Hi, it might be a basic query but I am quite confused with this one.

 

So I bought a Skoda Octavia reg 67 (Sept 2017). It currently has no more than 12,000 miles. I therefore do not expect to have to do any inspection (I understand it as MOT but probably I am wrong?) until Sept 2020.

 

 It has a QI6 code in the vehicle data sticker which I think means Variable service intervals. I checked in the car and it says service in 120ish days as well. The car got a service in Dec 2018 with 8,500 miles.

 

Now I am getting an "Inspection in xx days" message. Does anyone know what it means or should do?

1 minute ago, sebaspc said:

Hi, it might be a basic query but I am quite confused with this one.

 

So I bought a Skoda Octavia reg 67 (Sept 2017). It currently has no more than 12,000 miles. I therefore do not expect to have to do any inspection (I understand it as MOT but probably I am wrong?) until Sept 2020.

 

 It has a QI6 code in the vehicle data sticker which I think means Variable service intervals. I checked in the car and it says service in 120ish days as well. The car got a service in Dec 2018 with 8,500 miles.

 

Now I am getting an "Inspection in xx days" message. Does anyone know what it means or should do?

When the first service was done at 8,500 miles the computer was probably set for the inspection service to be done in 372 days or 9,400 miles whichever comes first. So it should be due around Dec 2019 or 17,900 miles.

My service book (2013) says Vehicle service interval Q16 -  first service after 2 years or 30,000Km then every year or 30,000KM for an inspection and 2 years and 30,000Km for oil change

So I guess it is correct

Edited 20 August, 20196 yr by rickystyx

1 minute ago, rickystyx said:

the service book says Vehicle service interval Q16 -  first service after 2 years or 30,000Km then every year or 30,000KM for an inspection and 2 years and 30,000Km for oil change

So I guess it is correct

My Octavia on variable went 18 months and 18,500 miles until needing the first service. Wife's Karoq will get it's first service soon at 18,700 miles and 19 months. However the previous owner of your car decided (or the garage selling it) to carry out the service at 14 months and just 8,500 miles which was very early for variable servicing. My inspection service for example is due at 36,000 miles or 3 years.

It means that previously the Service Indication was not set or reset properly.

 

The car at the PDI could have been left on Variable / Flexible and the First Service would have been in 24 months or 18,000-20,000 miles.

 

Something has been done since and 'Inspection service' left on at 12 months.

 

(Fixed services 9,400 miles / 372 days.)

http://volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/regimes

 

It shows whichever comes first, date of mileage.   

At the 2 year point (which it sounds like it is warning) inspection shouldn't show, as should have been reset at the full service at 8500 miles.   The garage clearly forgot to reset it, so ask them to come out and sort it as it was part of the service.  If this costs them money, that is their problem for skimping resetting it before

 

MOT should be done in 4 weeks preceeding expiry date (is then dated 12 months from expiry date, rather than 12 months from test date)

 

Edited 20 August, 20196 yr by SurreyJohn

3 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

My Octavia on variable went 18 months and 18,500 miles until needing the first service. Wife's Karoq will get it's first service soon at 18,700 miles and 19 months. However the previous owner of your car decided (or the garage selling it) to carry out the service at 14 months and just 8,500 miles which was very early for variable servicing. My inspection service for example is due at 36,000 miles or 3 years.

18500 Miles is 30,000Km give or take - I was simply quoting the handbook which says 2 years or 30000Km - so if you have a 2017 car it would be due its service

 

2 minutes ago, rickystyx said:

18500 Miles is 30,000Km give or take - I was simply quoting the handbook which says 2 years or 30000Km - so if you have a 2017 car it would be due its service

 

Both our cars do 52 miles per day which is good for the battery as well as fuel consumption (both petrol and they average 48mpg Karoq and 40mpg Octavia). If a car is consistently being driven at low urban speeds, in a town or city or over short distances then it is working the engine and therefore the oil harder. So it will need servicing more often at lower annual mileages. How many miles are you covering per year and what length of journey are you doing in the car? These are important questions regarding servicing any vehicle.

