Where do i draw the line on oil changes
Keeping in mind that cold starts do the most damage to car engines and to the deterioration of engine oil
Two scenarios for comparison, both VW Polo 1.4 TDI PD
Both bought new
Service Schedule and Cost
First Year /10000 miles (Oil change only) £85
Second Year/20000 miles (Oil change/service) £150
Third Year /30000 miles (Oil change only) £85
Forth Year /40000 miles (Oil change/service) £250
Mr Pensioner (me)
My car is garaged and is used on average three times a week for round trips of not less than 15 miles and two trips from Sheffield to Scarborough each year. This is the important part, I start my car up from cold three times a week we are very rarely out long enough for the engine to get cold so it does not get a second cold start. In a year I start my car from cold 52x3 = 156 times My total mileage is about 3500 per year
Mr Average Working Guy
Starts his car up from cold to go to work finishes work starts his car up from cold again to go home. This equates to 52 weeks x 5 days x 2 =520 cold starts (not counting weekends) I don?t know what mileage he will do but I should think it would be at least double my 3500 miles.
The service periods and charges are the same for both vehicles, but I have to ask myself whose oil will be in the better condition when service time comes. I may be wrong but I can not see any harm being done after the three year warranty has run out in stretching the yearly service to at least 18 months when I will have covered approximately 5000 Miles
I should point out that the £82 service is a oil change service only, no other work is done, the special oil and filter is £45 the rest is a labour charge. There is a long life option that I should have but was not informed of when I bought the car, that is 24 months or 30000 miles this service needs a long life oil that is probably synthetic .When I asked about this at the last service I was told it was for cars that did mostly long journeys
OK I accept this and the fact that the engine probably never cools down during the day but it does not alter the fact that one cold start a day during the two year period is 2 years x 52 weeks x 5days =252( plus any weekend use) cold starts, which would be about the same as I would do over a two year period but I would have done a lot less miles, so surely less deterioration of oil ..My first three compulsory oil changes (because of the warranty) will have cost me a total of £246. a little bit pricey for what will be a total of about 10000 miles.
Guess who wont be doing my oil change next year
I am taking my car to the dealers for its second service on Wednesday and I am going to ask them again why I should not change to the longer service schedule Am I paranoid about cold starts and oil changes or do I have a point. Your comments if you can understand my rambling rant would be most helpful when I go to see my local rip off merchant on Wednesday
Keeping in mind how I use the car and the mileage I do what would you consider my oil change intervals should be and what my main servicing intervals should be considering I am probably only going to clock up about 3500 miles a year and I am never going to do reach the service intervals of 10000 miles a year.
Thanks
Alan
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I should have pointed out the car is not used in stop start traffick I live on the outskirts of Sheffild and most of the driving is done on semi rural roads.
Alan
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If your annual mileage is so low, I would still get 6 month oil changes done. The car is not used long enough to dry all condensation out of the engine. I would find an excuse to drive 30 miles a month up the motorway.
Secondly, the servicing by the dealer will help to spot rusted brake disks and pads wearing faster than usual.
When I bought my Xsara at 18 months old and 4000 miles, I was happy about the engine as there was no mayonnaise etc and I switched quickly from the Magnatec as filled by the retailer to a Total Synthetic oil. The engine didn't seem to have suffered much from the short journeys, but the Magnatec oil did blacken much more than the synthetic oil, so I guess there was rubbish that needed clearing out by the new oil.
The bigger problem with buying a low mileage car was the brakes. As the car had done short journeys and never really warmed the brakes up the discs were thinner than expected as they must always have been covered in a thin layer of rust; wearing the pads and discs quicker.
The pads and discs were changed at about 15,000 miles if I remember correctly. After that, the discs did not wear enough to measure in the next 15k miles I owned the car.
As a side note, my present C5 which has done about 1000 miles a month from new (it was a demonstrator/salesmans car) has the original pads at 20k and they will probably reach 40k before needing replacement. I guess because the pads are lasting so long, the discs will also be wearing fairly quickly.
To summarise, frequent oil changes will make up for short journeys, but the brakes will suffer.
