Folks, Just got the car back from a service yesterday. Got a chance to look under the bonnet today. done a quick check with the dip stick to see if the oil looked new. And no I think it still looks pretty black indeed, I'n mot sure where the oil filter is so I can see if there appears to have been work done on that. Question is what should oil for diesels look like, I am used to seing bike oil a lovely red colour and indeed car oil either red or deep brown. another question the drain plug in the engine sump is it hidden by the cover at the bottom of the engine. I seen my car in the work shop but it was not on a ramp.!!!!

P.S. Invoice states all service items but we all know that means nothing.....

Oh the quote for first variable service at 19k was 160odds this turned out to be 208

due to a gubbed lock nut on my n/s rear wheel plus VAT.

Oil in a diesel engine goes black more or less as soon as you turn the key.

Mines in for a service next monday.

They may have syphoned the oil out rather than draining it from the bottom.

In my experience the TDi tends to hold back a good 1/4 of a litre of oil in its galleries even when you drain it the 'proper' way using the sump plug and even after leaving it to drain for a good couple of hours. As soon as you put new oil in it will get mixed in with this old stuff and go a blackish colour.

If they never had it on the ramps I would suspect, like Goochie says , that they sucked the old oil out using a vac pump put in through the dip stick hole (as tends to be the fashion these days).

Personally I prefer the old fashioned way..as it gives you chance to have a nosey around under the car whilst you have it on the ramps. (chance to extracite the remains of the nextdoor neighbours 'missing' cat from the diff housing)

Can they do that. and how.!!!

Maybe they have done my service after all....

They take the dipstick out and shove a thin/stiff plastic hose down the dispstick tube and syphon out the old oil. Apparently its more environmentally friendly for disposal..less spillage etc. and saves time hoisting the car/removing the plastic undertray etc [and stripping the thread off your sump plug]

Its 'Horses for courses' but personally I prefer to do it the old fashioned way and take the sump plug out, that way you will be sure most of the old oil has drained out.

I'd go the sump plug route, although the other method would be ok for an intermediate change. eg if you do it at 5k intervals between 10k then you could do the 5k this way.

How thick is the oil, if it's very thick then they may not have done it. If it's fairly thin then it was most likely done.

You can tell when the oil has done it's 20-30k miles because it will be almost powdery with all the carp that is in it :S

I would agree, That way your sure to capture more of the small bits of unwanted debree "if any" I thought that was the whole idea of having a magnetic drain plug

to capture any metal fragments. they won't get those out with a syphon.!!!

Anyway, that puts my mind at rest. my service must have been done after all, I just expected long life oil to be thicker than most.

Long life oil, is in fact thinner than most and in the topup bottle I have, has an almost water like thickness.

I was able to watch mine being done [at Clarion.] Up on a ramp. Proper drainage into a drum or tank, good detergent flush as I was going from long life to semi., new filter, new good class of semi synthetic oil going in.

Full check round the underneath while that was going on.

Chat with the staff - all good stuff and reasonable price for this day and age.

magnetic drain plug

Blimey, aint seen one of them since the A series engine.

And yes the oil will be black straight away.

Blimey, aint seen one of them since the A series engine.

jeez yeah.. I remember them coming out of mini's / metros looking like a minature of Ken Dodds hair style. Pain in the ar5e to clean and every time you tried to screw them back in, they attracted another bit of metal swarf onto the thread so you couldn't screw it in without a crispy/crunching noise.

Yeah, does make you wonder what oil filters are for!!

Anyway, with variable servicing you'll soon know if they diddnt do it because it'll be asking for a service pretty soon.

My oil was mean't to of been changed at the first service as agreed with the dealer as I didn.t want to stay on the variable service interval that the car was automatically set to. When I picked up the car and checked the oil it was jet black ( 8000 miles later ). This was put right with lots of appologising.