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I think my point is made!

You stick to fixed servicing and I'll stick to variable.

As for your point on motor trade technicians.....

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I purchased my 1.9 partly because the variable servicing showed it had gone 20k between services ( since new). It had 110K on the clock and had done a 70mile motorway comute eachway for 2.5 years racking up most of those miles. So my guess was minimal wear and tare on the engine. Had it gone 10K on fixed I may not have known the sort of driving it had had. Ive only done 10K in it but apart from the cv gatters having just gone ( which I can forgive) so far so good. However I may well start 10k fixed servicing just to be sure.

this thread seems to have touched some nerves!

if 20k servicing was a bad idea or was going to cause issues with the ultimate lifespan of the engines, why introduce it?

if all of a sudden all high mileage skoda started to fail, there would soon be a change back to 10k servicing. for reference down here 90 percent of the taxis are octys. i recently asked a cabby what he thought of it. i found out the car was his and he sticks to the 20k servicing. his car has done over 200,000 miles without grief. he also told me that its the same with all the octys the company uses.

cant be that bad for it then surely?

Well, I'll be sticking with my Variable servicing. BMW have had variable servicing since the late 1980's and they have not gone back to a fixed regiem. Manufactures wouldnt use the system if they thought it a bad thing, why? because if it was truely bad it would potentially result in an increase in warranty claims.

Not to mention they also loose money as the car is only seen once not twice in 20k.

Not to mention they also loose money as the car is only seen once not twice in 20k.

true, but is skodas main job to sell cars or repair them?

I think you will find they make just as much repairing and selling the parts for them than selling a new car.

Then of course there is the s/h car sales where they make the most money.

A badge of honour? - "I change my oil every 5000 miles and it's always clear as a bell"

Bonkers

I agree, it's totally and utterly pointless and shows that someone really doesn't know alot about how engines work.

If you changed the oil on an engine every 3-5k from new, you'd end up with a car thats never run in, and returns poor fuel economy.

It's a little known fact that some manufacturers put poorer grade oil in brand new engines to speed up the bedding in process.

There is no benefit to 3-5k oil changes whatsoever, your engine wont last any longer, and is actually likely to expire earlier due to it never bedding in properly.

On our cab fleet all the cars are changed to fixed servicing, they do get a hard life so variable isn't really suitable, we still haven't ever had an engine failiure (except a toyota that they forgot to fill with oil), and our cars have galactive mileage on them.

There is another variable to that John, if the car is pretty well on the road all the time it won't be doing the hot cold routine, and that's gotta be beneficial in the long run because everything is pretty well kept at op temp most of the time, personally I wouldn't bother doing 3-5k, but I also feel 10k is about right to change it due to the state of the filter.

I work in the motor trade, and every technician in our workshop follows this same procedure, so I guess there must be a plentyful supply of "bonkers" technicians in the world! Each to their own I say! Who are you to pass judgement on anyone else?

If I was concerned about resale value I would never have purchased a Skoda in the first place, especially not a Superb! lol

I just don't want to have to pay for a new engine while I own the car. Like they say: You can't teach an old dog new tricks. As for FSH, my book will be garage stamped for each service it's due as they will be done in accordance with the fixed servicing schedule, (not by a Skoda stealer either!), so even I was concerned about resale value, the FSH will be in place. As for the oil at £50ish, your spot on there, changing it every 5k is mad, hence changing to fixed servicing as fully synthetic oil is far, far, far cheaper, than 20k pi$$!

Finally, if you bothered to dropped your own oil after 5k I'd bet you a quid it wouldn't be, "clear as a bell".

A badge of honour? No not for me, just an engine kept as healthy as an engine can be.

Bonkers? Suit your 7ucking self mate! I'll be sure to give you a wave when your at the side of road waiting for recovery!

It's an engine not a baby! You don't ned to keep it healthy - just regularly serviced as per your chosen scheme - variable or fixed. Your choice.

In my opinion, people who change the oil every 5000 miles have a screw loose - and too much money.

Resale value and saleability IS affected by being able advertise your vehicle as 'FSSH' rather than 'FSH' that you will be able to say. No-one will care that you changed the oil so regularly, indeed if someone tried to sell me a car that they'd do it so often, I'd probably laugh.

The oil manufacturers have R&D departments that they spend millions on and you decide to ignore it.

Finally, you must be a motor technician as the first time someone disagrees with you, you resort to profanity. Which garage do you work at so I can avoid it?

depends where you get the oil and filter from really... it costs me £25 for genuine VAG filter and oil, and half an hour of my time.

I guess I'm just schooled in the old ways.

And my dealer even suggested to me that variable isn't very good. And my servicing is free anyway, so they're making no more money from me

Fair enough all round, I've owned my Superb 2nd hand for 2.5 year 35k miles and it's been in the garage once for a service. It was just serviced once by the previous owner within the 25k, again when it was sold (I insisted as part of sale). It's runs really smoothly and returns 40mpg.

Tyres and liquids get checked fortnightly when it gets cleaned. Fairly simple routine. Brakes haven't been changed but in Feb the garage thought they were about half worn, so good for another 30-40k.

If it's on variable then their is probably slightly more responsibility on the owner to check things. I can imagine there are certain cars that don't have oil, coolant, tyres or brake levels checked between services and these would be best serviced annually

Mine was supposedly dealer supplying serviced 12k ago, it has generally gotten slower and slower, today I put new air and oil filters in it with VX synthetic oil and it flys now, never went like it when I got the car tbh.

That will becasue servicing says the air filter needs doing ever 40k when in reality you notice the slow down/higher fuel usage after about 10-20k.

That is the same no matter what service schedule you are on.

Read the service book carefully - air filter on Superb needs changing at 20k miles under most conditions. The dealers don't bother though.

rotodiesel.

I think with mine it was probably the oil rather than the filter, it didn't look over dirty, but the oil looked very thin and very black, filter was all caked up with muck, and she used to smoke a fair bit under throttle, that seems to have gone and my guess is it was getting past the rings because I've added about a litre and a half since I've had it, and I've only done 12k, proof in the pud will be tomorrow when i go out in it to work, oh and the heavier than usual knock when starting cold has gone also, like I said, all pointing to either cheap oil or knackered oil.

Read the service book carefully - air filter on Superb needs changing at 20k miles under most conditions. The dealers don't bother though.

rotodiesel.

Oops i was thinking Octy, but even so..

I think with mine it was probably the oil rather than the filter, it didn't look over dirty, but the oil looked very thin and very black, filter was all caked up with muck, and she used to smoke a fair bit under throttle, that seems to have gone and my guess is it was getting past the rings because I've added about a litre and a half since I've had it, and I've only done 12k, proof in the pud will be tomorrow when i go out in it to work, oh and the heavier than usual knock when starting cold has gone also, like I said, all pointing to either cheap oil or knackered oil.

Thin and black isn't too bad, it's when it goes thick and black you need to worry.