Am I on long life servicing?

[dubourg]

Hi all

My passat servicing schedule was changed to variable intervals at 24k miles in March. Today at 33k miles the dashboard message has flashed "service due in 1000 miles or 550 days". Does this mean that I have over a year until the next service is due even if I exceed 1000 miles??

I hope it does!!!

Thanks

Tom

[Baron_Samedi]

Not sure if you should wait 550 days before service, but.... it looks like you either hammer the crap out of the car or the garage haven't set the computer to understand that the car is on variable interval service.

33k - 24k = 9k (isnt that the normal fixed service interval)?

[dubourg]

Well because my local vw dealer is so unreliable and seems to have the inverse midas touch I always had the suspicion that they didn't do the switch to long life servicing. Even when I made a point of repeating the request several times and asked them to confirm they had done so when I picked up the car.

I've never noticed the days until next service when I was on fixed (10k) servicing intervals so I was hoping this indicated a variable servicing schedule.

[iaint]

It sounds to me like you're not on long life servicing as you'll have done only 10,000 miles since it was last serviced at 24,000 miles.

Long life servicing is 2 years or 20,000 miles which ever comes first.

As for the message "Service due in 1000 miles or 550 days" that means the service is due whichever comes first, it's not optional I'm afraid.

Cheers
Iain

[mluton]

IIRC minimum milage for variable service is 9300miles and maximum 18600 miles.

550 days to go is 18 months as your post.

Its 6ish months since your last servive, so it could be right.

Best to get it checked out with a VAGCOM.

I Found this for VAG COM:

Module 17 - Instruments

Adaptation - 10

Channel

09 - Kilometers - in 10 - Km
Stored value - 2657
(Actual mileage recorded, ie 16510 miles)

21 - Old key - Cont - 2.0
Stored value - 2
(not a clue...)

40 - Actual Value - Insp in 1 - 00km
Stored value 115
(Mileage since last service, ie 7145 miles)

41 - Actual value - Insp in 1 - Days
Stored value 704
(704 days since last service)

42 - Min Value - Oil in 1 - 000km
Stored value 15
(Minimum mileage between servicing, ie 9320 miles)

43 - Max value - Oil in 1 - 000km
Stored value - 30
(Maximum miles between servicing, ie 18641 miles)

44 - Max value - Insp in 1 - Days
Stored value - 730
(Maximum days between servicing, ie 2 years)

45 - Oil - Quality
Stored value - 2
(1 = non-LongLife oil; 2 = LongLife oil)

46 - Consumption - Qty in 1 - liter
Stored value - 294
(Not a clue...)


Variable servicing or not is indicated by the Channnel 43, 44 and 45 settings - ie nominallly 20,000 miles (but actually 18641 miles), 2 years and LongLife oil.

[dubourg]

Thanks for the info. Looks like i'll have to get on to the dealer again for them to sort it out. I bet they'll deny all knowledge of me asking for long life servicing at the last service...

[mluton]

Where are you located, maybe someone with a VAGCOM can check out the settings before hand.

So that you know what the dealer set at the last service.

[Spiceman]

Hello,

Just out of interest have you topped the oil up, if so what oil did you use?

[dubourg]

Yes the oil light came on about 4 weeks ago. first time i've ever had to top up oil in any car i've owned. I used the long life oil 5w30 i think...the new standard and it cost £17 for a litre from a BP garage. I nearly passed out at the price.

I'm going to the dealer on friday for them to check out why the service light has come on so early...some good news is that their database says that they switched my car to long life services last march.

i'll let you know what they say on friday.

[Spiceman]

Any ideas what the brand was?

I know they are all supposed to be the same standard, however I put Shell fully synthetic 5/30 in my Golf and the service light came on within 100 miles, this was on a longlife service and it had its last service 8K miles ago!

So its castrol only for the passat!

[dubourg]

I used castrol fully synthetic...i'm going to the dealer in the morning and see what they find out... will let you know what happens..

they better not make excuses that i need to pay for another service so soon!! :zx11:

[dubourg]

Hi

I've done 24k miles since my last service and that was 12 months ago. No service light has come on. I've had to top up the oil three times.

Am I still enjoying the benefits of long life servicing, or has something gone wrong with the dashboard notification and I need a service?

Thanks

[Stuart W]

My understanding is that the long life interval is a maximum of 20,000 miles, so if your car doesn't need servicing before this then it must be serviced at that point - have a look at the VW document below.

Don't know how this relates to the dashboard indicator, but you'd think that if 20k was the max then the indicator would indicate that you need a service after 20k.

(The VW document also contains details of the fancy "top up kit" which I bought the other day :D)

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/assets/common/content/owners/Longlife_servicing.pdf

[Quatrelle]

Just downloaded that file. The paragraph at the end is interesting, or am I missing something there:
"Please note
All mileage stated is an approximate guide as the service indicator system uses kilometres as the distance measurement."

[Stuart W]

Just downloaded that file. The paragraph at the end is interesting, or am I missing something there:
"Please note
All mileage stated is an approximate guide as the service indicator system uses kilometres as the distance measurement."

Can't say that makes any sense - I certainly can't see the significance.

[Quatrelle]

So is the 'mileage' indicator at 20,000 really saying 12,000 (kms to miles)? What does the car's handbook state. My car's in kms anyway.

[Stuart W]

So is the 'mileage' indicator at 20,000 really saying 12,000 (kms to miles)? What does the car's handbook state. My car's in kms anyway.

Well I'm quite sure the numbers displayed are in miles in UK cars.

I can't really see the significance of what they're saying, but it's interesting that the paper says that on the time/distance service is due at around 10,000 miles.

Why would it need to be around 10,000 miles and not 10,000 precisely? Perhaps it's because the interval is actually 16,000 km and thus that's about 9,944 miles, which might explain the comment in the paper.

[Stuart W]

So is the 'mileage' indicator at 20,000 really saying 12,000 (kms to miles)? What does the car's handbook state. My car's in kms anyway.

The handbook provides figures in both miles and kms. However, both figures are quoted in round thousands of miles, so clearly the figures can't represent the same distance, so a service based on distance won't be the same if you work in miles as compared to kms.

Perhaps that's what's meant on the document, but reading it in isolation I still can't fathom what they're getting at:o

[Spyke749]

Any ideas what the brand was?

I know they are all supposed to be the same standard, however I put Shell fully synthetic 5/30 in my Golf and the service light came on within 100 miles, this was on a longlife service and it had its last service 8K miles ago!

So its castrol only for the passat!

NOOOOOOO if you are in a diesel then an oil that is approved to VW507.00 will be OK. Does not have to be Castrol, but, it should be an approved oil and not an oil that states it meet the requirements of VW507.00

An approved oil will have been submitted to VW and tested against the OEM specification. An oil that claims it meets the requirements is a self certification by the oil manufacturer, VW have never seen this oil and probably never will.

Stick with a major brand of oil with a VW approval. Major brand bought from high street motor factor should be around £13 for a 1ltr top up. Expect to top up 3ltr between services if you are on the long life service interval.

[domestos]

It sounds to me like you're not on long life servicing as
Long life servicing is 2 years or 20,000 miles which ever comes first.

My long life service is 30,000 miles of every 2 years.

So far I have done about 28,000 since my last service and no pop-up message. Pressing my spanner button says I am due a service in 3,000 miles of 350 days.