1 hour ago, Roottootemoot said:

(Fixed services 9,400 miles / 372 days.)

http://volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/regimes

 

 

That's making the classic mistake of quoting VW. Yes we know it's the same engine but this is Skoda...  SEAT, SKODA, VW, AUDI maintenance and service can differ from brand to brand - and usually does.

 

The first clue to the problem is when the car was first registered - Sept 2017.  We're now only a matter of days away from it's 2yr anniversary (when the car was first PDI'd) therfore best guess is that's why the inspection is showing xx days.  It's more than likely whoever did the last service didn't properly reset the system.

 

It's very weird that the car was serviced in December 2018 rather than Sept 2018 ( if on annual / fixed servicing ).  With only 8500 miles on the clock it's possible ( but very unlikely ) it was the car that requested it's long-life service.  Whatever happened it's out of sync. now.

 

What should you do?

 

It's up to OP to decide which service regime you want to stick to - long-life or annual.  If annual then personally I'd wait until December, book the car in and tell them you want the system changed to annual / time & mileage / fixed intervals. You should be ok from then on.

 

If you want to keep to variable or long-life then if possible, return the car to whoever did the last service and have them alter the 'inspection date'. If you go to another garage, they may charge you. Alternatively - just ignore it.

 

PS - long-life is determined by a number of things, the way you drive being the primary factor. So if the car's normal life is spent in town ( i.e. short journeys that don't allow the engine to fully get up to temp), or lots of stop/start driving then most people will advice you have the car on fixed service intervals (i.e. every 12mth).

 

 

1 hour ago, shyVRS245 said:

Both our cars do 52 miles per day which is good for the battery as well as fuel consumption (both petrol and they average 48mpg Karoq and 40mpg Octavia). If a car is consistently being driven at low urban speeds, in a town or city or over short distances then it is working the engine and therefore the oil harder. So it will need servicing more often at lower annual mileages. How many miles are you covering per year and what length of journey are you doing in the car? These are important questions regarding servicing any vehicle.

I do whatever I do - but I service my car (oil and filters) once a year regardless of mileage and brake fluid every three years - taking everything to the limit for servicing or changing things may seem great  when you can say look how far I've gone but it isn't so great when your engine breaks because things were not done in time. I have a 61 year old land rover that has only done 43000 miles but it still gets its service annually and it is still going. I only once missed changing a timing belt before it was due according to the manufacturer and that cost me dearly as the engine died the week before it went in to get the job done. 

Edited 20 August, 20196 yr by rickystyx

@Scot5

I never quoted VW. I linked a VW explanation on Fixed / Flexible that Skoda never bother being clear about.

That sales people never ask customers about before taking a Variable setting from the Factory and changing to Fixed, 

maybe selling a Service Plan that requires being on fixed, which a high mileage driver might not want.

 

 

If you reset from Variable/ flexible  to 'Fixed' while in the workshop, or if doing yourself is it not going to come up as 9,400 miles / 372 days. (1 year & 1 week) ?

 

The car saying  an 'Inspection Service' due is not asking for an Oil change / Service when on Variable / Flexible servicing.

 

Edited 20 August, 20196 yr by Roottootemoot

3 hours ago, sebaspc said:

Hi, it might be a basic query but I am quite confused with this one.

 

So I bought a Skoda Octavia reg 67 (Sept 2017). It currently has no more than 12,000 miles. I therefore do not expect to have to do any inspection (I understand it as MOT but probably I am wrong?) until Sept 2020.

 

 It has a QI6 code in the vehicle data sticker which I think means Variable service intervals. I checked in the car and it says service in 120ish days as well. The car got a service in Dec 2018 with 8,500 miles.

 

Now I am getting an "Inspection in xx days" message. Does anyone know what it means or should do?

 

The service in Dec 2018 may have been an oil change and you are still due an inspection service when the car is two years old in September 2019

 

Is it possible to access service details from the onboard computer menu - it should display two type of service when on variable - oil and inspection.

