I'm pretty cross at the moment.

I just went out in my vRS and the 500 miles to service light is showing. The car is 13 months old and has 27600 miles on it. It was first serviced at 18606 miles in October. At the time I asked for it to be kept on variable, the service sheet says they carried out a "20,000 mile service (L/Life oil)", the lubricants part of the sheet says "LL OIL CASTROL SLX" (4.5l,

You cant reset a variable service light with the buttons on the dash, you need to use diag equipment,

You cant reset a variable service light with the buttons on the dash, you need to use diag equipment,

Mmm - sorry - i knew (well guessed) that. I meant with the diag equipment, do you just press something that resets the service schedule leaving it on the schedule it's on, or do you do something to reset it on to fixed and a different something to reset on to variable, so the technician could have done the wrong one, accidently putting the car on fixed?

Or, is the moving of the car from variable to fixed completey separate to reseting the indicator?

You would need to check the settings with VAG-COM to confirm what service interval it has been set for. Have you topped up with more than 1/2 litre of non-LongLife since the last service since that would reduce the service interval?

Difficulty arrises when someone resets the service light via the dash on service. It doesnt change any of the parameters in the coding of the dash insert to fixed, but the light will come on in 1yr 10,000 miles.

But in theory your service could be due in 9000 miles, its within parameters.

You would need to check the settings with VAG-COM to confirm what service interval it has been set for. Have you topped up with more than 1/2 litre of non-LongLife since the last service since that would reduce the service interval?

Nope - it doesn't seem to use any oil

Difficulty arrises when someone resets the service light via the dash on service. It doesnt change any of the parameters in the coding of the dash insert to fixed' date=' but the light will come on in 1yr 10,000 miles.

But in theory your service could be due in 9000 miles, its within parameters.[/quote']

I certainly haven't done this (intensionally anyway). So are you saying that if the technician had done this, there's not way to prove that my car is not just due for it's service?

Why not ask your dealer to plug in their diagnostic computer and show you what type of service your car has been set for to put your mind at rest? The settings for my car - now 800 miles/3 weeks from a variable service - are in an earlier post of mine here. Channels 40 - 45 are self-explanatory.

A neighbour of mine with a Passat 1.8T asked me to check his car with VAG-COM since it was indicating that a service was needed in around half the interval between previous ones. All the settings were correct for variable service, his driving style hadn't changed, and yet his car was indicating a service on the minimum mileage between variable services, ie 15,000 km/9320 miles. I have no idea why that was the case. He decided to defer taking the car for its next service until the 20,000 mile/2 year point.

I've had serious problems with variable service intervals (and everything else) on my Octy Elegance PD 130. I suggest you get your dealer to check that the ecu is getting a signal from the engine oil sensor. After services every 9000 miles up to 45000 miles an ATM eventually realised that something was amiss with mine, and it wasn't the way I was driving (though they were implying I was driving it hard).

I've not been told this, but I think the variable intervals are set to operate between 9000 and 30000 miles (could be 20000 on petrols), and because there was no data getting through to say that the oil was okay, the ecu assumes it isn't and defaults to the lowest common denominator - 9000 miles, even less than the 10k fixed intervals. The comments about the interval not being reset properly by the technician might be correct, but in my case once they'd found the problem they couldn't easily fix it.

As a result I had a new dash panel insert, but still waiting to see when the service light will come on.....almost at 9000 since dash panel replacement now :(

Someone else on here may be able to confirm the measuring blocks they need to check - garage technicians didn't know when I took mine in - ATM knew, checked, found no signal. I'm chasing Skoda for refunds of all the additional (unneccessary)servicing I've had done. I'm also waiting for them to confirm that the oil sensor signal is now getting through - I'm not sure they know which measuring blocks to check!

Let me know how you get on !

EDIT: Forgot to say that all normal checks to determine whether it was on fixed or variable confirmed it was on variable, which may have been part of the reason for the slow diagnosis - everybody assumed it was defaulting to fixed intervals, even though it was showing as variable on the diagnostic equipment.

I'm in exactly the same boat. Will be getting VAGCOM out tomorrow and checking the blocks Denis mentioned - shame there's no manual to tell you where to look particularly with the shareware version. I've had 3 services on mine now, all at suspiciously close to 10k mile intervals. I see no reason to be paying the extra for variable services when the light comes on regular as clockwork every 10k miles! :grumpy:

I'm in exactly the same boat. Will be getting VAGCOM out tomorrow and checking the blocks Denis mentioned - shame there's no manual to tell you where to look particularly with the shareware version. I've had 3 services on mine now, all at suspiciously close to 10k mile intervals. I see no reason to be paying the extra for variable services when the light comes on regular as clockwork every 10k miles! :grumpy:

I'm not sure if VAGCOM will be able to look at the blocks required - it was a specific set for the actual signal coming back from the sump - mine just had dashes/blanks

I've got another meeting with the ATM coming up soon - I'll try to find out.

Let me know how you get on !

Sorry to here of your woes.

Just talked to the dealer. The guy that did the car hadn't been there long and wouldn't have known how to reset the car via the diag tool, so the assumption is that he must have done it via the dash. (Doesn't bode well does it??)

The service managers recomendation? Reset the dash and drive for another 10k.

Me: "What about the warrenty?"

Him: "We think you had a variable service, and wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Just keep an eye on the oil level"

Personally, I think I may run it up to ~ 37k before getting the next service.

Discuss!!

Find another dealer! I think I may be about to ...