Car switched from Long Life to Time / Distance service by accident?!?

[wookiee]

Hi guys / gals

I'm looking for some experience and advice on an issue that’s started today.

Basically, our 07 Mk5 TDi (Match model) has displayed the message that we have 800 miles until the next service is required.

I'm a bit disappointed about this, as in my opinion, the car should not be due a service yet, especially on the Long Life (LL) service plan.

Some details on the car:
Registered March 07
Purchased used April 08: Around 9k on the clock, and dealer advised car would not be serviced due to not being required on the long life service plan.
December 08: Service required indication shown, car serviced against the long life schedule, Car was booked in, serviced & mileage recorded as 19260.
June 09: Service indicator has appears again today, stating that the service is required in 800 miles. Mileage today is 27700.

Ok, so basically the car believes its service is required @ 28500. That’s just over 9k since the last service.

The service book suggests the next service should be Dec 2010, or 38000 miles.

The car is used by my wife, and the type of use couldn't fit in better with the LL description; it’s used on motorway every day, and her commute is a 70ish mile round trip, so check to constant speed, used regularly, enough daily miles etc.

I called into the dealership closest to me at lunch to have a quick chat, and the waters got cloudy...
The dealer is suggesting that use of the trip meter button can "accidentally" put the car into time and distance (T&D) servicing mode. I'm not talking about holding the button here, (I’m not sure what the sequence is to switch the car from LL to T&D, but surely this shouldn't be something you can achieve by accident anyway!) I’m talking about just pressing it to reset the last trip distance. The guy on the service counter suggested he has seen more than one car displaying this problem, and has recent instruction from VW NOT to reset any displays back to LL without carrying out a service!

Doing this without a service (in their opinion) could have warranty implications, as the LL service period would become skewed.

Have any of you heard of/seen this, or experienced anything like this before?

I’ve done a little research on the internet, and found a GTI forum (which happened to be another TDi owner but anyway) suggesting he was told by a dealer that there was an ECU problem which could cause the car to display a service indicator after 8300 miles regardless of being on LL or T&D schedule. However, the thread doesn’t really conclude, and was last updated in 2007.

I’ve also seen a number of VW forums slating dealership work, especially around keeping cars on the LL schedule… mainly because the process to reset the service indicator message for LL and T&D is different, where T&D is much easier and quicker. (And subsequently they may have been lazy and put the car into T&D mode) If so, this is bad for the dealer – Does anyone know of a way to prove if this has happened?

Also, if our car was put onto T&D plan, surely a service should not be required until 29260, so with the early warning accounted for, and should not see any service messages until 28460??? So unless the T&D is not a precise 10K count to next service, this does not quite fit the description…

I plan to take the car back to the closest dealership to review what schedule the car thinks it is on… The dealer implied I should just live with it, and then service the car 18600 miles after their last service! But I’m not really comfortable with that, based on ignoring the LL indication and just assuming the service is required after 18600 could cause damage. At the same time, I’m not prepared to pay for another service after such a short period!

Sure there is a compromise to be made, but I really don’t like getting 'flannel' from dealers...

All comments welcome, and thanks for reading.
I’ll update if I make any progress with the dealer.

[RickT]

Hi,

You have 2 options,

1st - Take a look at our VAG-COM section and see if theres any members close to you who are able to reset it for you back onto the long life.

2nd Option

(Which i would do.)

Reset it yourself onto the variable service indicator,

Do the following below

Service due reminder

It's all about the trpi-reset, button, with the ignition on, let the seatbelt alarm go off (if you're not wearing it) preferably wear the seatbelt and within 2 seconds of turning the key to light up the ignition lights, (do not start engine) press and hold the trip-reset button. You will NOT lose the trip count - it'll go to zero initially, show you the mileage to the next service interval, and the trip counter will go back to what it was.

The display resets back to the normal computer after about 30 secs.



The variable service reset should see it ok for the next 10k miles or so, just do that so you have the "chime on start up" and then get the car serviced when its due as per your service book.

And make sure they do it correctly next time.

Sounds to me they did not put it on the long life alert from when they serviced it.

Cheers

Rick

[norlettdriver]

I'm just experiencing exactly the same problem in my Golf - Mk5, 2005 2.0TDI. Expected service mileage - 52000, current mileage 42000. Thanks for the advice.

[airport mick]

same happened to me at independant garage i know my car normally will show 19000 plus on longlife i took mileage at service plus 16000 miles i never leave oil change to 19000. then when next service was due i made sure garage had correct software. sorted. my annual milage 90,000 per year airport mick.