This was the case with my Superb II - when I got my car it was due an oil service but showed a later inspection service on the display as well. I asked for it to be set to fixed servicing (9500 miles/annual which ever sooner) and insisted on a full service before my purchase.

 

  

 

4 hours ago, Roottootemoot said:

@Scot5

 

If you reset from Variable/ flexible  to 'Fixed' while in the workshop, or if doing yourself is it not going to come up as 9,400 miles / 372 days. (1 year & 1 week) ?

 

The car saying  an 'Inspection Service' due is not asking for an Oil change / Service when on Variable / Flexible servicing.

 

 

I don't really want to get involved in another service stramash  but it's not helpful saying what something isn't. Tell us what it is. ( that's the difficult part !)  What is an Inspection Service?

 

Now hope you don't think I'm being ignorant but I'm not going to reply to whatever you write because the internet is full of lengthy threads on this topic with people agreeing to disagree. ( some of them disagreeing to disagree with threads many pages long ).  It's the old problem again of VAG group not giving an explaination. Hell even the service centres have varying views on what's involved with an Inspection service. I've never seen Skoda's service schedule but I have seen VW's and that's ambigous at best...  it raises more questions than answers.

 

Whatever people think an Inspection service is, the OP should not have the message appearing on his car at this time.

 

4 hours ago, rickystyx said:

I do whatever I do - but I service my car (oil and filters) once a year regardless of mileage and brake fluid every three years - taking everything to the limit for servicing or changing things may seem great...

Brake fluid changes are recommended every 2yr, not every 3yr which you said yoy do.  Which only goes to prove you've exceeded the recommended interval yet you state your car has been 100% reliable.

 

My view has always been this. They recommend brake fluid be changed every 2yr due to a water build up. That I get and have no issue with. I do however have an issue at the rate of water build up because the same 2yr interval is given for Oslo, for a city like London or an Island like Orkney, for Rome, for Athens, for Cairo etc.  All completely different atmospheric conditions yet the same recommended change? The physics of this don't work. Moreover I know several people who never change the brake fluid - I'm sure there are thousands similar minded people too - and in 40 years of driving, I've never heard or even read of anyone's brakes failing due to water ingress. I have however read, heard and unfortunatley witnessed first hand at brakes failing because the silly bugger who changed the fluid didn't bleed the brakes correctly. 

 

What's going to be very interesting ( for me at least ) is the recent changes to the MOT. The amount of moisture in brake fluid is checked. Let's see how many cars fail in this country due to water ingress. Wonder how long you can go without failing an MOT.

 

VAG recently changed their tune - used to be every 2yr but now it's 3yr from new, every 2yr thereafter.  Now I've read people speculating why this is, but nobody has been able to give a definite answer.  It's a funny old world.

@Scot5

There is a thread from the weekend on the 'Inspection service' and the lost in translation as there is no such thing really;

Just the crazy VW Group, VW, Skoda, Audi, SEAT carry on of confusion.

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/470725-inspection-service

 

Edited 20 August, 20196 yr by Roottootemoot

My 2016 requested an oil service at a tick over 30000km. Mainly long runs, always warm... Registered end September 2016, service was April 2018 or so. Then it requested an inspection service in March/April 2019. Next oil service is two years after the previous one (or 30' km, whatever comes first), so it's currently scheduled for April 2020.

Inspection: check over the car, change pollen filter etc. per request. No oil or air filter changes. Cost was around €120, service was similar. They also reset the AFS box, it works correctly now. 

 

In the case of the OP, something's happened as did with my A2; a service was pulled forward. It does look remarkably like the *inspection* indicator wasn't reset, whether the *service* one was or not. The car is the one that can give this information... if the service request is in sync with the inspection one (i.e. a year apart), then the likelihood is nothing was reset even if the oil was changed. The service was pulled forward for me for "two years of trouble-free motoring"; from the data given, service indicator was reset to a 12-month interval, the inspection indicator wasn't touched. I'd even go as far as to suggest that the indicator was possibly reset using visible hardware / switch combinations and not VCDS.

