My low milage Fabia monte carlo is telling me that I need an oil service. I have done 1977 miles only, due to inclement weather,

I assume the car computer is anticipating a higher mileage for the length of ownership and it needs to be reset?

Well if it is set on fixed miles/months servicing, then it must have reached the "months" limit before the "miles" limit, lots of short journeys do mess up even modern oil's life so not a waste of time changing it.  If it is set on variable servicing, then either it has been used on many many short journeys and so the limit has been reached for that oil.

Edited 6 March, 20206 yr by rum4mo

When was it first on the road and was the Service Interval set to Fixed Servicing so first at 9,400 miles or 372 days.

Thank you both for the detailed info.

Almost unbelievably the car's computer system will tell you that you need an oil change after one year no matter how many miles you have done. Of course this is downright stupid as my very reliable and knowlegeable mobile mechanic has said. I mean let's suppose you did only 500 miles in a year, there can't be much wrong with the oil can there but the wretched computer will still tell you to change it. I only do about 4000 miles a year and my man recommends a change every couple of years, so that is what I now do and ignore the computer. (Don't forget that computers are incredibly stupid and especially so if a non-thinking individual programmes them LOL).

You can please yourself, you are the human.   It is not some Artificial Intelligence. 

 

If 'your man' does not care about oil not getting up to temp much and maybe h2o / condensation in the engine with such low mileage then he maybe knows better than other motor engineers.

 

It only tells you because it was set to 9,400 miles or 372 days which ever comes first.  Someone set it and it counts down.

Reset it is you do not want to follow fixed servicing.

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

 

Same with on the Variable / flexible setting, it is set for 24 months and might warn anytime between 18,000-20,000 miles.

Edited 14 March, 20206 yr by Roottootemblowinootsoot

I don't want to start an argument with anyone (people like to get really defensive about their oil-changing habits). So i'll state some facts that can't be argued, cos facts are facts.

 

When engines are cold, tolerances between components are larger, more combustion gasses get past the piston rings, part of these gasses is water vapor. As the engine is cold, it condenses into the oil.

Another thing that gets past is fuel, when the engine is cold, combustion temperatures are low and that results in incomplete combustion, the fuel tends to stick to the cylinder walls where it gets past the rings.

 

Fuel causes the oil to become slightly acidic, which is neither good for the oil nor the engine components. It also thins the oil and reduces its lubricating abilities.

Water again dilutes the oil, thinning it and reducing its lubricating abilities.

 

Thankfully, once the engine is up to temperature, the tolerances are much tighter, hardly anything gets past the piston rings. The majority of the contaminants are introduced during a cold start before the engine is up to temperature.

Driving the car while not up to temperature pushes more contaminants past the piston rings due to increased load, especially on forced induction engines, and makes things worse. Warm up the car before driving! If you must drive, drive gently.

Another bonus of the engine being up to temperature, is that the oil also gets hot. Hot enough that the water evaporates out of the oil and is removed out of the engine via some form of crank-case ventilation, in petrol engines the fuel will too, in diesels it won't.

 

This means that infrequent journeys, which are short enough that the oil doesn't get up to temperature (read OIL TEMPERATURE, NOT COOLANT TEMPERATURE, the coolant gets up to temperature after barely 1-2 miles of gentle driving, but oil can take about 5 times longer still), cause far more harm to the oil. Than say, a 20 mile commute two times per day.

 

The less often and shorter journeys you drive, the less mileage you can do between your oil changes. The more often and longer journeys you take, the more mileage you can do on an oil change.

 

This is all backed up by the reasonings on VW's own site. https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/regimes

 

Quote

Fixed Service (Time and Distance)

We recommend this service if you are likely to drive less than 10,000¹ miles in a year, and if you tend to drive in the following way:

Mainly city centre driving, short journeys with frequent cold starts

High engine loading activities, e.g. frequent hill climbs, driving with your vehicle fully loaded and towing

Uneconomical driving using high rpms with heavy acceleration and heavy braking.

