So my Octavia has now started telling me that it's due an oil change as well as an inspection, last service was about 18 months ago.

 

Previously I've always done my own servicing with no issues as I'm a mechanic by trade but no longer working in the trade. I can't really be bothered with rolling around under the car changing oil filters etc so I plan on taking it somewhere to get serviced.

 

Looking at the Skoda dealers website it's £119 for an oil change or £179 for a interim service. The pollen filter was changed recently when I installed a dash cam so I'm not too bothered about that on the interim service. The one thing that I'm curious about is the interim service apparently includes "vehicle and software enhancements from the Skoda database"

I'm not concerned about the whole diagnostic check thing as I've got full VCDS so I can do that myself.

 

Realistically, how likely are there to be any updates for a 2014 car which was last serviced by Skoda 18 months ago?

That's the only benefit I can see of going for the interim service over a simple oil change.

 

The only issue the car has is slow starting but that seems to be a common issue with the diesel Octavias with no apparent fix for it so that's not going to be improved by getting it serviced. 

 

 

Or go to an independent that can also check for software updates.

Ah, I wasn't aware that independents could access the updates.

 

From what I recall when I worked for Mercedes the diagnostics stuff could be accessed by independents but updates were a dealer only thing. That was about 10 or 15 years back so things will have moved on by now.

2 hours ago, grmtylr said:

The only issue the car has is slow starting but that seems to be a common issue with the diesel Octavias with no apparent fix for it

You could check for open circuit glow plugs.

52 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

You could check for open circuit glow plugs.

 

There's nothing showing on VCDS so I'm guessing they're ok. 

Unless, of course, glow plug faults don't show up on VCDS in which case I'll look in to it.

34 minutes ago, grmtylr said:

 

There's nothing showing on VCDS so I'm guessing they're ok. 

Unless, of course, glow plug faults don't show up on VCDS in which case I'll look in to it.

You're measuring voltage draw directly, not something a pooter can do at this level unless it's got parallel circuits to work from and SCADA functionality.

 

But most slow and/or white smokey starts on VAG engines trace to glow plugs (assumes healthy battery).

9 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

You're measuring voltage draw directly, not something a pooter can do at this level unless it's got parallel circuits to work from and SCADA functionality.

 

But most slow and/or white smokey starts on VAG engines trace to glow plugs (assumes healthy battery).

 

Thanks for that, I'll dig the multimeter out when the rain eventually stops and test the plugs.