Hi,

I'm new to VAG cars. My wife and I both have an Octavia (Ambiente Estate and L&K hatch), bought from Skoda dealers within the last year. I assumed that the service interval would be 6-10k as with most cars and my wife's just had an 80k service at 75k (since we'd done 10k since we bought it and it was last serviced). Neither car has a cam belt change shown in the service record, which I'm assuming that it would. (My car's only done 45k). What's a "normal" price for cam belt replacement?

/Edit: I've had a bit more of a look round on the forum and found the 4 year limit. Wish I'd know this before I bought my car the other week! I'd have asked them to do it in the purchase price!) This means both now need doing! Yikes! Edit/

I've since heard bits and pieces about service indicators, variable servicing or fixed servicing. How do I know whether the cars are on fixed or variable servicing? It seems a bit naive to just keep driving it until the indicator comes on. I'm not even sure what this indicator looks like!

Sorry if this is an obvious question.

Thanks,

Martin

Fixed intervals for the diesels are 12 months or 10k miles. The service indicator will start to count down from about 11 months or 1_000 miles to go.

When you turn the ignition on, the service indicator will show 1_000, counting down in hundreds, instead of the clock (Ambiante), or trip computer mode (L&K).

In which context, the L&K computer has miles covered and hours run since last service modes. Use the rocker switch on the end of the wiper stalk to cycle the mode.

Ken,

I've looked on both cars and no sign of the display you described. With the ignition on, it looks the same as when the engine's running. I've cycled through the options and only get:-

instantaneous mpg

average mpg

trip time

average speed

miles -> empty

Nothing that looks like a service indicator. Does that have to be enabled with VAGcom?

Thanks,

Martin

Service indicator not showing on ignition on means there's not a service due; as I said it counts down when you're getting near. The distance and time since last service modes "just are" on my Elegance, but I got it used.

Service indicator not showing on ignition on means there's not a service due; as I said it counts down when you're getting near. The distance and time since last service modes "just are" on my Elegance, but I got it used.

My L&K did count me down in 100s of miles to the next service. So I take it that this means that it's on fixed servicing?

It's going for a service on Monday. I'm taking it to a Bosch service centre so I hope they know what they're doing! Can we clear up the correct oil for the PD once and for all? I've seen 505 and 507 mentioned here as THE oil for the PD.

If the car is currently configured for fixed servicing, and I want to change to variable (I do a lot of motorway miles) then this changes the oil requirement doesn't it? It would be great to have this straight before Monday.

If I understand the Haynes manual correctly, the ASZ engine can be configured for variable/longlife servicing.

Thanks again,

Martin

If new, look in the service book cover.

Somewhere there with be a code QG0, QG1 or QG2 code. This will be the regime your's came from the factory with.

If a used car, than this may have been changed by the previous owner.

Variable Longlife oil is the 507 00 and the PD fixed servicing is 505 01 - but i've been told that you should not do longlife on a pd engine, you should always do fixed due to the high constraints of the engine...

This Link may help

Castrol Oils

I've been told you should always use 507 oil on a PD, irrespective of service regime. I've never used variable service since it's really intended for high mileage users, so dunno, but I'd expect it to start a countdown like fixed does.