While originally my oil change was foreseen in ~half a year from now, two days ago I got a premature notification to change it in 28 days - so I booked an oil change in a month from now.

 

As I was driving around yesterday (nothing dramatic, just to work and back), the day count indication to change oil started reducing extremely fast - to give you an idea, it is now down to "Change the oil in 6 days" after driving ~6km over two days. So the counter reduced by 22 days instead of 2.

 

I checked the oil level manually and it was nominal. The check engine light is not on.

 

Any idea what could be causing this? Since my oil change is in a month from now, what should be my course of action? Reduce usage of the car, or do not use it at all? Or even try to regenerate the DPF?

If it's on variable service the distance to change can drop rapidly with short journeys, I don't think the days should be changing like that.

 

Could be low battery causing weird issues, or dashboard (or what stores car time/distance) gone haywire.

@akcope.  Out of interest.  What engine, how many miles / km?   What oil was used at the last service and how many miles/km ago was that.    So when set last time was it showing as 24 months, 18,000-20,000 miles to the next oil service?.  

45 minutes ago, roottoot said:

@akcope.  Out of interest.  What engine, how many miles / km?   What oil was used at the last service and how many miles/km ago was that.    So when set last time was it showing as 24 months, 18,000-20,000 miles to the next oil service?.  

 

1.6 TDI 81KW

 

100 400 km

i'm not sure what oil was used exactly, but it was done at an authorized service center a little bit more than a year ago. I can call them to dig it up if you are really interested. A rough estimate - it was about 5000 - 6000 km ago. Can't remember what value they set it to a year ago, but when they were servicing the car 3 months ago, they told me the car does not need an oil change for another year (so basically two years from the last oil change). However they did not reset the counter.

Another thing to add - the weather over here has been extremely moist recently. There has not been a day in the last three weeks where I did not find a large amount of condensation of my car in the morning. Maybe that could be a factor?

14 minutes ago, akcope said:

Another thing to add - the weather over here has been extremely moist recently. There has not been a day in the last three weeks where I did not find a large amount of condensation of my car in the morning. Maybe that could be a factor?

I expect @roottoot will be along with some excellent suggestion on some silica gel drying product 🤝

Meanwhile you should try and check carpets for moisture, as you might want to see if you have leak bringing moisture in.

Being a TDI the correct oil is Long Life regardless of the car being on a fixed service or variable / flexible regime.

 

That would be to VW 504 00 /507 00.   

The VW507 00 being the spec and 5w 30 FS III. 

 

The factor i would look for is that the oil level has not been increasing.  As in Diesel diluting the oil. 

 

But if the Oil Level when checked has been staying the same or only slightly dropping then that should not be an issue. 

 

PS

Checking what an Invoice says when a car is serviced is more than a good idea, and checking what they reset the service indicator to.

Also dipping the oil cold and again at operating temp to see they put enough in and not too much is 'simply clever'. 

Edited 28 October, 20223 yr by roottoot

2 hours ago, roottoot said:

Being a TDI the correct oil is Long Life regardless of the car being on a fixed service or variable / flexible regime.

 

That would be to VW 504 00 /507 00.   

The VW507 00 being the spec and 5w 30 FS III. 

 

The factor i would look for is that the oil level has not been increasing.  As in Diesel diluting the oil. 

 

But if the Oil Level when checked has been staying the same or only slightly dropping then that should not be an issue. 

 

PS

Checking what an Invoice says when a car is serviced is more than a good idea, and checking what they reset the service indicator to.

Also dipping the oil cold and again at operating temp to see they put enough in and not too much is 'simply clever'. 

 

Thank you, very useful advice.

 

I checked online, and looks like the way to check for diesel in oil is to wipe the dipping stick on some paper, and if there is a differently shaded circle around the central circle, then there is diesel in the oil.

 

I'm afraid if this methodology is true, then this confirms your suspicion - looks like there is diesel in the oil.

 

I guess the best course of action now is to stop driving the car until the oil change to avoid wear of the engine.

 

Is there a serious underlying mechanical issue, or can this be caused by eg. reckless driving style?