My new secondhand 2007 1.9TDi Romster is due a 20k service soon.

I've got the service book but there's no mention of a longlife option, although the oil specified is longlife?

If not, why is the engine different to the same engine in, say, the Audi A3?

Next question, what gets changed in the service intervals and when does the cambelt need to be replaced?

Thanks for any help and advice.

Jonathan

Edited 31 March, 201016 yr by JonathanK

My new secondhand 2007 1.9TDi Romster is due a 20k service soon.

I've got the service book but there's no mention of a longlife option, although the oil specified is longlife?

If not, why is the engine different to the same engine in, say, the Audi A3?

Next question, what gets changed in the service intervals and when does the cambelt need to be replaced?

Thanks for any help and advice.

Jonathan

when the car is built you have the option of fixed or variable service interval, one of the option codes in your service book front cover will tell you which you have (there is a thread on here that points to a option code decoder, what to look for is "QG0 = Without service interval prolongation ")

cambelt interval is 60k miles,

oil, air filters, oil, general check , fault code check

fuel filter i think is 40k miles

might be worth asking them to swap the pollen filter as well

peter

option decoder at http://igorweb.org/equidec/Default.aspx

Edited 1 April, 201016 yr by bluecar1

Variable servicing exists for one reason only: to save money for tight-fisted fleet managers. The end result may be that the costs they save end up being incurred by the second owner. Of course, a lot of fleet vehicles do large mileages and don't PERHAPS need as much servicing. For myself, I have engine oil and filter changed mid-way through my fixed service interval. I want the damned thing to last!

John

Variable servicing exists for one reason only: to save money for tight-fisted fleet managers. The end result may be that the costs they save end up being incurred by the second owner. Of course, a lot of fleet vehicles do large mileages and don't PERHAPS need as much servicing. For myself, I have engine oil and filter changed mid-way through my fixed service interval. I want the damned thing to last!

John

my thoughts are different,

the standard fixed milage servicing is a one size fits all solution, which errs on the side of caution

the variable service period is determined by the ECU based on a number of factors, do not know what they are but i suspect it includes things like number of cold starts, number of time the engine exceed X rpm, etc

my car does very high milage, mostly cruising on motorway in 5th gear, so should i change my oil every 10k miles or less often, as i do fewer cold starts, fewer revoluions of my engine to reach 10kmile due to spending most of my time cruising in 5th, compared to a mum doing very short journeys like school run and shopping rarely exceeding 30mph in 4th?

variable service does make sense for drivers like myself (although i did not specify it on my car) but would not make sense for someone doing town driving only

peter

I can remember people complaining when we went from 3k servicing to 6k... there's even people around who will still change oil at 3k!

I tend to agree with you, Peter, technology has moved on both in electrics and oil so I can't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to have servicing intervals varied dependant on the use of the car.

AFAIK the Roomster was never offered with variable. I could be wrong though. Longlife oil is specified because because it has superceeded the spec of the standard PD oil and there is no point in having two oils when one will do. IIRC it's cheaper too.

My Saab has 18k service intervals and uses cheap oil too. It can even tell me when the quality of the oil gets poor enough to be a concern :p

Its certainly true that UK Fabia and Roomster models don't have variable servicing. In some of Europe however it is an option. Though having seen how dirty the oil in my car was after 10,000 miles and that was a fairly good quality oil which would be ok for variable servicing I wouldnt like to let it do many more miles between services.

Though having seen how dirty the oil in my car was after 10,000 miles and that was a fairly good quality oil which would be ok for variable servicing I wouldnt like to let it do many more miles between services.

If it's a diesel it will look blacker than black hole after about 10 miles. Nature of the beast.

That is very true but this was in the 1.2 petrol, after about 8,000 miles when checking the oil it looked like the oil in a diesel, lol. Had its service the other day and its back to looking how it should and the engine seems quiter and smoother again.