wrong service interval?

[smk82]

My car is now stating I'm due for an oil change - fine no problem, however as far I was aware I was put on the long life service, which should mean ~19K miles between oil/services (at a maximum), and its asking for an oil change at 9k?. Could Audi have put it on the wrong one, or is the first oil change early, then its set at 19K?

 

[Flibble]

It depends how you drive. If you have a heavy right foot and do mostly short or non-motorway journeys you will get much less than the maximum interval. I used to get about 10k on longlife oil on my old 8P. I had my S3 put on fixed servicing intervals because of this, since I know I'm not going to get anywhere near the full life.

 

[h5djr]

All my A3s (nine so far) have been set on for variable service interval, but that is just it, it is variable. It is not set set for 19k or any other figure. The systems in the engine determine when an oil change is due depending on the type of driving, the number of short journeys etc.

All mine have done between 18-19k before indicating that a service is due. Get your dealer to check what setting your car is set to - fixed interval or variable. If it is suggesting an oil change at 9k it sounds like it's been set to fixed interval.

 

[Flibble]

Worth checking, although my dealer said my car was the first S3 they'd put on fixed interval; they do variable unless you specifically request fixed.

Worth noting fixed services cost about half what variable services do (per service), so if you're not getting close to 18k between variables it may be more cost effective to go fixed.

 

[lee_fr200]

I'd never leave a car 19k miles before an oil change, I do my daily every 10k and anything sporty usually after 6k

 

[cuke2u]

I will have mine done once a year as I'll probably only have done about 4k each year...

 

[mjcourtney]

I changed mine on to Fixed as I felt it needed a change at 12,000 rather than leaving it til 19000. The dealer did the oil change but I note the DIS is still telling me the service is due in 7000 miles... I guess they didn't update the DIS.

 

[Flibble]

The 7000 could be for an inspection service (rather than oil), there are two separate schedules, one for each. The MMI service display will tell you time and distance to each of them.

 

[h5djr]

Personally I follow Audi's recommendations and have my car serviced when the variable service is indicated by the DIS. As Audi made the car and if any going wrong it will be covered by the warranty at there cost I assume they know what they are talking about far better than anyone else.

I've never had any problems following this routine with any of my eight previous A3s. I currently do around 14k miles a year but when I was working it was around 25k miles per year.

 

[cemerson]

Agreed, I'll take the advice of the people who made the thing and go in when it tells me to!

 

[veeeight]

In general, that's not a bad principle to follow, and 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.

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).

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.

 

[cemerson]

In general, that's not a bad principle to follow, and 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.

Regardless though, if Audi are willing to stake their warranty on it then that's good enough for me