Surely with dealer rates being over £90 an hour the main cost would be removing and ahem "cleaning" it . My TFSI was an arse to get out and to save under £10 over an average 4 years usage is crazy , I change mine every year in every car I have had even though I do under £3000 miles a year. I thought these 2 year servicing deals were pushing it, 6 years

Alan's filter doesnt fit .... I read the wrong code

Ordered a new one and a pollen filter from Eurocarparts with 25% discount

I lost my faith in all aspects of Skoda, future cars, dealer diagnostics but especially customer services, that is why I no longer own a Skoda. Even at 5000 miles your white filter is grey, your filter is like your lungs, you restrict your breathing you lose energy, same with your engine. I changed mine evey year , Eurocarparts. I have a spare new one for a TFSI if anyone at the next Yorkshire meet wants a free one

Chris!

Did u say u NO LONGER own the Octavia with the cool number plate? :-(

I had a choice of doing a health check at bradford (£40) or leeds (£20),

both belonging to DMKeith but 100% cost difference for the same job!

Went to leeds HQ in the end.

Deffo a car park as tight as sardines in a tin.

My Superb is set on variable service.

But since i do below the annual mileage , i ask Leeds if i shud swop over

to fixed.

Thy advised me too, even though it may cost more,

but an annual service of 10k miles at £150 and £250 at 20k

is better thn on variable whn no service is required til i done 10k in year 2?!!!!

Obviously those who do for example 40k a year will get several service done within the same year?

I think wot i am trying to say is,

even thought the service schedule specifies a air filter replacement,

coz Chris does so few miles a year, by the time he does 12k on a variable schedule - the

Car computer will say he needs air filter on the 4th year (3k/yr x4) =

Variable schedules overides the actual service schedules for minor/major servicing ...

...not sure if tht makes sense to anyone?

Chris!

Did u say u NO LONGER own the Octavia with the cool number plate? :-(

No....Alan doesnt have his anymore.. I have a cool Octy still and numberplate

I had a choice of doing a health check at bradford (£40) or leeds (£20),

both belonging to DMKeith but 100% cost difference for the same job!

Went to leeds HQ in the end.

Deffo a car park as tight as sardines in a tin.

My Superb is set on variable service.

But since i do below the annual mileage , i ask Leeds if i shud swop over

to fixed.

Thy advised me too, even though it may cost more,

but an annual service of 10k miles at £150 and £250 at 20k

is better thn on variable whn no service is required til i done 10k in year 2?!!!!

Obviously those who do for example 40k a year will get several service done within the same year?

I think wot i am trying to say is,

even thought the service schedule specifies a air filter replacement,

coz Chris does so few miles a year, by the time he does 12k on a variable schedule - the

Car computer will say he needs air filter on the 4th year (3k/yr x4) =

Variable schedules overides the actual service schedules for minor/major servicing ...

...not sure if tht makes sense to anyone?

I have thought about this..It may well be my next option

My dealer:

http://www.dmkeith.c...d-major-service

DMK didn't change my fuel filter in 60k miles and 4 variable services (all done each year - Splitting the difference between the fixed/variable debates).

It went to an independant VW specialist in Leeds last week for a full service where it was changed along with all the other filters. And they spotted a problem that they estimate DMK had missed on 2 services.

If you want your car to last, don't rely on dealer servicing. The whole newtork is set up for cars to last 3 years/ 60K miles. In which case 1 filter will do.

My faith in Skoda is good but as my sig line states...

That DMK link lists 2 prices for a major service, £ 249 and £ 199

Edited 13 February, 201313 yr by Web Ferret

Chris!

Did u say u NO LONGER own the Octavia with the cool number plate? :-(

I still have the cool plate but with a cooler car, the last R36 registered

I still have the cool plate but with a cooler car, the last R36 registered

R36?

U ned to enlighten me

ned.. lmao class.

Has your car's MPG gone down? if not there's nothing wrong with the filter... TBH it's sort of reassuring NOT to have a dealer trying to get you to have stuff changed on your car you don't need. My Fraud garage was terrible at doing this with our Mondeo

i dunno bout u guys but i service my cars every 5000 miles and do the oil,air and fuel fiulter along with a good look round just to make sure shes ok,

the reason i change the fuel filter every service is because of the poor quality diesel that is round the place, air filter is changed every service as i believe its important to keep that clear! and sher we all know that the oil filter must be done!

it pays in the long run to get your car serviced & maintained properly!!

Air filters filter air better as they get more filled. It's only when the get restricted (which will likely never happen on UK roads) that you *need* to change them.

4 years is not a problem. On my own cars I have never changed air filters more often than that. Usually much less often.

