VW Golf GTi PP 7.5 Long Life Servicing

[13 DJP]

Afternoon All

I`ve just gone to book my 2017 7.5 Golf GTi Performance in for it`s annual service to be told it had long life oil last year and I don`t need to worry about it for 2 years or 18k miles. I average 6k miles a year so doesn`t make sense and wasn`t mentioned last year.

If it`s all good then great, I`ve just moved house and would rather save the £3-400 if ok, but slightly concerned it shouldn`t have the long life oil in it and should I get it out asap? VW say minimum 25 miles per day and most days I do about 18.

The girl on the phone said she wasn`t trained and didn`t know. It`s impossible to get through to the service department on the phone so can`t ask them either.

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers

[shtu]

You'll almost certainly find that every service they do uses longlife oil, regardless of LL or annual servicing.

Change it more frequently if you like, but the oil's not harmful in any way.

[BlindedByTheLights]

I wouldn t leave any car on long life servicing, especially if they are chain not Cambelt.

If you want to save on servicing costs, just use an independent in between the main dealer, that’s what I do with mine anyway.

[Belle427]

In reality it will be ok but i would never leave it that long and want to do annual changes. I would do as suggested and get a garage to do an oil and filter change for you but keep the receipts.
As said they will use the same an oil in a lot of cars and it used to be this, obviously in the right viscosity.
https://tps.trade/longlife-iii-5w-30

[anyoldcardave]

As above, 18k is not as long as others, but I would half it and annually change it, it never does any harm and neither will LL oil.

If you do not want to do it yourself, buy a VW filter and the oil, ask an independent to book it in for a while you wait oil change.

[BlindedByTheLights]

You could have a chat with the main dealer too, I supply my own oil to the main dealer and this means an oil and filter service is £100 instead of £250+. It still gets main dealer history on the computer, they just write supplied own oil on the paper copy.

[Sheepshanks]

Is the car’s service reminder set for longlife servicing?

I’m gobsmacked the dealer didn’t grab the work - maybe they’re so busy they’re fobbing people off.

[13 DJP]

Yes it`s weird, the car has come up saying 28 days to service due, so I rang them to book it in, but that alone took 3 days as they just don`t answer the phone!

Finally got through to the booking line and she said, no need it`s got long life oil see you next year!

I explained it had come up on the dash and she just said swing by when convenient and they`ll re-set it for me!

[Dr G]

Oil service annually/10k
Oil & inspection service 2 years/20k
Spark plugs 40k
Air filter 40k

VAQ diff oil 3 years. Remove the pump, clean the gauze, and flush the housing too. Ask specifically that this is done. If you aren't sure on history of this or it hasn't been done regularly get it cleaned/serviced straight away (before the pump fails).

Your average service advisor is probably not the best place for advice on servicing, ironically.

[TimmyMallett]

ISTR that you can chose one or the other, so I suspect that its prev owner had it set to long life servicing, but if you do few miles I'd swap it back to annual.

[Kompressor89]

13 DJP said:

I explained it had come up on the dash and she just said swing by when convenient and they`ll re-set it for me!

No need to even do that, you can reset the service reminder yourself very easily.

[LivLL]

13 DJP said:

Afternoon All

I`ve just gone to book my 2017 7.5 Golf GTi Performance in for it`s annual service to be told it had long life oil last year and I don`t need to worry about it for 2 years or 18k miles. I average 6k miles a year so doesn`t make sense and wasn`t mentioned last year.

If it`s all good then great, I`ve just moved house and would rather save the £3-400 if ok, but slightly concerned it shouldn`t have the long life oil in it and should I get it out asap? VW say minimum 25 miles per day and most days I do about 18.

The girl on the phone said she wasn`t trained and didn`t know. It`s impossible to get through to the service department on the phone so can`t ask them either.

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers

Why not support a local independent instead of the main dealer. Most good ones will have access to the electronic service records and be able to update it like the dealer - mine does.

They tend to be more approachable and cost effective and should be happy to discuss your usage and see if annual servicing is better than mileage based.

I may be wrong but I always think the same particles will be suspended in long life oil over time as they would in regular oil and leaving changes that long does not help the engine longevity only helps the manufacturer sell leases and to companies. By the time any damage is done it s be out of warranty and VW won t care.

[anyoldcardave]

LivLL said:

13 DJP said:

Afternoon All

I`ve just gone to book my 2017 7.5 Golf GTi Performance in for it`s annual service to be told it had long life oil last year and I don`t need to worry about it for 2 years or 18k miles. I average 6k miles a year so doesn`t make sense and wasn`t mentioned last year.

