Sorry if this has already been covered, but couldn't find an answer for my problem.

Had a 60k service in june and the car has now covered somewhere between 8 and 9k since. Just noticed that the 'service 1000' has started coming up. I had particularly asked the dealer to check that variable had been set when it was serviced and they confirmed.

Rang my dealer, I explained that I think it had been set as fixed at last service. He said to bring the car in and they can recalculate the service interval.

Is this possible? Do you just reset back to variable and tell the car the mileage of the last servce or will I have to wait till 80k for next service rather than the car letting me know.

I do remember when the car was at 50k I tried to get the computer to tell me when the next service was due, but feel I may have reset the car to fixed as I was messing with the ignition and clock control etc to try and find out. But I was told that you can only change from variable to fixed by doing the ignition clock thing when the car is flashing up the service message on the dash.

Hope you can help

fixed is better for the car anyway

Am driving approx 30k a year so cannot really afford to get it services every 3-4 months.

My only problem with the dealer resetting or recalculating as the he put it is that it I won't really know if it has been set back to variable as it will be due another service in 10k anyway (80k service) as the car has done 8-9 k since the last variable service (currenly just on 68k).

Will only truely know if it has been changed to variable when car asks for service at 100k ish.

My main issue is the 200 mile round trip for me to get it to dealers so they can change back to variable. :(

They can adapt the service light back to a fixed.

Problem is if they did a fixed service they wont have used variable oil so it cant be done. If they set the light incorrectly then even just resetting it back to variable should work as the oil quality sensor will pick up that the oil hasnt been changed and alter accordingly.

fixed is better for the car anyway

On what basis? VAG did a huge amount of research with the oil companies who provide the longlife oils. If you are doing the sort of miles where you benefit from longlife servicing, you are likely to be getting the car fully warm, rather than short journeys. As long as the brakes, tyres etc. are being checked on a regular basis, longlife is definitely a cheaper way to go for higher mileage cars.

£60 per fill for the oil is a bit steep, but its bloody good oil!

They can adapt the service light back to a fixed.

Problem is if they did a fixed service they wont have used variable oil so it cant be done. If they set the light incorrectly then even just resetting it back to variable should work as the oil quality sensor will pick up that the oil hasnt been changed and alter accordingly.

Good point - check the servicing bill. Anything less than £50-60 then it wasn't longlife oil that was used and even if you switched it back to variable it would come up with the service light sooner than the 30k. Mine has come on just about every 30k on the button (next one due in a couple of months).

On what basis? VAG did a huge amount of research with the oil companies who provide the longlife oils. If you are doing the sort of miles where you benefit from longlife servicing, you are likely to be getting the car fully warm, rather than short journeys. As long as the brakes, tyres etc. are being checked on a regular basis, longlife is definitely a cheaper way to go for higher mileage cars.

£60 per fill for the oil is a bit steep, but its bloody good oil!

cheaper, but not necessarily better for the car, which is what I said.

I suppose if you don't keep a car that long then having it on variable is ok - let the next owner deal with the reduced quality of the oil that's been in for thousands of miles.

I do 20-25k a year, and I change the oil every 5k, and have done on every car I've owned

Anyone ever have a variable service ask for another service at just over 8k miles?

Anyone ever have a variable service ask for another service at just over 8k miles?

Yep,

First at about 18.5k, variable service performed. Light came on after 9k. Talked to dealer who said they had been having probs reseting on variable and just to reset the light via the dashboard.

Serviced again at 37k and light on again at 46k. Reset the light again via the dash.

At 55k, they assure me they have a different way of resetting the light. Guess we'll know soon. I'm on about 62.5k now (feb 2005 car)

cheaper, but not necessarily better for the car, which is what I said.

I suppose if you don't keep a car that long then having it on variable is ok - let the next owner deal with the reduced quality of the oil that's been in for thousands of miles.

I do 20-25k a year, and I change the oil every 5k, and have done on every car I've owned

Old cars needed regular oil changes as manfacturing was less precise leading to more contaminetnts in the oil. With better manafcturing and oil the need for regular oil changes hs diminished to the stage were a sensor can check the qulaity of the oil and alert when it needs changing, hence maximisng the oil life (which recues waste) and reducing the service intervals.

There are plenty of cars out there on variable now at 150k plus with no engine problems on variable which will have saved around 23 oil changes compared to your cars, meaning 100 litres less oil wasted and having to be disposed off/recylced.

Yep,

First at about 18.5k, variable service performed. Light came on after 9k. Talked to dealer who said they had been having probs reseting on variable and just to reset the light via the dashboard.

Serviced again at 37k and light on again at 46k. Reset the light again via the dash.

At 55k, they assure me they have a different way of resetting the light. Guess we'll know soon. I'm on about 62.5k now (feb 2005 car)

If you reset a variable service light via the dash buttons it reverts it to fixed servicing, Variable can only be reset with diagnostic equipment.

I used to work for Castrol (Oil) and in my opinion if a car covers high mileage variable servicing is ideal as mentioned above modern oils are capable of 20,000 miles. However if a car covers a low mileage stop/start journeys fixed 12 monthly servicing is probably better.

Just what i thought Ross.Looks like your dealership doesn't know what they are doing.......

Scary:finger:

If you reset a variable service light via the dash buttons it reverts it to fixed servicing, Variable can only be reset with diagnostic equipment.

Sorry, didn't make myself clear. I knew that. I'd done 18.5k from new in the car and had a variable service. They'd put longlife oil in and my driving pattern hadn't changed.

So the assumption was that when the light was reset, it had been done via the dash board in the garage (I'd asked the garage if the guy could have incorrectly set the schedule to fixed, they suggested he was new and wouldn;t have known how to - confidence huh?), so I reset the light via the dash to get to 36k and have my second "variable service".

After that, the light came back on at 45k so i reset again. When the car went in for the 54k service, they again assured me that they were putting long life oil in, but also said that they'd had trouble with a few (prob mine + one other!!) cars and now had been told of a new way to reset (I think the number 7 was mentioned. not sure if that was a bit or byte number - third hand and a while ago now.)

So the up shot is that some dealers do not seem to know how to reset a variable service schedule.

Anyone know a dealer in the north west who does know how to reset to variable correctly?

On my last service I asked specifically for it to be reset to variable and hey presto have covered 9k and the car is asking for a service again.

My apologies as I seem to have started 2 threads will virtually the same question :(

Is it just same to assume that long life oil can cover 20k without relying on some sensor?