Hi,

 

I had the Octy serviced last week, it had been telling me that the 2y mark had passed for a number of days. At 150k km she apparently was in only for an engine oil change.

 

When I collected her the guy at the counter (who also handles the electronics/computer stuff) told me the software had indicated a 1y interval when he did the reset, and sure enough the dash also tells me I'll be in for another service in about a year.

 

This time I didn't specify explicitly that I wanted a 2y service, and I haven't yet checked what oil they put in but I'd assume that they used the same oil as 2 years ago (workshops here put a label on the hatch support brace that lists the engine oil type and date). The workshop is at the other end of the village, it'd be a 10min walk were it not for the fact it's "on the other hill", so it'll be easy enough to go verify the exact specs.

 

Any ideas how this could have happened? Does the system have an internal reset to the 1y interval if you wait too long after the due date (and how long would that be)? Did they just miss an option you have to tick each time, or hit the wrong button?

 

Assuming that the oil is indeed the right one for a 2y interval, can I just do the reset from the dash in a year, and then make certain I get the right service done in 2 years?

Idle barsteward simply reset it via the dash instead of using diagnostics. Or did it deliberately. Tell him to reset it back to variable (2yr/18,000 miles) after you've definitely established he's used 504/507 oil and not some cheap rubbish.

 

Resetting via dash always changes to fixed intervals, you need a diagnostic tool to reset it to the variable service interval.

 

Of course its only an indicator (clock) so you could just ignore it and use your memory instead 

I know and trust him well enough to believe he used the diag tool if he says so - and he said so because it's apparently a slow operation and they were running out of time to get the car finished before closing. So I think it's more likely that they just missed the option to stick to a 2y interval, due to being a bit too much in a hurry.

 

What's with the fixed vs. variable terminology btw? I now have 1 year-or-15k km instead of 2 years-or-30k km. Both are fixed in time and/or distance and probably variable in one of the parameters unless you always cover the exact same distance in a given time span...

Variable should also monitor oil quality so it'll bring the service distance down if necessary. It won't do this on fixed.

 

Not entirely sure how it makes the calculation

Engine rpm, oil temperature, throttle opening etc, I expect its very rough and ready but that was what the self study guide said, there may have been other parameters as well.

I had similar experience but I left it as yearly. My reason was house moving where my mileage was 20+k to my present one where it is going to be around 7kplasticity's. I also asked about the oil and it is the same for both.

 

 

 

 

7k in 2 years? Wouldn't that be a good reason to stick with a 2-year interval?

 

I checked this morning. As I thought the most time consuming for them was to hunt down the barrel with the VW 5w30 for diesel engines among the collection. So it's got Motul 504-rated 5W30 inside, which should be fine until 2021.

 

I too noticed that there is in fact no difference between "regular" and "long-life" oil for this engine.

 

FWIW, there's VW-group dealership in the next village over, sitting almost on the national VW distribution site grounds. They claim they're servicing taxis that have over 600k km and have always been on the 2y/variable plan. Of course the workshop boss also claims that there are no known (recognised?) issues with the injectors in VW diesel engines, or with the EGR valve, so I'm taking much of what they claim with a healthy dose of salt.

On 10/07/2019 at 09:33, RJVB said:

Does the system have an internal reset to the 1y interval if you wait too long after the due date

AIUI no, but it resets to fixed service if it's reset off the dash rather than with a workshop grade diagnostics program.