Is my suspicion justified with regard to Audi servicing and oil change?

[problemsolver]

Is my suspicion justified with regard to Audi servicing?


My Audi A4 143 Diesel bought new in Sept 2009.
The first request for service appeared on my car dashboard in Sept 2011 and took in for it.
The mile meter reading was 16839 miles.
I do not know if my car has Audi LongLife Service or Audi Inspection Service.
Audi Service Schedule has the following on Pg 17..


Audi LongLife Service yes/no
☑☐ Oil change
☑☐ Inspection


Audi Inspection Service yes/no
☐☑ Oil change
☐☑ Inspection




Additional work: yes/no
☐☑ Break fluid ☐☑ Air filter
☐☑ Spark plugs ☐☑ Fuel filter
☑☐ Dust and ☐☑ Haldex: oil
pollen filter element
☐☑ multitronic oil ☐☑ S tronic oil and filter
☐☑ Toothed belt


I was driving along the motorway at 70-80 mph suddenly a message appeared with a chime on my dashboard [jumped out of my skin] Oil max 1L continue to drive...


How could this happen. For first two years I did not require topping up with oil.
But here just a year after the servicing oil warning appeared on my dash board....


My questions:




What oil should I put in? In the boot in a black bag the following came with the car; Castrol SLX Professional Powerflow LongLife III 5W-30 [VW 504 00/ 507 00]





Did dealer put in adequate oil & the correct LongLife oil? I ask this because in the first two years I did not require topping up but it is not the case after servicing....?





Or there is something fault with the car in needing oil 1L top up?



Would you be kind enough to answer me?

[Hex69]

VW group diesels can use up to 1l per 1000km and still be considered normal.

You can use any oil as long as it conforms to the VW507 00 standard.

If you like your car, switch to yearly/10k max oil changes. Long life is for fleet manages to reduce the costs and to hell with what occurs down the line.

[AdCol]

I am no expert but I thought only the petrol engines were oil 'hungry' and the diesels are not.
I have 2 A6 Avants and they both get similar use but the petrol one has a few more miles. I regularly have to oil-up the V6 2.4se but have never had to do the longlife V6 3.0 TDi one.
In the first instance I'd contact the dealer and ask them the question.

Q1 - that's the longlife oil and it will be described in the manual too - read it to verify - I did before buying my 4l can. As well as Castrol I believe Shell helix do a version too.
Q2 - hmm! that's a good question. I've just had my LL service done in the diesel and was told £125 oil was used - at that cost (to us) are dealers likely to err on the low side?
Q3 - in my opinion the diesel engines should not require much if any topping up. What about signs on the ground? leakage from sump plug or oil filter?
good luck.

[AdCol]

Hex69 - you make a great point - I stupidly thought LL services were good but how can they be! as you say down the line is when those chickens will come a roosting!
I'm changing to annual/10k ones defo.
thanks.

[problemsolver]

If you like your car, switch to yearly/10k max oil changes. Long life is for fleet manages to reduce the costs and to hell with what occurs down the line.
That does make some sense. The car was originally belong to fleet company but delivered to me new. I after 3 years decided to buy as I am familiar with car and know the history [I thought I know it but after all may not.....:mad:]
There is no leak or visible leak.. as i park my car in the garage.

I was however unfortunate to have some one on a Ford Ka hit me on the back only a month ago resulting in changing my exhaust... Will an impact on the exahaust would have any effect on the oild useage and consumption...? I would think not but in modern cars ... Have you got on any thought on this.

Finally I must salute this forum for quick response not like A**i Forum where I found no reply over 24 hours for the same question.

Regards

[JimC64]

Hi there,
yes the diesels do use oil.

My A6 from new used around 1.2 litre every few thousand miles.
To be honest I found this quite disconcerting and very unusual at first.....It started to settle down around 12k miles iirc and used less and less.

The reason I found it unusual was after having driven Ford Mondeo diesels for many years, they never ever used a drop of oil once??

