I picked my new VRS up on Saturday with 8 miles on it.

Have now done 170miles and just looked at the Service Interval Display (SID), it is showing 9400 miles and 370 days to service. This seems far too low as I thought a theoretical maximum was 30000 kms and 2 years.

The other thing I've noticed is that the service handbook says (handwritten) 'Next Inspection Service' in 10000 miles or by 6th Jan 2011, surely this is incorrect.

The 'spec' sticker in the book shows service regime as QG1 (Variable).

Would the dealer have reset it during the PDI onto fixed?

What miles are showing on other users who have recently taken delivery

Doing a 'Reset' on Maxidot made no change

I want to have it on variable as my driving is perfectly suited to this

Edited 20 January, 201016 yr by PowerMalc

That sounds like the dealer has set your car to a fixed interval which is 10K or 12 months at the PDI, they come set to variable by default which gives a maximum of about 20K or 2 years between services. If you want variable it will be a dealer visit to tell them to swap it back to how it was when it was delivered to them. If you did the service reset following the guide in the handbook, then you yourself have just set your car to fixed unintentionally.

The maximum variable interval is around 18,600 miles (30,000km) or 2 years, whichever is first.

If you are a low mileage driver or do frequent short journeys the general consensus is to stick with fixed annual servicing so as not to have the same oil sloshing about in the engine for 2 whole years. If you do higher mileage then variable is the way to go.

The maximum variable interval is around 18,600 miles (30,000km) or 2 years, whichever is first.

If you are a low mileage driver or do frequent short journeys the general consensus is to stick with fixed annual servicing so as not to have the same oil sloshing about in the engine for 2 whole years. If you do higher mileage then variable is the way to go.

So why don't they just say 1 year or 30,000km, whichever comes first, as that appears to be what you are saying, then they wouldn't need fixed and variable servicing as anyone doing much less than 30,000km should clearly be on fixed servicing anyway and anyone else is never going to get past 1 year so the 2 year bit is nonsense really.

30,000 km is about the max they reckon the engine will go for (A friend of mine got 35,000 km on hos car once though). The oil condition is monitored by the engine so when it's contaminated/substandard the engine flags it regardless of what mileage it happens to be at. I plan to leave my car on this even though I do low mileage in order to avoid the possibility that the oil monitoring is turned off if you set it to fixed intervals. I'll bring it in once a year for a checkover if the service indicator doesn't complain before then.

Variable vs fixed servicing has been debated several times in the past.

Some people are happy to go onto variable and have their car serviced once every 2 years. Others shudder at the thought of a service every 2 years, especially when a turbocharger is involved as it's obviously lubricated with engine oil.

If I was on a fixed service regime my car would be in for a service every 9-10 weeks which is just silly. Being on QG1 means a service every 5 months or so. Its always uses a small quantity of oil which dilutes the older stuff, I would say around 2 litres between services. I also have the advantage of long journeys on motorways which are favourable conditions for a TDI.

My wife's vRS TDI does about 6k a year and gets a service every year whether it needs it or not. I would not be happy leaving it for 2 whole years considering all of the short journeys it does.

Each to their own.

I've got a new vRS, without maxidot, and I can't get it to display mileage/time to 1st service at all, having followed the instructions in the manual about holding down the knob on the fascia. If it's on variable, will it only start to display this when it's nearer the time (I've only covered 2000 miles so far) or should you be able to call it up anytime?

Cheers,

Bob

The ignition has to be on without the engine running unless they've changed it on the FL model. If there is a '- - -' this means the calculated interval hasn't been worked out yet but I would think 2000 miles is more than enough.

The FL, IIRC you twist the dial, not press it to show the interval to avoid accidental resets - which sounds like what the OP has done if held for more than 2 secs.

Procedure is same, engine off ignition on but TWIST on an FL.

The FL, IIRC you twist the dial, not press it to show the interval to avoid accidental resets - which sounds like what the OP has done if held for more than 2 secs.

Procedure is same, engine off ignition on but TWIST on an FL.

Yes, correct. On the FL it's a twist to the right (clockwise) to scroll through available info. Works fine on non-maxidot displays too

The FL, IIRC you twist the dial, not press it to show the interval to avoid accidental resets - which sounds like what the OP has done if held for more than 2 secs.

Procedure is same, engine off ignition on but TWIST on an FL.

In the mistaken belief that in resetting it, it would correct the mileage and time. I did this using the Maxidot under settings.

As Mannyo says it looks as though the dealer reset the factory setting (variable) to fixed. They never asked me

or told me what service regime it should be on

In the mistaken belief that in resetting it, it would correct the mileage and time. I did this using the Maxidot under settings.

What do you mean? If you reset via the dash to get the values, you did and reset it to fixed yourself in the process.

Heavy handed checking of intervals has also been known to trigger the service message as well.

A member with VCDS can correct and check for you.

Spoke to the service manager at my supplying dealer today and he said it had been set to fixed at PDI but did not get an explanation as to why

They will re-set it to variable when I take it in to have the new boot badge fitted. I'll ask further why they thought I would want fixed and why no communication with the customer

On the service book there is a code that relates to fixed and variable.

On the service book there is a code that relates to fixed and variable.

Yes and mine says QG1(variable) but they still changed it to fixed

Planks

still not sure what to do about the fact they couldn't be bothered to enable a few things for me during the PDI. What do you rekon PowerMalc?

Yes and mine says QG1(variable) but they still changed it to fixed

Same here, although in my case fixed is what I should be on.

My guess is that all cars come with variable from the factory and that many/most/some dealers will change that to fixed.

Planks

still not sure what to do about the fact they couldn't be bothered to enable a few things for me during the PDI. What do you rekon PowerMalc?

Yes same with mine although they did get most things setup. Still want cornering foglights so I think I will find a member with VAG-COM and see if they can do it

Yes same with mine although they did get most things setup. Still want cornering foglights so I think I will find a member with VAG-COM and see if they can do it

If you find one local to you then if you could let me know and maybe I could come along too.

Same here, although in my case fixed is what I should be on.

My guess is that all cars come with variable from the factory and that many/most/some dealers will change that to fixed.

Yes, some dealers do it to get more money from their customers.