

I asked the workshop manager today and he said the oil can be changed as often as you like. I am going to call a local non-franchised vag garage for a quote for the oil change.

I am really not sure about the lowered re-sale value either. Perhaps if you are selling privatley but whenever i have taken a car for part ex with a FSH it has made no difference to what i got offered at all.

Once my car is out of warranty i will either be servicing it myself or perhaps going to a local garage.

I should also point out that the workshop manager at my dealer know that my car has been modified including a re-map and has still done several warranty repairs.

[RobClubley]

I had this exact same thing. The car came set on variable from the factory and the dealer re-set it to fixed "because most of our customers prefer it that way" not because I asked.
They set it to require a service at 9,000 miles!
I got them to set it back to variable, paid the extortionate price for the oil and service only to have a service requested at 19,000 miles.
So I got it serviced by JBS and set back to fixed by them.

[roblatus]

When the car was in the dealers on thursday for some new ARB bushes and Radiator mounts they checked to make sure that the car was properly set up for variable servicing and according to them it is.

However my service warning has now gone, when i asked them about this they told me that when the car is checked to see if it is set up for the variable servicing it would "reset" the service indicator on the dash. The workshop manager says that if the oil really does need changing then the indicator should come back on almost straight away and his reccomendation was to see how it goes for now.

Does this sound ok to you guys???

At the end of the day they could have tried to get an oil and filter change out of me but they haven't

Just wondered what you thought?

[lightweight]

sorry if this takes this discussion a little off topic (but I think it is relevent)
Is the variable servicing schedule really only set by the quality of the oil? Surely it should have other variables such as cold starts, short journeys, miles driven and 'engine on' time taken into account?
Therfore if the service indicator is reset then wouldnt the car assume that it has been serviced and can start the 'count' again from zero.

Or am I being stupid?

Andy

[roblatus]

Thats exactly what i need to know?


Hopefully someone with some expert knowledge will appear and enlighten us?

[tfboy]

AFAIK, the "engine" checks are only oil-based. There's a sensor at the bottom of the sump IIRC which measures the quality / viscosity of oil.

However, there are also brake pads sensors, battery level sensor and other bits which are checked, so if the brake pads for instance wear out before the oil needs changing, you'll still get a service now indication. I don't think it says check brake pads, but gives you a generic "I need attention".

If someone on variable servicing can confirm...

[mbames]

My 2001 TDi is on variable, but it does not have brake pad sensors....!! I have only serviced it the once since I had it (around 85k), and now up to 96k, so I expect it will be gagging for some more super expensive oil soon!!

[cheezemonkhai]

My brake pad sensors didn't trip the servicing thingamy.