Servicing advice please

[steve184]

Got an A4 40 TFSI which is 12 months old (from date of collection) on 9th May.

Currently for around 4000 miles on it, and I've today had a call from my local dealer saying 'the car has asked for an oil service' She explained that the car minters the oil and if it detects the oil has deteriorated it will communicate to them that the oil needs changing. This is very strange since the 'countdown' value for the oil change counts down to the EXACT date I picked the car up last year - that isn't condition based, clearly.

They say these cars have an up to 2 year or 19k service interval, which can come down depending on car use - but really? It's decided this is required after 4000 and 11 months?

I'm aware there is a way in the settings to reset the 'oil interval' which the user can do (i.e. it doesn't require the dealer's computer to do it) which seems an odd system. If this is a compulsory (for service record purposes) oil change interval, then why is it user resettable? I Just don't understand this.

I had a 2018 S4 which had the exact same regime, and back then I asked about this, and they told me:

When the oil service comes on go into the MMI > CAR > SERVICE AND MAINTENANCE > SERVICE and reset THE OIL CHANGE so that both the oil service and inspection come at the same time.

Some cars come pre-set to annual servicing but it is quite simply changed by going into the service section in the MMI and changing from oil service to long life

But then I google on the web and can't find any corroboration of this.

This is a lease car, so while I need to service it properly for contractual purposes, I don't want to overspend or future-proof the car as I won't have it when its much older.

As far as I'm concerned contractual is service schedule is up to 2 years or 19,000 miles - I won't do 19,000 miles in the next year.

Anyone able to comment on this and add anything useful?

Thanks

 

[spartacus68]

Got an A4 40 TFSI which is 12 months old (from date of collection) on 9th May.

Currently for around 4000 miles on it, and I've today had a call from my local dealer saying 'the car has asked for an oil service' She explained that the car minters the oil and if it detects the oil has deteriorated it will communicate to them that the oil needs changing.

As far as I'm concerned contractual is service schedule is up to 2 years or 19,000 miles - I won't do 19,000 miles in the next year.

At the very least, then get an oil change by early May. That way it's changed annually and you'll likely stay within the warranty specification of your lease, which I suspect must provide more details if you check the small-print.

Audi's long-service regime of up to 19k miles can potentially be achieved for some people who do very high mileage. Driving style, average speed, ambient temperature all add into the mix.

Personally I don't like long service intervals. When the car is handed back after 3-4 years, then engine issues will likely manifest themselves for the next unsuspecting owner. It's asking a hell a lot of the oil and filter to protect and lubricate an engine for up to 2 years.

If you have any plans to own this car after the lease agreement finishes, then that's something to bear in mind.

 

[steve184]

It's ok saying get an oil change by early may - that's £300 at my dealer - but if it doesn't really need it.. This isn't clear IMO. My contract says all servicing must be done by a main dealer. Yet technically I could do the oil change myself and reset the counter myself - but that wouldn't be an 'official' recorded service. This is why it confuses me why on earth would a service reminder be user-resettable if it was 'imperative' rather than 'optional'. I get if it's an optional 'resettable' regime by a user who has long-term in mind and wants to change the oil themselves every 3 or 6 months. Then the other non-resettable service timer is an 'official' one that ensures the car gets an 'official' recorded oil change at the very least every 2 years or 19k.

On the S4 I mentioned - I just reset on the advice of the salesperson, and got it serviced at the 2 year mark when the car next flagged it up, and it was all fine. Sent that car back and never heard anything back, as far as I was concerned I'd serviced it to schedule with a mina dealer. Same kind of driving - sent that car back after just under 3 years with <8000 miles on it.

 

[northpole]

People tend to forget oil will degrade faster if you only do short trips... longlife oil will degrate as fast as mineral oil when it doesn't get a chance to properly warm up... So book your service up in May but get it done rather sooner than later. And yes the cost for the service is the cost for the service., if you wanted lower costs you should've gone for another brand.

 

[spartacus68]

if you wanted lower costs you should've gone for another brand.

Saying it as you see it!

The oil probably costs £50, you can get Castrol Edge 5w30 LL at Costco for less, then add in a genuine filter, say £20 and sump washer, although to be fair you can reuse as it doesn't use a crush washer. Labour and VAT accounts for the other £230 for a procedure that will take 20 minutes on a ramp.