Flexible Service Regime (LongLife Service)

We recommend this service if you are likely to drive more than 25 miles a day, and if you tend to drive in the following way:

Regular long distance driving

Driving at a constant speed with minimum vehicle and engine loading, and minimal towing

Economical driving

This Flexible regime has been made possible due to the development of new Volkswagen engines with the latest technically advanced longlife oil. These engines use built-in sensors that continually monitor the oil quality, making it possible to enjoy reliable and confident motoring for up to a maximum of 18,000* miles or 24 months (whichever occurs first).

 

Now I can almost guarantee, for most people if there wasn't something to tell them to change the oil, they probably wouldn't!

Dealers aren't going to custom-tune oil change plans for how every individual person uses their car so they made plans for the two main types of people.

Those that barely drive, and when they do, they don't go far (harsh on the oil), and those that frequently drive long distances (kind to the oil).

 

This also applies to the extremes. I've heard of someone doing 30,000 miles on a single oil change, in around 11 months, and the oil looked no worse than you'd expect from 10,000 miles.

I've also heard of someone, who did barely 3,000 miles, over the course of two years, and started getting really bad ticking from the valves. The oil had sludged up from contamination so badly that there was practically no oil getting to the top of the head, the camshafts and cam followers (or rocker arms) had worn badly.

Thanks for that FG but we never used to bother with all these complications years ago and engines and oils were rubbish in those days compared with now. I have also dismantled engines in the past and never seen any evidence of water getting into places it shouldn't - how can water get past the thin film of oil that covers the whole of the inside of an engine? As for the suggestion that water "thins the oil" well that is preposterous, even my only A-level knowledge of organic chemistry refutes that suggestion completely - oil and water simply do not mix unless some kind of powerful detergent is present and even then the only result is a emulsion which is not a "dilution" in the true sense of the word. But then one does not put detergents in engines does one.

3 hours ago, Eccles said:

Thanks for that FG but we never used to bother with all these complications years ago and engines and oils were rubbish in those days compared with now. I have also dismantled engines in the past and never seen any evidence of water getting into places it shouldn't - how can water get past the thin film of oil that covers the whole of the inside of an engine? As for the suggestion that water "thins the oil" well that is preposterous, even my only A-level knowledge of organic chemistry refutes that suggestion completely - oil and water simply do not mix unless some kind of powerful detergent is present and even then the only result is a emulsion which is not a "dilution" in the true sense of the word. But then one does not put detergents in engines does one.

Oil and water don't mix, they form an emulsion, thats what the creamy substance is when the head gasket fails in such a way that allows water/coolant to get into the oil.

 

That doesn't mean it doesn't affect the oils properties though. What i meant is it dilutes it, rather than being 100% oil, it becomes 99% oil 1% water, this emulsion has less lubricating properties than pure clean oil.

One and all do actually put detergents in engines.  The Oil Producers will tell you of the lubrication properties of the oil on start ups and the cleaning properties, and oil is a coolant, 

and petrol has detergents.

Fully Synthetic Oil  Manufactured and it is Oil, it is not Mineral Oil. It is a  formulation.

Some oils are not that better than the Multigrades of decades back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_additives

 

 

 

 

Edited 17 March, 20206 yr by Roottootemblowinootsoot

Fabia, oil serviced by dealer, all is well.

One annoying comment, battery needs charging, otherwise ok.

Too many short journeys and a crap charging system.

On 06/03/2020 at 17:50, rum4mo said:

Well if it is set on fixed miles/months servicing, then it must have reached the "months" limit before the "miles" limit, lots of short journeys do mess up even modern oil's life so not a waste of time changing it.  If it is set on variable servicing, then either it has been used on many many short journeys and so the limit has been reached for that oil.

 

Edited 21 March, 20206 yr by edbostan

@edbostan Easy to see why that happened, a change of how the car was used when compared with the previous period.

 

Edit:- the posting I was referring to has been deleted, ah well ----.

Edited 21 March, 20206 yr by rum4mo

4 hours ago, rum4mo said:

@edbostan Easy to see why that happened, a change of how the car was used when compared with the previous period.

 

Edit:- the posting I was referring to has been deleted, ah well ----.

Apologies. I deleted it because I wanted to rewrite it. What I wrote was on the lines that when my Roomster was on variable servicing the ecu worked out the servicing interval. The days the service was due extended by 30 days after a continental road trip.