Longlife service lasted only 12 months

[karenfletcher@b]

I drive a 52 Reg 225 s-line Quattro. I purchased the car in Oct 2007 and had a long life service at an Audi dealer in Feb 2008 at a mileage of 32454. I have only covered 1500 miles in the 12 months since the service, fairly evenly spread and generally NOT including short journeys. After about 7 months the warning started to tell me I would need a service in 800 miles time. This has reduced linearly until, after almost exactly 12 months, it says I now need a service. I contacted the dealer to ask if they might perhaps have incorrectly reset the system based upon a 12-month service. They said this was very unlikely and that the reason was that the long life oil is not deigned for such a low milege - it will have degraded as a result, the sensors will detect this and that is why it is saying a service is required. (They say you need to do at least 2000 to 3000 miles a year to avoid this.) They suggest that an oil change will probably cure the problem, but I spent almost £70 in oil alone just 1500 miles ago, and another oil change at their prices will be £100+ with labour. I also wonder about the actual oil their service bill says they used and whether it is long life - it's described as "SHELL HELIX ULTRA 5W-3", a description I have been unable to substantiate so far using google searches. If anyone has any views on whether this idea that long life oil degrades with low usage and/or whether this spec. of oil is indeed long life, or has any other advice, I would be most grateful. Many thanks. Karen.

[towcestervag]

sounds like they set car service indicator up as yearly 10k