 

[northpole]

yes that is why i don't lease or buy new cars for... i buy them used when depriciation has done it's worst damage so i can decide when to service it, with what products and if i want to have it done or diy... so yes easy for me to say but it also means i'll never own a brand new or just a few years old car. Those are just the extra costs and the price you pay for having a younger car.

wanna save on motoring? buy an older car, than service and maintain it yourself... but the pitfall with those are you're always buying someone's problem car... i have yet to buy a car in that segment that didn't need anything ( mostly suspension that is wornout, and engine problems like waterpumps, timingbelts/chains, auxiliary belts tensioners, sensors, etc etc etc) but once sorted those cars last another 8 to 10 years with nothing mayor if taken care off.

 

[steve184]

People tend to forget oil will degrade faster if you only do short trips... longlife oil will degrate as fast as mineral oil when it doesn't get a chance to properly warm up... So book your service up in May but get it done rather sooner than later. And yes the cost for the service is the cost for the service., if you wanted lower costs you should've gone for another brand.

Bulls**t. A car engine is a car engine. Brand is irrelevant. Do you work for Audi by any chance?

I’m not asking for anyone’s agreement on my car choice, I’m asking if anyone has any firm information on this bizarre servicing regime/system with the user resettable oil service but none resettable inspection service on a car that is supposed to be able to go 2 years or 19,000 miles between services.

As I’ve said - the first oil change is showing as 12 months to the day of first registration/collection date so this is not a condition based service it’s a time based service.

I don’t even believe this engine has any form of ‘oil monitoring’ sensor - perhaps I might be corrected by any mechanic or Audi tech that knows these engines.

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[northpole]

oil is oil it has f-all to do with engines... when oil doesn't reach working temperatures, there is more ware to the moving parts, the oil doesn't get to use the cleaning and encapsulating properties and wll go bad faster... Nevermind the stop start option (if not disabled) making matters worse... I don't work for audi or any other car brand. The service counter can always be reset, you just need to read the owners manual to reset it or have a VAG specific obd2 tool to do so. I wasn't debating your car choice i was debating your complaint about the price the dealer charges for your service... it's part of costs be it a lease car or a new car ( although i do think they take the absolute micky with their labour costs)

I'm quite sure it doesn't have an oil monitor, but also quite sure these newer models can be read OTA (over the air) and will trigger a service call when the counter on the car is near to it... my b7 has 2 settings one warns about 2000 miles before the set service distance, the other is time based. So you are probably right about it being a time based service reminder.

Still doesn't mean that the engine oil doesn't need replacing because it's past it's best already (take in account the egr system and the stop start)
simple check: pull dipstick or oil fill lid, wipe the oil off check the colour: if your oil is black in a petrol instead of golden or dark brown... it needs replacing it's that simple.

 

[steve184]

I understand everything you are saying but I still don’t get this bizarre 2 stage service warning system - one user resettable and one dealer resettable (or if you have the dealer equipment).

The first warning is a year to the day so it has no bearing on oil condition whatsoever it has just counted down a year. This is completely counter intuitive to the advertised 2years or 19k miles service interval.

Yes I get oil deteriorates quicker with certain ‘negative’ use conditions you describe but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t knacker the oil so much to bring the service interval down from 19k to 2k - that’s just not realistic. And anyway as I say this first oil service warning has no relation to the 2 year metric (as only one year) and no relation to the 19k miles as only 2k.

I don’t need to dip the oil to know that it will still be clean, however I will do anyway. No chance it will be black on an 11 month old car with just over 2k miles.

I’m honestly just trying to understand what is going on so I can make an informed decision. At the moment I’m completely unconvinced that an oil change right now serves nothing but to line the dealers wallet - unnecessary work which as you say they take the ‘Micky’ with on cost.


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[northpole]

Wait is your car now just 1 year old? If so you might have running in oil in there and that usually gets replaced just before you get delivery of the car... but sometimes they forget to do so, in that case you'll get an early service fully charged on your costs, which it shouldn't be at all as they didn't do the oil change before handing the car over to you.

Other than that, if you've only done 2k miles in a year... well it should still be fine and I would have a discussion with the dealer as to why they didn't do the service when they handed the car over in the first place.

If they can't explain the reason why, I would simply state I've only.done 2k miles so these costs will be free of charge as you clearly did not perform the service it needed before the handover. If they don't agree to it tell them you'll take this matter to Audi UK main office ( this might persuade them to at least cut the labour costs off, but they might stick to their guns)