so soon.... 7months & 8350 miles

[jpda4]

so i get in the car tonight and receive a notification pop up on the DIS, spanner symbol with oil change due 1000miles... 2.0 TFSI manual
this has got to be a faulty message? if not will be forever be in the garage, if correct the long time between services will be made up for in oil changes...
going to have to get the manual out and read 'service' schedule
OR ignore it (given my current situation, prefered option)

might as well of kept my old B8 2.0 diesel, that went 2 years between services and oil top up/changes and longer between fuel fill ups.

 

[Daggerit]

Have you changed your driving in terms of distance and things from having the B8? I know that the variable servicing calculates based on the type of journeys you do, so if you've changed to mainly short ones with the occasional long trip then it'll shorten the service period substantially.

If nothing has changed then I'm not sure and it might be worth having a word with the dealer.


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[Keef]

Sounds like the dealers have set you car to fixed service, so oil change every 12 months or 9k miles. Mine is set to that, but at my request.

 

[Daggerit]

Or that...


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[Mario]

Don't really see a problem. Fixed plan servicing (9000 miles or 12 months) is FAR better for the engine than every 2 years. Even if you are on variable servicing, as said above, depending on your journeys it can trigger the service light to come on sooner.

Mine just recently came on after 8500 miles on the B7, and the B8 is saying it wants a service in a month or so, pretty much year to the day after being serviced last time, and that has done less than 5000 miles since its last service!

Oil and oil filters are cheap compared to an engine being filled with sludge and causing permanent damage in the long term. However if it's on PCP or you simply change your car often then chances are it won't be your problem when it does go bang due to the "Long Life" servicing.

Never did understand why people spend so much on a car then don't want to service it properly....

 

[Daggerit]

Don't really see a problem. Fixed plan servicing (9000 miles or 12 months) is FAR better for the engine than every 2 years. Even if you are on variable servicing, as said above, depending on your journeys it can trigger the service light to come on sooner.

Mine just recently came on after 8500 miles on the B7, and the B8 is saying it wants a service in a month or so, pretty much year to the day after being serviced last time, and that has done less than 5000 miles since its last service!

Oil and oil filters are cheap compared to an engine being filled with sludge and causing permanent damage in the long term. However if it's on PCP or you simply change your car often then chances are it won't be your problem when it does go bang due to the "Long Life" servicing.

Never did understand why people spend so much on a car then don't want to service it properly....

I see your point but at the same time if I'm doing 15,000 miles a year, mostly dual carriageway, then I don't really fancy having to pay the extortionate Audi prices for 6 or 7 services if the variable option is recommended by them anyway? I don't think that the engine ticking over at 1,500 rpm for most of it's journeys justifies the earlier servicing on a mileage basis. That's almost £800 a year in servicing alone.

While the oil and filter are relatively cheap as you've said, the cost that Audi charge you is highly inflated and that's the bit that gets on my nerves.

All that said, I'm making sure that mine is on a variable service setting because of my mileage and the fact I've never heard of an Audi engine going pop because it was on the variable plan versus the fixed.

 

[Mario]

All that said, I'm making sure that mine is on a variable service setting because of my mileage and the fact I've never heard of an Audi engine going pop because it was on the variable plan versus the fixed.

Have you looked in the B6 & B7 forums? 1.8T especially suffered lots of sludge build up when on Long Life Servicing which would in turn block the oil pickup and lead to a loss of oil pressure, some people have also linked the Balance Shaft failures on the 2.0 TDI to long life servicing, or at least the long life servicing makes these things happen sooner than they otherwise would have, as old oil cannot protect as well as fresh clean stuff.

I totally agree that Audi prices are pure rip off, but there's nothing stopping you from doing an "in-between" service. So you only go to them once every 15,000 miles but the car gets fluid changes twice as often.

With a vacuum pump that sucks oil out of the dipstick you don't even need to get under the car depending on your oil filter location. That way you only pay Audi their extortionate fees to get the stamp on a variable servicing schedule, but your car gets plenty of fresh oil which is cheap to buy. Vaccum pump can be had for as little as £40 also.

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However we are getting a bit off topic now. All I can say is expensive cars are expensive to maintain properly. The high performance ones (S4 / RS4) are even more so.

