And to be clear...IF like me you run the Fabia 2 with a PD engine, you should only be using either the Quantum 505.01 5-40 oil, or the 507 spec if you have a PD engine with the DPF fitted. Fully syn is best as you can get these oils in a semi synthetic brands at Halfords. Personally I would not stray from a fully syn oil in a PD engine. Bloody confusing isn't it!

Anyone paying or getting a 3 year service plan needs to see what really it includes,

other than the Oil and Filter change.

If it was 3 years or each 10,000 miles normal service with Oil & Filter each 12 month or 10,000 miles

Fluids checked & topped up.

Tyre pressures.

An inspection at 12 months, maybe some oiling or greasing,hinges, probably not.

Ticks on a Service sheet.

(so look see what was checked)

24 months,

Oil & Filter.

maybe a new Pollen Filter, a few checks and a Hand Help Computer being used as an Inspection is being done.

Fluids, tyres, hinges.

No wheels off probably.

36 months.

Brake Fluid Change if you pay for that, & the usual Looky see.

Fluids, tyres, hinges, Inspection.

** This is when you want a really good check,

Maybe for starters, get the car in one month before for the MOT, somplace else,

then into the Dealership for that Service and any Warranty work.**

40,000 miles maybe Spark Plugs changed.

Air filter maybe changed or not sometime.

The Wheels might still never have been off from new.

So Oil & Filter gets done & lots of checking Fluids.

Lots of ticks on Service Sheets.

Done or not, but lets be positive, they will have been done.

Basically, the car might be 3 years old,

gets a MOT at 3 years old.

Maybe been in a garage workshop for 4 hours since its PDI

& had its Oil & Filter changed, a Pollen Filter & some top ups.

Not really a 'Service Plan' IMO

george

If your oil is changed at least every year (or more freqently with high miles),I remain to be convinced that 505.00 spec oil is necessary.

Why? ...because the only difference between 505.00 and 502.00 MAY be the "longlife" additive.

Also,where do we stand on the Quantum (5/30 or 5/40) versus Castrol thing.I've always used the Quantum "official" VAG oil bought in 5 litre containers from VAG dealers because that has been the most economical method.It's alleged that Quantum is just repackaged Castrol in any case.

There's a significant price difference between Quantum (especially the 5/40 variety) and the Castrol stuff supplied in a 1 litre pack foc with my new Fabia vRS...I smell marketing propaganda.

The 505 has an extreme pressure agent in it, so I've been told. The Vrs piston rings need it to reduce wear under harsh acceleration, as do other parts of the engine I would imagine. Having now participated in the stripping down of one of these incredibly complex engines and seen the damage that occurs just from regular driving, I would say use the best oil you can lay your hands on and never stray from the recommended specs or you are asking for trouble. These days many engines are designed to be very oil specific and many owners often don't realise the importance of following manufacturers instructions on this. Recently, I worked as part of a very small team developing a brand new engine. The oil companies were brilliant and came up with many solutions to wear problems enabling us to achieve exactly the things we wanted to get from the engine. But if anyone strays from that particular oil, engine wear will accelerate considerable to the point where something will fail early. My advise is follow the recommended instructions on oils, always.

EstateMan, I'd be really curious about that damage you swa while recently stripping 1.4 twincharger. Could you possibly elaborate?

Also, isn't it VW 504 00 for flexible and VW 502 00 for fixed service regimes?

Hi Jabo, yes no problem. The twin charged unit I helped strip was in a Golf. It had severe wear damage to the bores and rings from two years of heavy use. Some scuffing present too. Car was run hard from new which is probably why the bores were severely glazed. All piston rings showed uneven temperature running with blueing to the main piston compression rings in localised areas indicating the engine is not run in correctly. This led to a broken compression ring due to uneven temperature induced metalurgical changes. Basically, the engine was showing signs of being knackered at just 35,000 miles. The sort of wear I found is not too uncommon at this mileage I understand, and is not confined to this VAG unit. It can happens on any higher powered units if not treated right. If these engines are booted inconsiderately too hard from new the bores glaze very quickly and the conforming process won't fully happen and in some case doesn't happen at all. This can lead to this sort of wear often encountered with this engine and can lead to high oil use too. There are many reasons why this engine can use lots of oil though, and discussed at length on this forum. Yes it's 504 if that's what is recommended for flexible, I repeated the keyboard error in XK140's post. Gotta say, these engines are not keepers in my book. Just too unreliable, but that's just my thoughts from what I often see. I know some others will disagree perhaps because they have different experiences with it.

Edited 14 December, 201213 yr by Estate Man

I'd agree with booting them from cold an new being wrong.

But low revs high combustion pressure (i.e. pushing rings hard against the bores but without hig revs causing overheating and glazing leading to the damage you desribed) is described as the best running in method by many tuners. What do you think?

Sorry,I did mean 504 oil,not 505.

Interesting comments.It would be nice to assume that recent engines like ours (CTHE) are signifiantly improved over earlier engines.

In any case,in,at most,5 years and 50k miles I will be changing and I've got the 5 year warranty cover,I just hope the second hand values don't go through the floor.Still can't think of any alternative new car at £15k I could have got.

Regarding oil,I suppose it will get what the dealer puts in,which should be 504.It's just that my feeling that once the engine has done a fair few miles, (say 20k),it would be better with a top quality slightly thicker oil.

1500 miles now and recently the oil level was at the bottom of the hatched area so 500 ml was added and this took it to the top of the hatched area.

Anyway 3000 miles per litre would be better than my Octy vRS petrol,so I don't have a problem really,time to just drive normally and get on with things,I think!

I'd agree with booting them from cold an new being wrong.

But low revs high combustion pressure (i.e. pushing rings hard against the bores but without hig revs causing overheating and glazing leading to the damage you desribed) is described as the best running in method by many tuners. What do you think?

To be honest, if you just follow the running in technique in the book you cannot go wrong. Trouble is, many read the book and think it means driving slowly. It doesn't of course. You have to give the engine some work to do, vary the load (most important) but avoiding large throttle openings at low or high revs is a good idea on an engine like this for the first few hundred miles. The power output is so high that you can scupper the cross hatching in the bores very very quickly and glaze them. The engine never runs in once that happens and you'll often end up with trouble just down the road. It's the same for any high power output small engine where the combustion temperatures and pressures reach levels way above the considered norm for it's normally aspirated cousins. I'm ex tech on cars and bikes and bikes can have this problem a lot more than cars due to the serious amount of bhp per litre they put out. It's way above most car outputs. It's easy to tell who's been a bad boy when the engine goes wrong and you can see the engines have often never run in due to being booted much too much in the first few hundred miles. Some of my colleagues still in the trade tell me they are seeing more and more problems with engines due to owners of bikes following the 'motorman' running in method of throttle wide open from the word go. Owners often misinterpret the instructions and do irrepairable harm to the motor. Just follow the book instructions, you really really won't go wrong.