changing to long life service regime

**nc7503** · 08-11-2011,10:38 PM

evenin all i picked up my jetta tdi 1.9 today (happy bunny) looking through the service history it seems that its on the yearly service programme, i want to change it to the longlife service next time its due.is it ok to do this? or is it no no?
cheers guys

**Crasher** · 08-11-2011,10:57 PM

Stick to annual or 10K interval oil changes, longlife oil change intervals damage engines.

**nc7503** · 08-11-2011,11:12 PM

thats that sorted cheers crasher )

**Crasher** · 08-11-2011,11:15 PM

By the way, use Longlife 3 oil if you wish, I do, but I change it every 5K/6 months.

**radox** · 09-11-2011,09:27 PM

If you meet the conditions of the Longlife Flexible Servicing (i.e. mainly long journeys, not much stop start traffic) I'd stick with that. The engine was designed for it.

My 04-reg Mk V Golf has clocked up over 130,000 miles on the Longlife Flexible Servicing regime. It goes 18,600 miles between services and runs as good as the day I bought it.

I keep hearing I am going to damage my engine but I wonder, when?

**Crasher** · 09-11-2011,11:46 PM

Originally Posted by radox

I keep hearing I am going to damage my engine but I wonder, when?[/URL]

I keep hearing I am going to win the lottery bit I still wonder...when?

**SMEG** · 26-11-2011,10:02 AM

Hi, i had my car changed to fixed annual service as soon as i bought it at seven months old.The reason for this was purely my preference to change the oil and filter on a more regular basis using the VW 507 spec oil.This regime also enables my car(still under warranty) to be checked over by the dealer more often and gives me peace of mind.I also change the oil myself every six months simply because the relative cost of 4 lts of oil over six months is negligable in my opinion.

**phil miller** · 26-11-2011,12:46 PM

i cant for the life of me understand why anyone would want to be on the long life program (unless its to save money) it will at some point cost you big time, crasher owns a very good Garage, he knows his VAG engines better than most know the back of there hands, time and time again on here we have heard of turbo and cam problems which is almost diff down to oil spec and time between oil changes, i would never let my 1.9 TDI go more than 10k between services and nor should anyone else

**radox** · 13-12-2011,03:13 PM

I think you are playing on people's fears a bit here.

The engine was designed to run on the Longlife/Flexible service regime under certain conditions. If your usage meets these conditions, then you'll be fine. If you feel happier changing the oil more regularly, fine. If you bought your car used and are unsure of its previous history, fine. It's your choice. But predicting doom and gloom to everyone just for sticking to the standard, manufacture recommended schedule seems a bit unreasonable.

I'm not sure but I don't think the Mk V Golf was the first model which came with the long life/flexible servicing regime. I'm guessing it's been around for nearly 10 years now. VAG are in the business of making money and I'm sure they wouldn't still be offering it if it was trashing lots of people's engines.

**Eshrules** · 13-12-2011,03:26 PM

It's an emotive subject - the doom and gloom comes from time gained experience. When you consider that the same oil is used to lubricate both the engine and the turbo, allowing that same oil to circulate for up to 20k or 2 years doesn't sit at all well with me.

As Phil mentioned, cam and turbo failures aren't exactly rare - many of which can have a fair amount of fault attributed to the quality of the oil (or the lack of in pump failures!) being circulated.

Personally, I change oil every 8>10k or every 12 months, whichever comes first and without fail. I'd rather pay a little more in oil and servicing costs than have to rebuild another engine.