RSQ3 Service costs

[firecracker69]

Happy new year all.
Hope it was a good one despite restrictions!

Considering I’ve owned my car all of 3 months my ‘change oil in 25 days’ notice has popped up. It’s not even a year old yet, only covered 3k miles so not sure what triggers this.

Either way, Audi have quoted £330 for an oil change. Is this about right?
Anyone serviced or done theirs for price comparisons?

 

[cosmicblue]

3 months...wow! Do you do lots of very short journeys where the engine never gets warm? £330 sounds like the 1st service that occurs at around 18,000 miles. Servicing can be fixed time period or a mileage/usage calculation. I'd get the service indicator reset if I was you.

I'll get at independent to change the oil at around the 9,000 mile mark on mine.

 

[firecracker69]

Don’t forget that I bought from the dealer with a previous owner having done 900 miles since March, not sure how they drove it but were an older retired couple? I don’t do much mileage myself, some short journeys but by short it gets warm and still a 14 mile round trip even if school runs. But had a few long work journeys as well, few hundred mile round trips..... either way I’ve only done 2k miles in approx 3 months and it’s not a year old yet so I’m surprised the change oil has popped up already!? Seems too soon.

£330 is just the oil change, it’s £430 with a service which they said isn’t needed yet.

 

[S3GCN]

The independent dealer where I bought my RSQ3 from got the oil change service done before I collected it. It was done at Harrogate Audi and was £465. Car was just under 12 months old and had covered just under 4K miles. Presume they did it due to the service reminder being on.


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[cosmicblue]

My RS is coming up to 2000 miles, bought it in October, take a look at the MyAudi app screen shot below - the oil change is the thick end of two years away, OK, yours was registered in March so is coming up for a 1 year, you should still be at least a year away from having spanners waved at it?

Feels like a leg lifting exercise to me!

 

[S3GCN]

Thinking back, I think that my dad had a similar thing in his RS3, I think he called Audi and spoke to service and they told him not to bother getting it done. You used to be able to reset the service reminder in the MMI in the 8V S3 I have previously owned but I’m not sure if there is the option in the newer system in the F3.


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[isleaiw]

I assume the first owners were expecting to do low mileage and short journeys and so had the service regime set to fixed interval? And now its coming up to a year old (since build not registration) and wants the first yearly service done... sounds about how it works to me...

£330 sounds good to me - but then the Running In Service on my old M5 was retailing at over £600 at 1200 miles....

 

[RS3 S.]

The independent dealer where I bought my RSQ3 from got the oil change service done before I collected it. It was done at Harrogate Audi and was £465. Car was just under 12 months old and had covered just under 4K miles. Presume they did it due to the service reminder being on.


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..........lost all faith in Harrogate Audi.

 

[S3GCN]

..........lost all faith in Harrogate Audi.

Sounds to be a fairly standard position with most dealers tbh. They aren’t my local, that is Blackburn. I found them OK when I had the S3.


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[Dan_G]

Definitely ring round dealers. I found massive discrepancies in pricing, running into the hundreds of pounds, but still ended up using a fairly local dealer.

 

[firecracker69]

Thanks all.....going to put some calls in tomorrow and see what comes back. Will post my findings!

 

[TomScrut]

Hi, not that it was an RSQ3, but I had wildly varying costs of oil change on my TFSI B9 S5. Ranging from £256 in Hull to £475 in Harrogate. Strangest thing was York was £450 and it is JCT600 like Hull. So definitely shop around.

Also related I see cosmicblue you're on long life servicing, something I was told wasn't an option on my pre reg F3 RSQ3. I thought it would be an option and I am pleased that it is. What I expect happened was they did was change the oil (which they did as it was there on site for a year) and didn't put the oil in for long life. I'll probably get them to do an inspection at a year and to service it with long life oil.

As far as I understand it, they send the car from the factory with long life oil (which is slightly dearer and different apparently, although I am skeptical) and the dealer sets it to long life or fixed term at PDI. So assuming you have the original oil in the car they might tell you not to bother. I got it changed on my Leon Cupra when it was in for warranty having told them to set it to long life at PDI but they didn't.