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I am not expert (usual disclaimer), but I would:
* Change oil and filter yourself (or use Kwik-Fit or another High St outfit, who do it more cheaply than I can with Mobil 1) every six months come hell or high water; oil and filters are cheap. I do that with my two ageing but relatively modern cars; I use a four-month interval on my 20-year-old Capri 2.8i. There are those who say you can't change oil often enough -- an exaggeration, of course, but I go along with it. Try:
www.eurocarparts.co.uk/
or
www.gsfcarparts.com/
for filters.
* Stay well away from main-dealer servicing. A friend's Polo has just come out of warranty and therefore "compulsory" main-dealer servicing. Our independent mechanic (who specializes in VWs) has found far more needing attention than should be the case after regular servicing. This is consistent with my experience with an Audi and a VW. Perhaps it's just this locality (Herts), but I doubt it.
* Find a good independent (VW specialist) servicing outfit to use henceforth at annual intervals, regardless of mileage. The cost will probably be about half that of main-dealer rates. I found mine by asking the guy at a VW accessories shop.
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I would love to use a cheaper oil like Mobil 1 but unable to do so because the TDI PD engine needs oil to a VW specification, for this specific engine. There are dealers who sell the specified oil at a price a lot cheaper than VW even so it is still dearer than best quality normal oils. This is the price of new technology of the TDI PD engine. I doubt very much that the Quick fit people would stock it and if they did i dont think i would trust them to put the proper oil in, put the wrong oil in this type of engine and it is likely to go bang.
Thanks for your input to this post
Alan
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Alan
Mobil 1 is far from cheap, except at Kwik-Fit for quantities over 4 litres (because the Kwik-Fit price is fixed at £39, regardless of quantity). My mention of it was incidental to the main points: change oil frequently, avoid main dealers, and stick to an annual service schedule.
You must use the correct oil spec., of course, and perhaps it is available outside the VW dealership network under Halfords' own brand or some such. If you find out the key letters and numbers, it's easy to check, as I did recently with Castrol GTX for my old Capri, only to find that the GTX labelled "for use in conventional engines" (no longer available) is exactly the same spec as the GTX labelled "for engines with over 75,000 miles". But even if it isn't available elsewhere, you can buy it from VW, do the job yourself, and spend on something far more pleasurable the £80 per hour they would be quick to charge you.
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May I suggest Millers XFE-PD.
It is - as the name suggests - to VW PD standard.
Sold at Motorists Discount stores.
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I?m intrigued to know why you bought a diesel when you only do 3500 miles/year? Was it just personal preference - normally you need to do quite of of miles to re-coup the extra cost.
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It is a new shape polo and i bought it just after it superseded the old type. at that time there didn't seem to be much discounting of the Polos. Out of curiosities sake i call into the VW dealers and was offered £700 off a 1.4 petrol, just prior to this I had been looking at a metallic blue 1.4 TDI PD diesel in the showroom, at that time I showed no interest other than looking at it.I told the salesman i was not interested in the £700 discount and left the showroom, before i got in my car to drive away another salesman came rushing out called me back into the showroom and offered me the Diesel £1000 off and no extra charge for the metallic colour this added up to a total of £1235 discount. the bottom line is i got £535 more off the diesel than i would have off the petrol model. At the time it was a very good buy.
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At 3500 miles per year, diesel is a better choice than petrol for numerous reasons. As the car is garaged, condensation of the sump/oil pan won't be a problem. I would suggest that an annual oil and filter change will be a good bet if you plan to keep the car for several years. Use the Millers stuff as suggested by other(s) or buy the VW oil over the counter and get a local garage or home tuning company to do it for you. Castrol do list a VW-spec GTX to 505.01 but it is not yet widely available in the UK - this situation is supposed to be changing in the near future - cannot wait as I also have a non-VW with a VW PD diesel engine. If you can afford it, it is worth having the annual oil change done by a local garage and ask them to spend an hour each year checking other safety-critical items like brakes etc - not necessary to pay VW dealer rates of up to £90 per hour! Got a Tesco clubcard or belong to the RAC - then try Nationwide Autocentres for good deals on servicing.
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Alan,
In your first post you haven't factored in the requirement for a MOT after 3 years and then annually. Meaning it is a hassle taking the car in for an MOT and then 6 months later if you go for the 18 month service interval.
My daughter is in much the same position with her Feb 1998 Polo. It was taken to the VW garage for 3 years and the last 3 annual visits have been for 2 x £49 oil change with 'free' MOT and a £99 full service, again with MOT thrown in. This at the local Peugeot garage.
C
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