Hi guys,

 

Wondering why car's oil service counter is counting the full electric mileage too in my Octavia IV RS PHEV.

I have checked and the counter is calculating all the mileage the car ran no matter if electric or petrol.

What if I make full electric all the mileage necessary to change the engine oil? basically no petrol run and must change oil even if less than a year?

Have you noticed this behaviour and do you know why?

Your car,

You do not have to do anything to your engine.  Ignore the Fixed Oil & Filter change, the air filter the spark plugs etc.

But that is not that clever really is it. 

 

The engine is firing up occasionally,

maybe not getting to a good temp. There is condensation / H20 is the engine & that causes rust / corrosion. 

 

Of course I don't follow up flexible and do oil change at 10000 km usually. The thing I don't understand why the electric mileage is added to the petrol engine run.

Would the engine really suffer from rust/corrosion of the rare engine fire up?

Otherwise I am not concerning because I also use the petrol engine at least once/week.

The Oil change interval in the UK for a 1.4 TSI PHEV is Fixed Regime,  1 year / 9,400 miles.  15,000 km. 

Intermittent or short spells of running, such as you will very likely get from the ICE in a PHEV, will be much worse than sustained running from an IC engine alone. 

I know, but the best is to make the change at 8-10,000 km if you really care about your engine.

First of all, the oil can keep the properties for 5-7000 km, after that begins to degrade. Second, you need to take into account the dust the engine inspires.

Too much dust can rub the cylinder wall harder, etc.

 

5 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

Intermittent or short spells of running, such as you will very likely get from the ICE in a PHEV, will be much worse than sustained running from an IC engine alone. 

You are right, maybe that is the logic.

I run more distances on IC than on electric but with less frequency.

Edited 3 April, 20242 yr by axw

The engine has long life oil in,  vw508 00 / 509 00, 0w20 FS IV.  Good for 18.000 - 20,000 miles in the right application. Used for longer trips etc.  They recommend not in the plug in hybrid.   This is because a PHEV is a whole different kettle of fish or potential bucket of bolts.   Maybe only running. EV.   The DSG oil and brake fluid are hygroscopic .     Service as you think fit.   But many will want a valid warranty and service per schedule.. 

3 minutes ago, Rooted said:

The engine has long life oil in,  vw508 00 / 509 00, 0w20 FS IV.  Good for 18.000 - 20,000 miles in the right application. Used for longer trips etc.  They recommend not in the plug in hybrid.   This is because a PHEV is a whole different kettle of fish or potential bucket of bolts.   Maybe only running. EV.   The DSG oil and brake fluid are hygroscopic .     Service as you think fit.   But many will want a valid warranty and service per schedule.. 

 

Car is out of warranty, but I think if you make the servicing earlier than should, can't lose warranty because of that.

I drive most of the time electric but overall 2-3 times more in distance with CI. In my opinion PHEVs are perfect for this, at least for me.

 

Many will want an Extended Warranty valid. 

A PHEV & DQ400-e DSG.    That has a service interval of 40,000 miles.

With the PHEV the engine usage is more like a car used to potter around town, lots of short periods of use, often from cold.

 

Especially in winter the engine block and oil sump will be very cold, and the oil in the sump will be thick like treacle, a short journey will not warm this,  so your car needs fixed servicing as only part of the oil quantity is doing the work when cold and engine usage is short duration.   It's not exactly like this, but it is simple way to see the problem.

 

@SurreyJohn  I have told you a trillion times, do not exaggerate.

 

Pull out the dipstick when the outside temperature is minus 10 centigrade and run that 0w 20 FS IV oil between your fingers. 

Does it really feel as thick as treacle?

 

But we might get you point.   Lots of cold starts possibly.  

10 hours ago, SurreyJohn said:

With the PHEV the engine usage is more like a car used to potter around town, lots of short periods of use, often from cold.

 

Especially in winter the engine block and oil sump will be very cold, and the oil in the sump will be thick like treacle, a short journey will not warm this,  so your car needs fixed servicing as only part of the oil quantity is doing the work when cold and engine usage is short duration.   It's not exactly like this, but it is simple way to see the problem.

 

 

Agree with you of short journeys will not warm up enough that is why I go full electric in town, and not switch to hybrid only on longer journeys. So all these full electric runs when the IC is not firing up at all are counted and added to the oil service countdown mileage. I thought that as long as IC is off the engine is like when you don't run it so may not add to countdown.