Guys

I have a 08 plate Octavia Elegance 1.6 FSI - registered in June 08 - which had 26K on it when I bought it in October last year. Had just been serviced and was periously serviced at 13K. I've just had the service due warning on the maxidot at 35K. Seems a bit early if the interval is 13K.

I'm assuming that on the last service the frequency was changed to fixed. As I don't really want to pay for 2 services a year if I can help it - I only do about 16K per annum - can the frequency be changed back to variable and if so what factors affect it? Was an ex council vehicle and was serviced at approved Skoda dealerships. Having driven company cars for several years, I haven't had to worry about servicing and this having to pay for things - tyres will be next - is all new to me!

The majority of the miles I do are done on the motorway, but I do get some farm/remote area visits which take me down the odd not exactly smooth road - I read somewhere that driving style affects the service intervals?

Any advice anyone can give would be welcome.

On variable, yes it depends on a number of factors. The number of cold starts, how hard you drive it, if it does much town mileage etc. It can be changed back to variable by the dealer or someone with VCDS quite easily.

On my old BMW's it also took into account how much you revved it when it was not up to running temp.

I had mine on variable when I got it and found I was only getting about 12k out of intervals, and it gave me nack all warning - 600 miles. It did it to me the day I set off to drive to Cornwall and back so blew that 600 miles away almost straight away, bloody thing. Thus I had it changed to fixed and I knew for a fact the oil was getting changed at 10k and I wasn't trying to eek more life out of it, longlife or not. Protect ye olde turbo and all that.

Hi,

I think you will find the fixed servicing interval is 15,000km which is 9300 miles and therefore consistant with the last service at 26k.

See this guide to see if variable suits you : http://www.volkswage...rvicing/regimes

You will need two things:

1 a code in your service book that shows your car is suitable for variable.

2 longlife oil.

Basically that's it.

The code on the sticker under the boot floor carpet or on the first page of your service booklet should be QG1.

If it is QG2 I think it cannot be variable.

Thanks for the advice guys.

The sticker says QG1, so I'll get this service done and ask the dealership to set it to variable to see how that goes. After the next one I might go for fixed due to the milage and age.

Cheers