Long Life Service Indicator

[gregk81]

I have recently bought a 2003 A4 2.0 Avant. It’s set up for long life servicing and was last serviced at 76k miles. The car had done 82k miles when I picked it up and I've since done no more than 250 miles.I'm very pleased with it so far and can't fault it, the only curious thing is that the service indicator is showing ---- miles ---- days. The car was last serviced 10-11 months ago.I understand a long life service is typically between 15-18k miles or upto 2 years - the car is within these limits. However is it normal for the car not to show a countdown to next service? Does it only start counting down closer to when the service is due? My understanding is that the time to next service is calculated within 500 miles after a service (does this only apply to fixed interval?). If it is meant to be displaying, my only other thought is that some mischievous car salesman could have done a manual reset (for what reason I’m not sure)I’ve seen some opinions that dispute the efficacy of long life servicing. If the car isn’t thrashed, is it really that much of an issue?Thoughts appreciated. I’ll also give my local audi specialist a call – any recommendations on ones in the Guildford / Woking area also appreciated.

[Crasher]

Drop the Longlife and go back to normal intervals. I have seen cars sold which have had the interval tampered with by using the dash reset function.

[gregk81]

Thanks fot the advice.Given the miles since last service, is the display showing ---days ---miles definitely an indication that it has been tampered with, or is it behaving normally?

[baj25]

Hi,

i have a 2002 1.9 tdi 130 with 89000 miles and when i got the service done it took a few weeks for the indicator to tell me what days and miles i had left. i'm still not sure on the long life service, i do about 700 motorway miles in a week traviling to woking and back but i still change the oil and filter my self every 7000 miles between the 20000 or 2 year service gap.if anyone thinks it's pointless i'd like to know because i'm probably wasting my time doing it,i just think leaving oil for that amount of time is wrong.or should i trust what the garage tells me?

[bonerp]

personally i wouldnt leave anything til 20,000 miles have passed - certainly not the oil!! Its cheap enough to do it regularly after all.

[Marco34]

Hi,

i have a 2002 1.9 tdi 130 with 89000 miles and when i got the service done it took a few weeks for the indicator to tell me what days and miles i had left. i'm still not sure on the long life service, i do about 700 motorway miles in a week traviling to woking and back but i still change the oil and filter my self every 7000 miles between the 20000 or 2 year service gap.if anyone thinks it's pointless i'd like to know because i'm probably wasting my time doing it,i just think leaving oil for that amount of time is wrong.or should i trust what the garage tells me?

I'd say you are spot on there. I simply do not do longlife servicing. The oil may survive 20k miles but it surely won't be at it's best and nor will the filter! The same muck still goes through the filter.

My 1.9tdi does short trips to work and I only do about 9-11k a year so I change oil and filter every 6 months. I like oil in top condition and for the sake of £35 and my time it's worth it. A few people on this forum would agree to axe longlife servicing. Not only do you not change the oil and filter but also no inspection under the bonnet either!!!

[Crasher]

What is quite scary is the thought of a four year old car with around 125K miles on the clock just having had a Longlife service at a garage with, shall we say, lax attention to detail, and then having been MOT'd under the proposed two year interval MOT rules (say the tyres had 2-mm on all of them). Then it gets used for the next two years running the kids around, going on holiday etc with not even a cursory glance as to its roadworthiness. Carnage on the roads waiting to happen!