 

[Daggerit]

Have you looked in the B6 & B7 forums? 1.8T especially suffered lots of sludge build up when on Long Life Servicing which would in turn block the oil pickup and lead to a loss of oil pressure, some people have also linked the Balance Shaft failures on the 2.0 TDI to long life servicing, or at least the long life servicing makes these things happen sooner than they otherwise would have, as old oil cannot protect as well as fresh clean stuff.

I totally agree that Audi prices are pure rip off, but there's nothing stopping you from doing an "in-between" service. So you only go to them once every 15,000 miles but the car gets fluid changes twice as often.

With a vacuum pump that sucks oil out of the dipstick you don't even need to get under the car depending on your oil filter location. That way you only pay Audi their extortionate fees to get the stamp on a variable servicing schedule, but your car gets plenty of fresh oil which is cheap to buy. Vaccum pump can be had for as little as £40 also.

Amazon product

However we are getting a bit off topic now. All I can say is expensive cars are expensive to maintain properly. The high performance ones (S4 / RS4) are even more so.

I guess having owned no A4 older than a B8.5 I hadn't heard of those issues!

I can understand doing an 'in between' service yourself, that's maybe the good medium to keep things ticking over smoothly.

I've never quite understood why there are such big differences between the basic oil change cost for cars within the Audi range to be honest. The 3.0tdi engines presumably run more oil in them than the S4 engine but I'm willing to bet that they're quite a bit cheaper to service for the basic service. I can understand if there are engine specific elements, but not if it's just down to an oil filter and a given quantity of oil, which it appears to be.

As you say, expensive cars are expensive to maintain. I've factored it in and can afford it, but doesn't mean I have to make sense of it or like it!

 

[/dev/null]

Surely nobody pays the advertised price for a service at Audi!?? Just get a quote from a nearby independent and they'll price match it.

 

[Daggerit]

I didn't realise that they price matched independents, I thought that it was only other Audi dealerships... Bonus.

 

[Mario]

They do price match, but the quote has to show genuine Audi parts being used (approved oil, genuine oil filter, genuine pollen filter, etc), must be a written quote

 

[Daggerit]

Awesome, thanks very much for that @Mario

 

[Mario]

Full info available in this link @Daggerit

https://www.audi.co.uk/owners-area/servicing-maintenance-mot/audi-service-price-match.html

 

[jpda4]

thanks for the replies you clever people
reading the replies it is as if the oil change is an intermediate visit to the dealer between service
i will get the oil changed just not through the audi garage even with the price match
found the reset oil service button in the MMI earlier, on the same page was inspection service due in 10700 miles
new regime is going to be oil change, service + oil, oil, service etc every 9k miles

car is on PCP deal, so longterm future will be the next owners problem
driving routine hasn't really change between swapping old and new model

 

[Pork]

I had mine set on flexible as I do around 30k a year so my first service (oil and inspection) came up around 8 months into ownership.
This is my third A4 so am used to the pricing structure but still couldn’t believe they quoted £475 for the first service with a straight face. On an 8 month old car! The second was quoted at £550!
Anyhow, the pre-paid service plans that used to only be available for cars two to five years old can be purchased for new cars also and so ended up paying £640 for the first two services (which both count as major services as I’m on flexible schedule) which I can live with. The car will be gone by 90k so I’m not worried about the longevity of flexible servicing.
One thing I will say, and it’s echoed by many, do not, under any circumstances, let them wash your car. I cried

 

[A4A4]

Tried the dealership for oil/services in the past but found a good 'Bosch Service' independent.

My car is due for its first MOT/service this month and have been quoted.
£279.51 inc parts, labour and vat.
Includes: oil service, inspection service, brake fluid change, fuel filter, digital service record and MOT

A price hard to beat!

 

[/dev/null]

I emailed the girl who sorted it last time for me and just said "can you do me a deal without me having to mess around getting a price match"? She immediately knocked 20% off.

 

[RaZ A4]

so i get in the car tonight and receive a notification pop up on the DIS, spanner symbol with oil change due 1000miles... 2.0 TFSI manual
this has got to be a faulty message? if not will be forever be in the garage, if correct the long time between services will be made up for in oil changes...
going to have to get the manual out and read 'service' schedule
OR ignore it (given my current situation, prefered option)

might as well of kept my old B8 2.0 diesel, that went 2 years between services and oil top up/changes and longer between fuel fill ups.

If you are sure it has long life oil just reset the oil service on the MMI, I did.