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I own a nearly three year old Golf TDi 130 with 17,500 miles on the clock. It has been serviced twice and the next service is officially due at the end of May or at 20,000 miles. Two weeks ago the service indicator in the car came on - only 7,000 miles (10 months) after the last service. Having spoken to a service manager at VW he said that this was premature (obviously) and that the car couldn't be serviced until end of May or at 20,000 miles (as I have a service agreement with VW). Have any other Golf TDi owners had a similar experience with the on-board service indicator coming on after such a short interval between services? I am all for oil changes at 5-6,000 miles but am concerned that there may be something wrong with my car as the indicator has come on early.
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It may just be that the service indicator was set wrongly or perhaps faulty. If there was something wrong with the car you would either notice it drove badly or one of the other engine sensors would light up but not the service indicator.
I have a new golf and it details in the manual how you can check the service indicator at any time by switching on the ignition till the dash lights up. You then press and hold the trip reset button for a few seconds. It then flashes up how many miles to service followed by how many days.
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These VW group indicators base themselves on a number of factors, such as lenght of journey, oil quality etc.
Certainly with an Audi A2, if you are doing short journeys then the service indicator will come on quicker than you may think it would.
But also there could be problems with the oil condition sensor and this can give a false reading causing the service indicator to come on early.
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These VW group indicators base themselves on a number of factors, such as lenght of journey, oil quality etc. Certainly with an Audi A2, if you are doing short journeys then the service indicator will come on quicker than you may think it would. But also there could be problems with the oil condition sensor and this can give a false reading causing the service indicator to come on early.
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The oil quality indicator is a likely culprit.
Although, I have to say on my Audi TDI 130 which I assume is mechanically similar, the system works great. I tend to do periods of local driving interspersed with long motorway cruises. What I find is that on average I get around 20,500 miles between services. My service indicator will show say 14,500 miles to go at the start of the week and say 14,200 miles at the end of the week although I may not have done 300 miles. However I may do a 400 mile motorway trip in a day, and the indicator may not budge, or at least only debits 100 miles from this figure.
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Thanks for the information/ tip. After the next service I will check to make sure the service indicator has been re-set. Although when you say you have a new golf you may mean that it is a Mk5? Mine is a Mk4 (02). This service due checking option may not be an option on Mk4's but I'll give it a try. Cheers.
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My 130 Golf has had a similar fault. Its an easy fix by VW. Just pop it in and they'll reset it.
Surprised it has had 2 services. Mine is years old with 21k on the clock and it has only just had its first one ?!
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A question with regards to these service indicators working on oil condition. If the oil is changed at set intervals e.g. every 6 months/6000 miles, regardless of whether or not the service light is on, will the light come on after say 30-40000 miles, instead of a more usual value?
cheers
Sid
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The indicators are more trouble than they're worth. They don't actually detect anything, just come on after a pre-determined time or mileage.
Following the instructions in the owner's manual, just kill it every time it comes on and work out your service intervals the old-fashioned way.
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You're dead right Graham, the service indicator is set to a predetermined mileage.
All this about messuring oil quality is utter baloney.
I do the same as you and have a service at set miles.
I would not like to buy a second hand car which was serviced every 21000 miles.
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Totally agree that service indictors are only for mechanical illiterates - none of whom will be members of this forum!
Is there some way to disable them on the Skoda tdi, I wonder?
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Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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Totally agree that service indictors are only for mechanical illiterates -
I would probably have agreed with this a few years ago, but I really do think that they now do a good job when working properly. What I'm saying is, the new service indicators on the VaG cars really seem to genuinely be able to assess how the type of driving is affecting oil quality etc. I've had other cars with supposed flexible service intervals like BMW's which I dont think can be trusted. At least not to make you have a service long before you really need to.
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I have the Golf MK V, 2.0TDI and the service interval alarm pop in as well at 15000.
On VW they told me (and insist) that this is based on indicators that check the following 3 factors: length of journey, oil quality and driving style. I believe this is not true at all and all it does is reading the average mpg consumption, and based on that it indicates the service on a range of 12000-29000Kms. Can anyone confirm this?
Has any one ever seen a part number for this oil condition sensor?
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Surprised it has had 2 services. Mine is years old with 21k on the clock and it has only just had its first one ?!
If the car is coming up to 3 years old and is on fixed (time/distance) service regime which is 10k/1year whichever comes first means the car will be due 3rd service at 3 years old even if it is low mileage.
I take it you are on long-life (variable) service intervals?
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The car is trying to tell you something (like change my oil)
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I have Seat Toledo TDi and I have had the same problem, not long after the service the a service prompt started flashing. I contacted seat and they advised me that another service was not required yet, however could not give me an answer as to why the light had came on early.
You wonder why you pay the extra to have your car seviced at the dealer when they can't even answer questions...!
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On our A4 there are two types of service indicator, one for oil change and one for real service. They seem to work totally independently though. Reseting one does not reset the other, so you can easily get this irritation.
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It might be a fault on the indicator, which can be reset. But if it reurns it might just indicate that the oil sensors are detecting a problem. Like the garage used the wrong oil at the last service: not unknown. From a well known and not very distant site: ?New generation Volkswagen engines have built-in sensors that continually monitor oil quality, so a smart chip decides when it needs changing and flags up a service reminder on the dashboard monitor. Service intervals are therefore determined by driving style and patterns, and can vary from a minimum of 9,000 miles or one year, up to a maximum of 18,000 miles or two years.
