Hi, my Octavia, bought new in March, is on a variable servicing regime which, given my low  annual mileage, means it wont need a service until March 2018.   !!!

 

I would like to give it ,at least, an oil change in March 2017.

 

My local dealer quotes £175 for an oil change.

 

This is ridiculous 

 

I cannot do it myself.

 

Ought I accept this, or use an independent garage ??

 

Advice please

Longlife oil is exactly that.  No need to do any oil changes outside of what the car tells you it needs unless you are doing lots of small trips without getting up to temperature...then an early change may be beneficial.

 

If you must have it done then any garage can do it just make sure they use the correct stuff.

I'd say, if you want to change it in-between I'd say just buy a genuine filter and have it done at your local/preferred garage using the correct oil.

just stick to the service intervals, its just a waste of money replacing it when not required.

 

 

in terms of pricing i had our astra 2ltr cdti major service and MOT done 2 weeks ago in a halfords auto centre for £250 ish so i would say £175 for oil alone is expensive. 

On this note (sorry to hijack) when should intervals come up normally and any idea what it entails/ costs ? Mines just come up

 

TIA

£175 for an oil change is fecking ridiculous, why the hell would you even contemplate this?

Oil and filter are what? £50-60 max?

Independent all the way, my first service will be with my local indy who I trust and that'll be way before the car tells me it's ready!

I'm not a fan of long life servicing, don't put that much faith in oil

Skoda have fixed price servicing, its £149

http://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/service-and-maintenance/simply-fixed/default/

Its not a lot really during the warranty period, then service it yourself.

Long life oil is a compleat load of *******s, the concept is realy quite simple. Long life oil or should I say extended service intervals were realy brought about for two reasons. 1, corporate fleet buyers, it makes it look better as the cost of maintainence is reduced, and the average car is kept 3 years. 2. Private inderviduals who keep there car three years or less, also cheaper servicing.

Here lies the issue, the Ware rate increases but as you get rid of the car in 3 years, who cares, that's the problem. It's realy an issue for the second owner and by rights the car sound have had regular services at 10k if your planing on keeping it longer than 4 years.

I change my oil every 10k, I haven't had to do this yet as my car has only done 5k. Also skoda use the same oil anyway for both service types, a skoda master tech told me this a few weeks ago. So if it's the same oil it has to have an increased ware rate.

Edited 4 June, 201610 yr by Alpha2110

Buy the correct oil and oil filter for your car yourself, take to your nearest reputable garage and just pay for the labour..

Long life oil is a compleat load of *******s, the concept is realy quite simple. Long life oil or should I say extended service intervals were realy brought about for two reasons. 1, corporate fleet buyers, it makes it look better as the cost of maintainence is reduced, and the average car is kept 3 years. 2. Private inderviduals who keep there car three years or less, also cheaper servicing.

Here lies the issue, the Ware rate increases but as you get rid of the car in 3 years, who cares, that's the problem. It's realy an issue for the second owner and by rights the car sound have had regular services at 10k if your planing on keeping it longer than 4 years.

I change my oil every 10k, I haven't had to do this yet as my car has only done 5k. Also skoda use the same oil anyway for both service types, a skoda master tech told me this a few weeks ago. So if it's the same oil it has to have an increased ware rate.

 

Its a interesting take - I don't know one way or the other for sure, but I would be surprised if we can't trust the manufacturer on this one.

If their recommended oil change frequency is damaging or shortening the life of the car, then ultimately it would still impact their sales and reputation if their models were known for dying or becoming catastrophically unreliable after the first 3-4 years or so.

 

A car with a good reputation for a long life and reliability down the track has surely still got to be a win for the brand overall?

 

Do you have any sources to back up your claims - be interested to do more research on it.

 

Cheers

...and having done some of my own research, this seems to be one of "those" topics.

 

 

Lots of very vocal people on both side of the fence here and so far no compellingly conclusive take.

 

I think my VRS is scheduled for an oil change at 12 months/20,000kms according to the service information. I will probably have only done 15,000km by the first year, but will definitely get a change then I guess.

 

My 2009 Mazda 6 has a 6 month/7000km regime but having reached a trouble free 130,000km the dealer has said there is no point in doing it that frequently and every 12 months based on the current mileage is fine.

The thing is its the same oil, hence if you do an oil analysis just using logic you can deduce any combustion and metallic partials will have a higher consentration . Also I beleve there is an acidic component produced such engine corrosion is increased. So the logic here from a car manufacturer, does the car mtbf increase or decrease, the bigger question is does it fail within the warranty period, if not who cares.

Now getting to the. Original question the guy who posted dosent do many miles, it's common knowlage to change oil at 12 month intervals, oil degrades over time, mostly condensed water, but lots of other nasties when fuel is not burned correctly when cold, this crap goes into the oil, this is a simplistic way of looking at it. Just look at an lpg conversion and see how clean the oil is. I have seen this first hand. Also if you sniff old engine oil sometimes you can detect a slight acidic smell.

As for compeling evedence, what sort of evedence, technical papers, academic papers, what academic rigger do you actually need. You don't need any. If the oil is the same and it's has to be worse for the same given mileage, hence the Ware rate increases. I bet there is evedence, if you are an imeche or sae member there will be a ton of papers on this its not a secret or some global conspiracy its common knowledge. Also bob the oil guy is very informative, if you want the general consensus in the motor trade honest john is informative and usualy his opinion reflect the industrys view on long life oil.

