First Service and Window Rattle

[snakehips]

I just had my first oil change service. I was mindly surprised that Audi have now put me on a long life service, apparently based on my 8500 mileage. Is this reasonable? During my 8 years as a Golf owner the consensus was that time and distance was preferable and long life should be avoided. Also, does this now mean that my normal top up oil is no longer valid?
But the good news is that I told the dealer that I had had the dreaded window rattle for 6 months and they immediately fixed it by adjusting the window regulator bolts (whatever they are). I know many have had the rattle and there seem to have been many proposed causes and solutions so I thought I'd document here that the regulator bolts worked for me.

 

[Daveotto]

10-12k average annual Mileage and was towards top end of that in my first year. 14k now and on long service plan and DIS telling me 4.5k until first oil change.

Think they put you on the wrong plan at time of purchase.

 

[snakehips]

10-12k average annual Mileage and was towards top end of that in my first year. 14k now and on long service plan and DIS telling me 4.5k until first oil change.

Think they put you on the wrong plan at time of purchase.

No one ever asked me! Or are you saying long life is usually the default?

 

[A3Kent]

Picked mine up on Saturday and it was already setup for Longlife. Not sure if this is default or based on what your annual mileage you give them when setting up the PCP

 

[lozzermo]

I asked for time and distance when I picked up my S3 as only do 9k per year. Had the same for my S4.

 

[PembsA3]

Can b easily changed in MMI I believe. My dealer changed it to time/distance during the handover demo...

 

[veeeight]

Car is filled with 504 00 507 00 in the factory and is set to long life by default for the UK market.

This option is set automatically when the order goes in.

 

[snakehips]

Car is filled with 504 00 507 00 in the factory and is set to long life by default for the UK market.

This option is set automatically when the order goes in.

So why would my first service be due exactly one year after purchase? I'm not really bothered, just curious.

 

[veeeight]

AVS is still based on mileage and time/days, what did you Service screen on the MMI read?

 

[Blackwhite]

When I got my car the salesman said 5 thousand miles or 1 year,
whatever comes first. (For first Service)

 

[Daveotto]

No one ever asked me! Or are you saying long life is usually the default?

I was asked about expected annual mileage and type of driving at time of order and was advised on long life

 

[M1ke H]

I'm not convinced of the efficacy of extended oil changes. On all my cars, both past and present, and even with the advances in oil technology, I would never run an oil for more than around 10,000 miles, or longer than 12 months without changing it.

To the OP, the window regulator bolt trick fixed mine for a short while, but I have to report that it has now intermittently returned

The car is at the dealers today to sort out a minor stone chip in one of the alloys. I've been loaned a two week old A7 218. It's a nice enough car, but really not my 'thing'

 

[veeeight]

With modern fully synthetic oils, you can eek out longer service intervals.

However - the original motivation behind long life servicing was a collaboration between the manufacturers marketing departments, and fleet managers, who wanted lower cost per mile lifetime costs on their vehicles. So between them they ****** up the concept of extended servicing, longlife servicing etc. to make fleet costs much more attractive to fleet buyers.

A normal derivative car won't come to any harm in longlife variable servicing, nor will it harm it if you do more frequent oil changes.

Modern oils, including synthetics (which very often still have mineral base stock) are very good, and can stretch longer intervals. However it isn't a one size fits all.

But if you own a high performance derivative, and/or drive your car like you stole it in every journey, and you intend keeping it long term, a more frequent oil change service will be of benefit, and you will noticeably get better performance out of it if you do so (ref: Very recent Fifth Gear Oil Change Tests). Similarly, DPF equipped cars will benefit from regular changes with better soot managing oil additives.

The S3 hasn't got a dry sump, but there are substantial revisions and changes. There is no separate pickup and strainer, this is cast into the block itself, and the piston oil spray nozzles are now part of an electrically switchable system.

A feature of the A3 8V is that you can do more frequent oil changes if you wish, and reset the oil change indicator yourself through the MMI - whether you're on fixed, or variable service regime.

There are, of course, horror stories associated with long life servicing:
http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/thread...-as-a-consequence-oil-pickup-pipe-etc.168840/