These long oil intervals are possible thanks to the use of Castrol SLX LongLife II engine oil. This is a fully synthetic SAE 0W-30 oil that has been specially formulated to be compatible with the longer service intervals of both petrol and diesel engines, and in particular, Volkswagen?s PD units. By removing this oil and using traditional lubricants, it is still possible to have servicing at fixed intervals of one year or 10,000 miles. The choice is made at PDI (the vehicle?s pre-delivery inspection), and can be changed at a major service.?
SFAIK, thesae sensors are functional and not decorative!
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For VW Group cars manufactured from the year 2000 there are two servicing perameter intervals and you can choose between distance or variable.
You can reset the display manually by switching off the ignition, then press and hold down the trip reset button.
Switch the ignition again and release the reset button and the relevant service will appear in the display.
If you turn the digital clock reset button clockwise the display will return to normal. Switch off the ignition to complete the resetting procedure.
Before 2000 the car owner could reset the service indicator but only to a distance setting i.e. 10k miles/15k kms - the variable distance could only be set by a dealer using a special instrument to encode the onboard computer.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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The engine oil spec. for fixed interval (10000m/15000km or 1 year) is VW 505.01; for long life it's VW 506.01. I choose the former regime at delivery, but they leave the factory set-up for long life, I believe.
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My passat is on longlife regime and first service was 19K. Cost a lot with no noticeable difference in driving. Then the service prompt came on 7k later. Rang main dealer and they said that he computer had gone wrong, call in and we'll reset it. I did, they did. Took 5 minutes. Still don't know why the computer went wrong.
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Hello seatboy,
Is your toledo a series I, II or III?
Perhaps we should open another thread relating to SEAT. I may be observing similar problems.
don111
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As others have already pointed out, the car can be set for either fixed interval (10k/1 year) or variable servicing. (You say it is under a VW Service agreement, so I would have thought it would be under the variable scheme, which VW proudly promote).
Ask the dealer which scheme the car is operating under:
- if it is varible, the oil needs changing,
- if it is fixed, the oil quality sensor (for the variable scheme) is still saying the oil needs changing; either the oil or the sensor needs changing (or the display is faulty).
Either way, something needs changing!
If your dealer tries to fob you off, try another.
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This sounds correct - we have a Seat Ibiza and its service interval is 10K/1yr. It actually only did about 8000 miles in its first year and the service indicator came on maybe 6 wks before its 1st birthday, showing service in xxxmiles. The dealer said it knows when it'll be a year old and calculates the approx mileage remaining to that date.
We went for the VAG service deal too, so I was surprised that the car isn't on variable servicing.
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my new gt tdi told me i needed a service after 9 months and 1200 mile,one thousand two hundrad mile.after laughing at a computer i used my own sense? their alright as a guide but i can throw further than i'd trust one?
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>>after 9 months and 1200 miles>>
The reason is clearly because you are only doing (extremely) short runs.
I probably walk nearly that distance in nine months with the dog.
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PS
You apparently only average 33.3 miles a week.....:-))
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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i walk my child(6)3mile to school in the morning and back?
the car is their for things that we can not carry not for fun?
if we can walk we do!!!!!!!
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should of said i dont like short trips?
if my car gets out of the garage it has to do at least 20 mile without me stopping because i like to think it has to be warm when i put it away?
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as for walking the dog!
i probabley walk my dalmatian five mile a day.
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i walk my child(6)3mile to school in the morning and back? the car is their for things that we can not carry not for fun? if we can walk we do!!!!!!!
That's a lot of walking for a six year old!
It is possible your Golf's indicator has been set wrongly, mine was and said a service was due at 3k miles. I had it reset and now the car does not want serviced until ~18k miles.
This is a common bug and dealers are well aware of it.
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cheers kenl
i post on mkiv's aswell?
as for the walking, gobsmacked at how much fitter we feel after a couple of year of walking rather than turning a key!!
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QUOTE "The indicators are more trouble than they're worth. They don't actually detect anything, just come on after a pre-determined time or mileage.
Following the instructions in the owner's manual, just kill it every time it comes on and work out your service intervals the old-fashioned way."
Not necessarily. There are two settings the car can be set at : 1-fixed interval (where it measures 10,000miles or whatever since the last service) or 2-variable serviging (where it measures many things like journey type, oil quality, etc).
By default most VAG cars in the last few years came out the factory set at variable. However, many VW dealers being the unscrupilous money-grabbing wotsits that they are change the setting to fixed interval during the PDI, on the basis that with variable servicing the car generally goes longer between servicing which makes them less money from Servicing charges.
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My old work Octavia Tdi covered 97,000 miles in 2 years and was serviced every 10,000 miles, although on paper it may not have needed it, psycollogically it made me feel better trundelling around the country.
It may have cost my previous employers a bit more cash, but the upside was the only thing that broke was the cup holder and that was my fault.
Whoever bought the car has got a good deal
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My Alhambra TDi S 115 (no computer) requires servicing every 10k miles. Service indicator flashes up with 500 miles to go - simple! Would be even more simple if the dealer actually reset it every time it was serviced, so I end up doing it myself. Details in the handbook.
Prior to this I ran a new shape A3 2.0 TDi. This was on the variable service regime. I only ran it for 12k miles so it never saw the dealer while I had it. To find out when it reckoned it needed a service just pull on one of the dashboard stalks. It reckoned it would need servicing at around 17k miles...testament to how hard I drove it! It also tells you in how many days if you prefer. Not hours, minutes and seconds unfortunately but I'm sure it won't be long!
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Just to add another factor to the basis on which the indicators work, I read somewhere that BMW indicators used to work on a number of different variables. However what they found was that the number of cold starts was actually a very good predictor of oil condition and much simpler to measure than oil condition directly. It would seem to me a good piece of lateral thinking and good common sense.
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