If it`s all good then great, I`ve just moved house and would rather save the £3-400 if ok, but slightly concerned it shouldn`t have the long life oil in it and should I get it out asap? VW say minimum 25 miles per day and most days I do about 18.

The girl on the phone said she wasn`t trained and didn`t know. It`s impossible to get through to the service department on the phone so can`t ask them either.

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers

Why not support a local independent instead of the main dealer. Most good ones will have access to the electronic service records and be able to update it like the dealer - mine does.

They tend to be more approachable and cost effective and should be happy to discuss your usage and see if annual servicing is better than mileage based.

I may be wrong but I always think the same particles will be suspended in long life oil over time as they would in regular oil and leaving changes that long does not help the engine longevity only helps the manufacturer sell leases and to companies. By the time any damage is done it s be out of warranty and VW won t care.

Of course, as long as it lasts for the warranty they do not care.

I returned a car to a customer who took a car out of warranty to the main agent with low power, they changed an ECU for 900+, did not fix it, changed the turbo, 2k+ , did not fix it, then diagnosed a worn camshaft, which was fairly obvious as it was ticking like a worn out Pinto, the cost to fix this ? 10k. Hence returned to customer.

All this had taken so long that when I arrived to collect the car it had 4 flat tyres and a battery so dead it took over an hour to get enough life in it to start and 6 jump packs failed to start it, resorted to a big diesel and good jump leads.

A good indie is better for a car out of warranty surely ?

[keo]

Just a note on servicing I know everyone gets caught up on regular oil changes and I agree it can only be a good thing.

I work on large generators so the service schedule is dictated by hours not mileage. We do an oil change every 500 hours. Manufactures recommendation.

So you could equate that to a lorry doing 500 hours @56mph that would be an oil change every 28000 miles. As a rough guesstimate.

Of course when I had a car doing 20k miles a year I did a full service every 10k miles I was probably wasting money but my car ran well and because I did it myself it cost peanuts in the grand scheme of things.

[catso]

Sheepshanks said:

I m gobsmacked the dealer didn t grab the work - maybe they re so busy they re fobbing people off.

Happened to us last year, my Wife's Audi Q2 was 'asking' for an oil service.

I booked it in at the Audi dealer, dropped it off and they called me an hour or so later to say it hadn't done enough miles to warrant an oil change (was only 6k) so they weren't going to do it despite it being 1 year old and them having pestered me for a couple of months prior about booking in for an oil service and that they knew how many miles it had done when I booked it.

Obviously still under warranty etc. so you would hope they would stand by that decision if anything were to happen in the future due to oil but after having made the effort and expense to take it to them, I insisted it was done anyway.

Whether they actually changed the oil or not, I don't know but it seemed odd to me that they initially didn't want to?

I took it back there a month ago for it's second service and there was no mention of it not having done enough miles this time, it was only on 12k so they've either changed their mileage policy or maybe they didn't change it last year and it was due for the first time?

As for my 11 year old S4, I just change the oil/filter annually myself, not worried about FDSH any more as I don't think it makes any difference once a car's at a certain age and by the time I get rid of it, I'll likely be offered banger money and certainly not enough to warrant paying Audi £400 p.a. for an oil change.

[Sheepshanks]

catso said:

I took it back there a month ago for it's second service and there was no mention of it not having done enough miles this time, it was only on 12k so they've either changed their mileage policy or maybe they didn't change it last year and it was due for the first time?

At the oil service, they almost literally just change the oil and filter and make sure the horn beeps. I waited while daughter's Golf was done and it was in the workshop 20 mins.

At 2yrs the car should have an extended scope inspection, and the pollen filter changed. This is more involved and it would need that regardless of whether a service had been done at 12 mths or not.

I've never had an Audi but with other VW brands most new cars will be on a two services / two years service plan. This requires the dealer to set the car to fixed interval (ie annual) servicing but in my experience it's 50/50 if they set it correctly or just leave at the factory defaul of longlife servicing..

[catso]

Sheepshanks said:

At 2yrs the car should have an extended scope inspection, and the pollen filter changed. This is more involved and it would need that regardless of whether a service had been done at 12 mths or not.

Yes, check sheet shows cabin filter and brake fluid change plus lots of boxes ticked and a video of someone measuring tyre tread so about another £20 worth of parts on top of the oil/filter...