Hi all,

Booked my my car in for it's 1st service

After much talking I managed to make the local dealer book it in for time & date (yearly) servicing instead of the variable, with all his comments about engines are designed to go 20k and car will tell you etc. And me informing him about my mileage and driving, he still held out on variable. To get him to do fixed I had to tell about the VW site on servicing and i emailed Skoda "they told me to service" i said, "ok then but your still wasting your cash"....

You would think they would want the work, wouldn't you?:confused: but anyhow.

But what i really need to know what type of oil should he be using: he said he can fit 3 types of fixed, some stuff at £19, next at £28 or the longlife 504 00 one at £48ish.

Going to set for fixed yearly from now on, so what do you all think? go the full hog and fit longlife or waste of money? I was thinking of the mid priced one at £28

james.

Do you do short journeys and stop start? Might as well go for the £48 and be done with it. Also saves mixing the oils.

Do you do short journeys and stop start? Might as well go for the £48 and be done with it. Also saves mixing the oils.

What makes you think the longlife oil will be better for short trips and stop/start driving, when it's designed for exactly the opposite, i.e. cars that do lots of motorway miles with infrequent stop/starts?

I think it's a dangerous assumption that because the longlife oil is more expensive and therefore "better", it'll give more protection in circumstances that it wasn't actually designed for. Is there any evidence to suggest that a car running a fixed servicing schedule will benefit from using longlife oil rather than "standard" oil? I'm not saying it won't, I'm saying don't assume it will...

Thanks for replies, yes stop/star driving and then a good run about once a week. just done 6000miles on near a year.

I see Halfords are doing Mobil 1 ESP 5W/30 (504 00) 4L for £37, cheeper than mr dealer for same. Guess that would be rude giving to dealer what i bought in halfords and telling him to fit, and i thought my car had a bit over 4.5L oil not the 4l on that. That is if i fit long life oil on a fixed service. What do people think? waste of cash?

james.

I found this on the web regarding synthetic oil : Synthetic Oil

You'll have to decide for yourself how valid it is though but others here may wish to comment.

One of the things it does mention is the effect on valve seals but it dismisses that it has any. However I always used to put Mobil 1 in a 1985 Audi 80 and after a while it did start burning oil quite badly necessitating the valve seals to be replaced. Maybe newer cars have a different composition for the seals (I think Mobil 1 was quite new at the time) which are designed to be unaffected by synthetic oils or it could have been the case that they would have deteriorated irrespective of the type of oil.

There should be a good answer for this as I'm in the same boat (Timing belt needed at my car's next service though, so it won't be that cheap anyway), and I've looked for information on whether the long life oil is better if you're not putting up silly mileage and I can't find a definitive answer either.

Based on the post above and given my car has been sitting unused since Monday night and possibly won't be used tonight either, synthetic oil's resistance to breakdown and low pour point could make an important contribution to my engine's life even on fixed service intervals...

Edited 27 August, 200916 yr by psycholist

Based on the post above and given my car has been sitting unused since Monday night and possibly won't be used tonight either, synthetic oil's resistance to breakdown and low pour point could make an important contribution to my engine's life even on fixed service intervals...

I'm not sure, whilst I don't think it will do any harm it may not be cost effective if your changing the oil regularly after a relatively short milage. Still it will be good to get a definitive answer as I only average about 6000 miles per year with mainly stop/start runs of 5-6 miles each way to work.

Hope some ones comes up with a answer before Wednesday am!

I was properly not going for the cheeper one the dealer said but the synthetic 5W-40 (VW502.00 I guess?) at £28 and not the 504 00 longlife one. Any car or oil gurus care to comment?

james.

I'd go with the id range myself.

Have you checked the handbook which gives advice on oil specification for fixed and variable servicing ?

The online version is here : ?koda Auto - The new ?koda Octavia - Documentation

Navigate to Technical Data -> Engine Oil Specifications.

Although I know this doesn't say whether the oil for variable servicing is better than that recommended for fixed servicing.

Personally I'd use the best one they specified for my engine for the type of service appropriate to the way I drive it (in my case fixed).

My dealer (silbury skoda) who i've been with for years now, told me to stick with variable..i'd done 8k..i'm still under warranty, so why choose yearly ??

I think variable servicing is designed for those who do relatively high milages (i.e. mostly long distance motorway driving) in a short time. If they were on fixed servicing then they might be requiring a service say every three months when they may really only need an oil change. Using the long life oil can extend the time but as moisture in the engine condenses and it gets contaminated with other things it can cope with that if the car is running long enough and get hot enough to evaporate the moisture. This may result in a car doing a high milage extending the service interval longer than a year.

However with cars that are doing quite short runs where the engine doesn't get hot for long then the oil may not be able to get rid of any moisture it has absorbed and needs to be replaced more often, usually after about a year irresepective of milage. In this case putting long life oil may not help if the runs are too short to get the oil up to a high enough temperature to drive off the moisture.