 

Regarding brake fluid: system sealed from factory,  minimal chance that a rubber seal is perished, and therefore, a change at two years isn't necessary. I've been to a garage before and asked about a fluid change - they measured and told me it wasn't necessary. "Brake Failure" won't necessarily be a result of overly moist DOT4, but sponginess and fade may well be. I can feel these in the A2 at the moment; that's not been changed for several years (I'm thinking it's 6-7 years now) which is another reason I don't drive it much (it's de-registered at the moment). It should pass inspection / MoT like this; the pressures are fine, there's enough braking power for the minimal testing that happens. Doesn't mean the system is in a good condition.

Excess moisture in the fluid is also a long-term risk in terms of rusting brake lines. But the 3year-2year brake fluid swap is something I've heard to do with lots of other cars, I'm sure the Fi and the Swift have been stated to be the same. 

 

 - Bret

 

Thanks all for your comments. I have decided to also give a ring to a certified garage and asked them what they think. They are kind of in line with what @Scot5 has suggested and so I am waiting until the next service which shod be in December time and at the same time ask them to set the indicators correctly.

On 20/08/2019 at 21:33, Scot5 said:

Brake fluid changes are recommended every 2yr, not every 3yr which you said yoy do.  Which only goes to prove you've exceeded the recommended interval yet you state your car has been 100% reliable.

 

My view has always been this. They recommend brake fluid be changed every 2yr due to a water build up. 

You may think that brake fluid needs changing because of water ingress but I change mine because i've seen how it can break down due to heavy braking causing it to boil - that may not happen on lovely new cars with disc brakes but it certainly happenes on big old drum brakes and I have no reason to think that discs run that much cooler when heavy braking but that was me learning from experience and why I do what I do. However, the point is that you do what you want on your car - it is yours after all and maybe you will change what you do after experiencing something go wrong to save it from happening again - that is where servicing times and recommendations came from - nobody has to follow recommendations but then they shouldn't complain if things go wrong.

Brake Fluid of the correct type can cope with the heat.  The thing is H20's boiling point is lower, hence not wanting H20 in the brake fluid.

 

Anti Freeze / Summer Coolant pressurised has a different freezing point and boiling point from H20 as well. 

6 hours ago, rickystyx said:

You may think that brake fluid needs changing because of water ingress but I change mine because i've seen how it can break down due to heavy braking causing it to boil.

 

Try looking up the term 'hydroscopic'.

 

 

 

8 hours ago, Scot5 said:

 

Try looking up the term 'hydroscopic'.

 

 

 

I didn't say it wasn't - try looking up Plebite

The word is HYGROSCOPIC we need to look up for the Brake Fluid subject.

6 hours ago, rickystyx said:

I didn't say it wasn't - try looking up Plebite

 

"You may think that brake fluid needs changing because of water ingress"

 

Your previous answer clearly indicats I was wrong re: water ingrees. What I did was gave an opinion and asked you to check the terminology which Root has corrected.

 

What I have never done is throw insults to anyone.  Don't ever call me or anyone else on this forum a pleb again. This time I ask you read the forum rules.

 

Edited 25 August, 20196 yr by Guest

15 minutes ago, Scot5 said:

 

"You may think that brake fluid needs changing because of water ingress"

 

Your previous answer clearly indicats I was wrong re: water ingrees. What I did was gave an opinion and asked you to check the terminology which Root has corrected.

 

What I have never done is throw insults to anyone.  Don't ever call me or anyone else on this forum a pleb again. This time I ask you read the forum rules.

 

I didn't call you anything - the comment was simply to point out that you are continuing to argue your point regardless of anyone elses opinion - I guess you didn't look up the definition or you would have known that is what the term means but if you are that precious about it I'll just leave the forum to your superior knowledge

 

The words curmudgeon , omniscient and omnipotent all spring to mind.