 

[cosmicblue]

I've always thought that 'Long life' oil was marketing BS! Modern engines use fully synthetic oil which maintains it's properties for extended periods of time. People sometimes forget that oil isn't just a lubricant that prevents metal to metal contact, but that it's also a coolant and cleaning agent carrying harmful material particles to the oil filter.

There was a time when certain manufacturers advocated using a mineral oil during the bedding in period and then switching to fully synthetic at the 1st service - I'm sure that practice died years ago.

Despite the fact that the RS is on extended service intervals I'll still have the oil changed at the 9,000 mile mark out of mechanical respect.

 

[RS3 S.]

I've always had an oil change once a year regardless of what the manufacturers state. Stop/start traffic, short journeys etc for the cost it makes sense.

 

[firecracker69]

So this is interesting......

Firstly the prices:
£322
£320
£313
£311

That a range from Hull Audi down to Salisbury Audi, didn’t see the point in calling any others as they are all similar; so the price is the price.

NOW - I was told that they find it really strange it needs an oil change. Then 1 dealer did a bit more digging and advised the reason it’s showing due is because Hull Audi changed the vehicle to a ‘Time and distancing service’ because the original owner did not take out a service plan. Had they of taken a service plan it would not be due yet! It would be closer to 2yrs or based on mileage!

I was also told that these vehicles all come from factory as standard with long life oil and they do not require changing until the 2yr mark or approx 9k miles. So I feel this is a potential £320 waste of money.

I now plan on questioning Hull Audi..... something doesn’t seem right here. Plus the dealers have all said the same which is they are not sure why an oil service is due other than the way the dealer has set up the car?

 

[cosmicblue]

I'm on two years and don't have a service plan - I have a picture in my head of the dealers being caught with their collective hands in the cookie jar.

 

[Peter Long]

Happy new year all.
Hope it was a good one despite restrictions!

Considering I’ve owned my car all of 3 months my ‘change oil in 25 days’ notice has popped up. It’s not even a year old yet, only covered 3k miles so not sure what triggers this.

Either way, Audi have quoted £330 for an oil change. Is this about right?
Anyone serviced or done theirs for price comparisons?

Hi there,

We had a similar situation with my wife's RSQ3 Sportback, it started the "Oil change required" message in less than 6K miles and was bought from a dealership as a new vehicle with only 30 miles on the clock! Having been quoted about £350 for an oil change by the local Audi dealership, including a loan vehicle, we decided to go with a local Audi specialist we've used before and had the work done, including (free) loan car and car wash, for £159!

Then the RS5 started the same thing, after only just over 5K miles! We used the same local Audi specialist and the cost was only £219!

I even rang Audi UK to find out why these oil changes seem to be coming up so soon as it seems like a revenue generator for the dealerships! They just said it was based on how the vehicle was being driven, possibly too many short journeys? The standard service intervals are supposedly 9K miles or 1 year.

I would suggest a more cost-effective solution is to use a good independent specialist. Make sure they use genuine Audi parts and that the oil is approved by VW/Audi.

I'd also be interested in others' comments..

 

[cosmicblue]

This has come up on another forum recently and seems to be rooted in the dealers running campaigns to get people into dealerships perhaps as result of Covid people have driven less. Audi CS have confirmed that there are two service strategies:

1) Fixed - a service annually for low mileage users
2) Variable - which works out at a service every 2 years/18,000 miles or thereabouts

Lots of short journeys do degrade the oil faster - the highest wear point for the engine is when its cold.

 

[MPTT]

I had asked that my Q5 was set to variable servicing but the dealer set it to fixed. When I asked about this (at 2 different dealers) I was told that I can reset the oil change interval once met at 9,000 miles. I did that last week and both oil change and service is now at 19,000 miles. No need for an oil change.

As mentioned previously the cars must come out of the factory with long life oil so the need for the first oil change isn’t required.