Hi all, my PD170 is telling me it needs a service now, i found out by pressing the milometer reset pin and turning the key.

Problem I have is it was serviced 14 months ago/ 8000 miles and has been serviced as variable as set up from factory, also at a Skoda garage.

Its been into Arnold Clark Skoda to get checked up to see why its needing a service so soon but they keep saying its fixed and they reset it and the car will tell you when its ready but its been in 3 times and so far that is all they have to say about the matter.

Its going back to them after i kick up hell with them.

My questions are,

Is it worth changing the oil/ filter for the next 5 months, is it even possible the car and the current oil is past its due according to the variable intervals if it has had a hard 8000 miles (owned the car for 2000 miles of this).

Which oil should i put in for variable, does it need to be longlife, do i need to have anything reset after the oil change or can i just put in the oil they use for fixed servicing.

Which grade (fully synth or what) for variable?

Which grade for fixed?

Please help

Whether you are on fixed or variable servicing doesn't matter - the oil used in the PD170 is the same.

The reason for this is your car is equipped with a DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter).

This means you must use the low ash/long life oil. The container needs to show VW 507.00 on the label.

You'll be amazed at how many dealers try and bump up the price of an oil change because of the high spec oil when in fact it the diesel vRS uses the more expensive oil anyway so they need to honour the pricing on 'Skoda's National Pricing' - £129 for an minor/fixed service.

I actually got a variable service for the same price (£129) as when I asked the guy why it would be more he tried to claim that the variable (or long life service) used a more expensive oil. When I mentioned they should be using the longlife oil regardless of the type of service he backed down.

I think you have had some advice on the use of Arnold Clark on another thread, your car is on fixed, they've reset the service interval incorrectly.

The debate of the frequency of oil changes is long and exhaustive on this forum.

My advice would be an oil change at least one a year.

If you are doing high mileage (approx. 20K+) then variable will be fine as it'll flag for a service within the year.

If your mileage is low and is stop/start I'd go fixed to ensure fresh oil once a year.

Only you can decide on whether to trust the advances in modern oil. My thoughts are for the sake of a £35 container of VW 507.00 oil and a £5 filter I'll swap it out just before the tough winter of cold starts etc.

Thanks for the info, longlife is what i need then.

I did a few searches but either my search parameters were off for the info i was looking for or i couldnt be bothered enough to read all the resultant posts.