Hello all, I just picked up my 2008 Octavia 1.9 DSG with the BXE engine at about 53k miles. The last year or so it's really not been far at all, it belonged to my Grandad who has now mercifully given up driving. My daily mileage is something like a 90 mile round trip which the car seems ideally suited to so far (first day at work with it). When I picked it up at the weekend I had a good 120 mile journey so I warmed the car up very gently over the course of 30 odd miles before giving the exhaust a good blow through in sport mode  

 

Question is, the car was recently serviced by a known trusted mechanic so the oil is pretty fresh. Is it worth me running it for a few hundred more miles, putting in some engine flush and changing the oil, or are such things unnecessary on relatively modern engines? So far it's running fine as far as I can tell, no warning lights. Is there a DPF on these to clog up?

 

Cheers

Chris

It couldn't do any harm to give it an extra oil and filter change.

 

More to the point, when were the brake fluid and coolant last changed (if ever)?

There no DPF on the 1.9pd so no worries there.

Just make sure the garage has used the right engine oil vw 505.01 oil or 507.00 (long life) as it protects the cam lobes from wear and not all non veg garages know this.

Other things to check is if the dsg oil been changed at 40k and if is still on its first cambelt.

Edited 17 October, 20169 yr by wiilydog

Thanks KenONeill and willydog. Brake fluid and coolant changes, I have no idea to be honest - I need to have a proper investigation of what all the fluids look like and take it from there, plus dip the coolant now it's getting colder to checks its viscocity. The mechanic it went to knows his German cars so I'd ben confident he used the right oil but I'll be sure to use 505.01 when I change it - can a non-VW oil that claims to meet 505.01 be trusted would you say? Cambelt most definitely has just been done - DSG oil again I have no idea, is there any way to check this or should I just change it to be sure?

There is no way to check the DSG oil. If there is no paperwork in the car's history to indicate it has been done then you'd have to assume it hasn't been done. 

Any oil that meets 505.01 will be fine, Asda do their own brand one for £20 for 5 litres, it is in a gold bottle 5w40 and the 505.01 spec will be on the back of the bottle.

Check which DSG gearbox you have - is it 6 or 7 speed? Some of the 7 speed, like the one in my 62 plate 1.4TSI DSG, are sealed for life and oil changes are not part of the maintenance on these units.

 

True, however a 1.9 PD will have the 6 speed wet clutch, with 40,000 fluid and filter change interval.

 

As far as the mk2 Octavia is concerned the 1.2/1.4/1.8 TSI and 1.6 TDI engines have the 7 speed DSG. The 1.9/2.0 PD TDI, 2.0 CR TDI and 2.0 TSI have the 6 speed DSG that needs fluid changes. 

I seem to recall from somewhere VAG/Skoda specifically warn against using engine flush on their diesels. 

Thanks all for this information, it's much appreciated. It's good to hear that low miles aren't necessarily a worry. My only remaining concern is the catalytic converter blocking from its sudden heavier mileage but time will tell. It's a 6-speed DSG so sounds like a fluid change is in my future. How DIY-able is this? I'm a moderately competent home DIYer but my Octavia is the newest car I've owned by about 10 years and I've never worked on an autobox before.

Oil flush is generally a bad idea on a PD engine due to it potentially causing excess wear on the cam lobes.

 

DSG oil and filter is definitely DIY-able. I changed mine a while back. See this thread here for some useful info:

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/326997-diy-6-speed-dsg-oil-filter-change/

 

If I were to do it again though I would combine the two methods and slightly over-fill the gearbox, measure the oil temperature and let the excess off. You can generally save yourself £100 doing it yourself vs paying a garage.

Edited 18 October, 20169 yr by Phil-E