My dealer (silbury skoda) who i've been with for years now, told me to stick with variable..i'd done 8k..i'm still under warranty, so why choose yearly ??

Two dealers told me about just leave it but if you read any VW brochure they say variable is only for 25 miles+ each day on a motorway etc.

Also this might help:

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/assets/common/content/owners/Longlife_servicing.pdf

Next I emailed Skoda UK, reply

"I have spoken to our Technical Support Team who have confirmed that the variable service plan is for more long distance journeys and higher mileage use, where the fixed service plan is recommended for people who do not do as much mileage."

Next all the press like Honest John say variable is not far most users:

"Also increasing evidence is flooding in from readers that longlife servicing is bringing an even more premature end to engines then the manufacturers anticipated. This has led VAG to revise its service recommendations and to generally advise 10k or annual (whichever comes first) oil and filter changes for new models and only a longlife regime when the engine runs in near perfect operating conditions. Some mention of this in my test of the new Scirocco"

It seems the Skoda dealer are well out of loop, and the question must be asked if you buy a 2ed hand car say in 3 years time that's been left on variable when it shouldn't be by lack of info from dealers, that's not going to do the brand any good. Perhaps Skoda should be like VW do and put info from the PDF above on the back of the brochures.

James.

Next all the press like Honest John say variable is not far most users:

"Also increasing evidence is flooding in from readers that longlife servicing is bringing an even more premature end to engines then the manufacturers anticipated. This has led VAG to revise its service recommendations and to generally advise 10k or annual (whichever comes first) oil and filter changes for new models and only a longlife regime when the engine runs in near perfect operating conditions. Some mention of this in my test of the new Scirocco"

Unlikely, because VAG would have done a lot of engine testing before it got to market. They know how durable their engines are, that kind of stuff isn't left to chance.

What's far more likely is that people (not entirely their own fault, although they aren't absolutely blameless either) are running variable when they shouldn't be, and hence suffering premature engine wear.

It's questionable whether variable servicing should be the default, IMO.

A lot is said about whether you should be on fixed or variable depending on your annual mileage, but I think it's worth pointing out (again) that if you like to drive ENTHUSIASTICALLY then you should be on FIXED, regardless of your annual mileage!

The way I read the OP post though was that the issue isn't deciding on fixed or variable servicing but which of the three specifications of oil offered should they choose on fixed servicing, particularly is there any benefit from using the more expensive long life type that's designed for variable servicing or should the middle one in terms of cost be chosen.

Where Skoda specify more than one type for both fixed and variable servicing in their technical data section of the handbook there is no information on the differences between them. I would have expected the dealers service department to be able to advise on the most suitable one, presumably depending on the type of driving one does or other factors, but it's not helpful if all they ask the customer is how much do they want to pay for it.

Mr Dealer still held out on variable! and said you might as well go for cheap oil as going on fixed as to be ditched after a year but I thought better oil in costing a bit going to do engine good right?

james.

Mr Dealer still held out on variable! and said you might as well go for cheap oil as going on fixed as to be ditched after a year but I thought better oil in costing a bit going to do engine good right?

james.

Well, it's designed to last longer, but who's to say that it offers any performance benefit over 10k miles? Is there any evidence to suggest it causes less engine wear when changed at the same frequency as "fixed" oil?

I'd definately expect "fixed" oil to be a bad idea when following a variable service, but to say longlife oil will be better when following a fixed schedule is just guesswork, unless there is evidence to the contrary?

Like I've said before, just because longlife is designed to last longer, doesn't mean it's "better" when only used over 10k miles... (but maybe it is, I don't know!)

New to these forums, so can't tell what size engine your car's got, just that it's an 08MY petrol.

I quite agree that if you're doing 6K miles per year, mostly stop/start, then you're doing the right thing by going for fixed-interval servicing. I do 10K miles per year, based on a 12-mile trip to work, so I shall be going for fixed servicing when I pick up my new Octavia some time late Oct./early Nov.

That means you need to use VW 501 01 or VW 502 00 oil if you've got a 1.4 or a 1.6, VW 502 00 oil if you've got a 1.8, and VW 504 00 oil if you've got a 2.0. That's according to the on-line documentation that someone's very kindly linked to this forum - your car's handbook may differ.

So your answer is (it seems to me) - go for the best -quality oil offered by your dealer that meets the appropriate one of those VW specs - if you've got a 1.4, 1.6 or 1.8, there's no need to pay more for the longlife spec oil. If you've got a 2.0 engine, then it's easy because (according to the on-line documentation, anyway), the spec is the same for fixed and variable-interval servicing.

Hope that answers your question. Good luck on Wednesday!

This Which oil. VW specification.: Motoring Technical matters forum may enlighten/confuse you but is probably worth reading.

Note that any discussions found on the internet regarding this may not be up to date especially if they pre-date the turbo engines.