It now uses very little oil.

As for longlife servicing?
My car from new was on ll servicing right up until around 60k+ miles when I changed to yearly service intervals........just being ultra cautious I guess really as the car was doing more n more wtop start around town journeys.

My previous cars all from new were on longlife servicing and completed around 160k miles in 3 years with no issues. Most ofthose miles were motorway miles to be fair, but as a company car it was road tested daily, and survived to tell the tale and was sold on with no issues.

[Soot1e]

I was driving along the motorway at 70-80 mph suddenly a message appeared with a chime on my dashboard [jumped out of my skin] Oil max 1L continue to drive...


How could this happen. For first two years I did not require topping up with oil.
But here just a year after the servicing oil warning appeared on my dash board....

So by your own admission checking the oil level on a regular basis is something you do not do. Did you check the oil level after the service? A regular check may help you "keep your skin".

[problemsolver]

Hi there

.

So by your own admission checking the oil level on a regular basis is something you do not do. Did you check the oil level after the service? A regular check may help you "keep your skin".

I do check regularly & I did check on the dash board after the servicing and found on the bar the level just few milli-meters above the bottom on the red bar and at the time thought the amount is correct as I am only used to "Dip Sticks" where I am accustomed to leave the level between the top and bottom line and that normally remained unchanged for months if not years. So it may be that the amount of oil put in following the servicing questionable? So my initial suspicion seems accurate. However here it[oil] has dipped and disappeared within a month from such level!!!

Do you by any chance work for Audi dealers? The tone of your reply suggests something has upset you & why I wonder?

Regards

[Soot1e]

Hi there



Do you by any chance work for Audi dealers? The tone of your reply suggests something has upset you & why I wonder?

Regards

My apologies if the tone of my reply came across as if you had upset me, far from it. After 38 years working with piston and gas turbine engines I am always surprised whenever I hear or read about oil levels. It was always drummed into me and passed on to my apprentices about the importance of checking oil levels on a regular basis.

[Doctle Odd]

I check my oil every week I change it every 6-7 k miles, Slightly OCD I suppose. Audi Dealers keep their charges to their customers as close to zero as possible. Nobody ever got €9.99 added to a service bill for screen wash. All work is carried out by a team of at least eleventeen experts dressed like doctors. Every expert is vastly overqualified and if blindfolded and hog tied could reshell a crushed Audi using only his teeth and a vice grips. I have never met nicer receptionists and all parts are available off the shelf, I never have to order anything. I have never been fobbed off, sold the wrong part or advised to buy parts I obviously didn't need. Ah here comes the nurse with my Valium...

[theskyfox]

Hi,
As above. All engines burn oil be it petrol, diesel, av-gas...etc. Just keep an eye on it, and top up as required. The fact they supply you a litre of oil for you to keep in the boot is a bit of a hint I'd guess :P.

-Andrew

[xtremist]

My car uses approx 0.5l between services

[moptisam2]

Even though I will only have done about 6000 miles by the time my car, a Technik TDIe 163, is 12 months old, I'm having an annual service. Talking to the owner of the independent, local, garage I have used for all my cars for the last 25 years, including my previous 2 A4s, he said that LL servicing is a sales-point for fleet managers, but cars should have annual checks.

OK, yes - he'll get more work, but he's got a local (small town) reputation to maintain, so he can't go round giving his customers bad advice and besides, I trust them. He's done work for me without charge and once, after half an hour, found a problem on a Golf that a big VW main dealer gave up on .

[Crazyfool]

It sort of related to this, but thought I would just let you all know anyway that my A4 drinks oil. I check it pretty regularly, but one day the 1L warning appeared. I refilled the car, but the warning did not go away. My bonnet switch was broken so as far as the car was aware, although the bonnet was open, it didn't register I had filled it up with oil and didnt reset the computer. (Over complicated or what!).

Ive since had the switch replaced and everything is fine again. Just a little concerning because the same switch broke on my previous A4.