TBH I'd have a bigger issue with them "cleaning" them. Unless they are just picking out leaves, they have a bigger risk of damaging the filter than if they just left it alone.

i dunno bout u guys but i service my cars every 5000 miles and do the oil,air and fuel fiulter along with a good look round just to make sure shes ok,

the reason i change the fuel filter every service is because of the poor quality diesel that is round the place, air filter is changed every service as i believe its important to keep that clear! and sher we all know that the oil filter must be done!

it pays in the long run to get your car serviced & maintained properly!!

I totally agree!

Any high powered petrol or normal diesel should have AT LEAST a

oil / filter change every 6months / 5k.

In Evo terms its every month! Eeek!

But as manufacturer introduced variable servicing based on your driving

style - the introduction of LONG LIFE oil etc changed all tht.

But did manufacturer introduced a long life oil filter or air filter?

But, as some have said here, it is BEST to change some

of the most important items on your car at regular intervals -

the oil and the oil/air filters! (To me anyway!).

But as the manufacturer or service schedules backs u up

on longer intervals - any faults and the manufacturer / retailer will have to

take responsibiliy.

But, BIG but - who suffers?

U , coz its your cars thts damaged....

meh, my car isn't 4 years old, but they changed the filter at 40,000 miles, and it was fine, there was no drop off in performance or mpg up to that 40k, I really wouldn't worry about it I remember when I had the fiat , and they said the cambelt change was 90k, and everyone was "no way! it will definatly snap and your engine wil fail! blarg! blarg!" ect ect ... you know what? i ran it to 90k then changed the cambelt. no problem . technologies change all the time, evolution of these things is fast, they spend billions on research making cars, I'm sure 40k or 4 years is not a problem .

don't stress

Not stressing Dave, just flabergasted that I should go up to 6 years without a new filter

I have ordered a new filter and will be fitting it myself.

Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions.

Chris

This is precisely why i didnt service my car at Skoda i cant trust them, crikey i cant trust them to do warranty work what chance have i got doing a service.

It gets serviced one a year (oil, oil, air pollen & fuel filter's) then every 6 months an oil and filter change which costs £30 in oil the filter & sump plug and i just do the change my self.

It may seem a tad overkill i admit but that "filter replaced every 6 years" nonsense makes me shivver quite frankly.

Each time with these sorts of the threads my decision to not use dealers is confirmed

I don't get annoyed with them because I don't use them. I like my car and I like my independent specialist. Yes, I know what I want and understand what needs changing, why, and how often. But the irony is that they also service cars for the everyday motorist, to a level beyond what you receive in a much more expensive local main dealer...

If manufacturers are to maintain loyalty and crucially keep people coming back, especially for servicing and maintenance, they need to adopt a much better attitude. Consistent service, knowledgeable staff, quality and attention to detail. The things I goto an independent for...

Just as long as you don't loose faith in the car Chris, that's all I'd be worried about.

I will never lose faith in the car ...just Skoda/VW and their crazy servicing schedules.

Most likely my last time at a dealership with this car when the warranty expires in a couple of weeks

Ironically, Its going in tomorrow again because it wouldnt start again at work this evening.

Appears to be the alternator thats not providing enough charge to the battery

Chris

not being funny and anything.

Maybe u just been unlucky with the car.

Like Jap and German cars.

Overall thy are pretty reliable.

If thy ever go wrong thn all hell break lose and everything goes wrong!

But hopefully things will start to go right for u.

And sometimes a change of dealership or even independent garages might turn a new page for u too ...

Good luck with it all anyway.

This is not the first time I have questioned the illogical charging and service schedule of Skoda/VW

Time to go independent in the future.

Love that Steve ----- No dashes, no numbers. The Original. Accept no imitations....

Anyone actually tested with reliable measurements and data the difference between a new and used air filter? Where is the curve of airflow vs mileage per unit area of the filter? Etc etc.

TBH, without this data, it's just opinion!

For sure VAG will have tried to reduce the number of changes, but it will have been done based upon the supplier of the air filter having measured the above, and durability testing of the engine (to probably around 3 x lifetimes or more) with used / dirty filters.

It won't "damage" your engine to follow the Skoda servicing regime, and if it did then your warranty covers it. If you really think the air filter getting dirty affects your engine performance, then try a K&N or similar. I've tried them on half a dozen cars over the years and make absolutely no difference.

I run a restriction guage on my 4wd air filter. It shows the maximum vacuum developed behind the filter and locks on this setting until it is reset.

Based on that I haven't changed the filter in my 4wd since 2004 and still don't need to. I have blown it clean of bugs/leaves etc about twice in that time.

5000mile or 6 monthly changes are ridiculous. It is not 1960 any more. Engines burn far cleaner (unless badly remapped), oils are better and stay cleaner and engine materials are much better.

I'm aware of the fact that filters have developed over the years

I would rather have it changed after 2 rather than 6 years.

Thats why I have ordered a new one