...and having done some of my own research, this seems to be one of "those" topics.

 

 

Lots of very vocal people on both side of the fence here and so far no compellingly conclusive take.

 

I think my VRS is scheduled for an oil change at 12 months/20,000kms according to the service information. I will probably have only done 15,000km by the first year, but will definitely get a change then I guess.

 

My 2009 Mazda 6 has a 6 month/7000km regime but having reached a trouble free 130,000km the dealer has said there is no point in doing it that frequently and every 12 months based on the current mileage is fine.

Is the mazda petrol? I cant say if you had abused it by changing the oil every 2 years it wouldent have hit 130k without failure but by chainging the oil at 7k it has to make the probability of failure less and the internals have to have reduced wear.

Generaly petrol cars in my opinion or less hastle than diesels, if its naturaly aspirated, its even more critical with turbos that they have clean oil, even more so with diesels. If you strip a turbo down and look at the clearences you will see what i mean.

I think you will find that the recommended service intervals are:

 

1. Variable - if you do a high mileage and then the sensors in the engine will monitor the state of the oil and flag up when you need a service -----or

 

2. Fixed at every 10K or annually which ever is sooner if you do lower mileage

 

Long life oil, as any oil, will degrade quicker on short trips as contaminates build up, longer journeys when the oil get really hot it burns off a lot of the contaminants and so needs changing less often - its the way the synthetic oil is created

http://www.oilspecifications.org/articles/vw_motor_oil_specifications_explained.php

Interesting read.

I have the wife's Vrs diesel estate on a yearly its first service cost £125 at Harrogate skoda, drop it off have a wander round town job done.

Can anyone 100% qualify what an "Oil Service" entails? What other work is carried out? Have some of you spoken from experience or are you taking "oil service" to mean "oil change" in a literal sense? I only ask as my car has done 9k and it's telling me I need one. Cheers.

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http://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/service-and-maintenance/simply-fixed/default/

This has been helpful, thanks all.

 

I do mostly short trips and plan to keep the car for 7 years or more, so the message I pick up here is to change the oil more often than required. Years ago I would have done it myself, but sadly... tempus fugit.

 

A follow-up question though, If I use and independent garage to do the oil  change will I invalidate the guarantee ?????

 

Thanks again

Skoda have fixed price servicing, its £149

http://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/service-and-maintenance/simply-fixed/default/

Its not a lot really during the warranty period, then service it yourself.

Strange, the 'Minor Service' which includes an oil change, is cheaper than the oil change price listed under 'maintenance' (DSG)  ?????

Long life oil is a compleat load of *******s, the concept is realy quite simple. Long life oil or should I say extended service intervals were realy brought about for two reasons. 1, corporate fleet buyers, it makes it look better as the cost of maintainence is reduced, and the average car is kept 3 years. 2. Private inderviduals who keep there car three years or less, also cheaper servicing.

Here lies the issue, the Ware rate increases but as you get rid of the car in 3 years, who cares, that's the problem. It's realy an issue for the second owner and by rights the car sound have had regular services at 10k if your planing on keeping it longer than 4 years.

I change my oil every 10k, I haven't had to do this yet as my car has only done 5k. Also skoda use the same oil anyway for both service types, a skoda master tech told me this a few weeks ago. So if it's the same oil it has to have an increased ware rate.

Interesting take on oil!

I though it was down to improvements in oil technology, but more so due to the removal of lead from petrol.

It was long established that the lead that was used as a so called valve protector/lubricant "seeped" past said valves and piston rings and into the oil, which caused it to degenerate.

That's why there is a time correlation between the removal of lead and increased service intervals.

Oh and we never needed the lead anyway. There were other things available, it's just that DuPont (inventors of TEL) and the American government did a deal to add it to all petrol. Believe it was something to do with who held shares in DuPont....or so the conspiracy theory goes!

Can anyone 100% qualify what an "Oil Service" entails? What other work is carried out? Have some of you spoken from experience or are you taking "oil service" to mean "oil change" in a literal sense? I only ask as my car has done 9k and it's telling me I need one. Cheers.

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They get the local priest to come in to say a few prayers and bless the oil.

If you are a low mileage user as I am. And you are determined to have it changed every year. When the time comes have it set to fixed servicing and standard oil used. My Vrs is on that due to low miles and the 3 years free service deal. However I think youll find that by March your estimated next oil change will have reduced considerably, as it's not just based on mileage, but days running, days stopped,amount of starts,temperature,revs. Basically the computer engine management decides. I queried why my screen hadn't started counting down the oil change days a 1000 miles after service. Was told(as has been said here). That when the sensors determine deterioration of the oil, countdown starts. However as mine is fixed, dates play a part also. Cars are complicated things now.

Slightly off topic, but with a degree of relevance to servicing costs in the VAG empire - my OH's VW Up is four years old this month but has only done 23k, of which only 3k in the past year.

VW say it needs a full service, well over the wrong side of £200. "But you might get away with a basic service, plugs, filters, oil, for £149"  Didn't say under what circumstances we "might get away with" the basic service. Ha!

My local indy will do the lot - and properly, including ALL fluids changed - for £129.

 

He also said VW specify a cambelt change at five years or 60k, whichever comes first. What??

 

Now, back on topic.

They get the local priest to come in to say a few prayers and bless the oil.

that doesn't sound kosher to me!

Thanks. I'm here all week!!

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