UKC

For a while now, my Skoda Rapid has been telling me "Oil Service in ... days" and counting down the days. (Specifically, it has actually said it in German... but it translates pretty directly.) It's at 6, now. (Strangely, the number seems to go UP again when I do a long drive... like to the Alps.)

What does this mean? Is this just a check on the oil level and top-up or a complete drain and replacement?

It seems a little premature - I have only had the car for the summer and haven't driven that far in it. I bought it "second hand" from a dealer but, in reality, it was essentially new - it was second hand because it had been registered, not because it had been driven anywhere, and had a chunk taken out of the price because of this. (It probably failed VW emissions tests, I guess.)

It's a diesel and from late 2015.

If I don't find answers, here, I'll go to the dealer and ask... but I'd rather get answers from other Skoda owners, here, than have stuff sold to me and have to deal with sales-speak.... in German.

In reply to Xharlie:

Most VAG cars can be set to long life variable intervals or shorter mileage/time based intervals. The longer life one is designed for fleets/higher mileage users and involves better quality oil to allow for longer intervals, but also allows the longer interval as its aimed at higher mileage drivers, and higher mileages on average cause less wear than low mileage drivers who do lots of stop[ start/city stuff. In reality, its at least partly a tool to make sure that company buyers do virtually no servicing in the first 2 or 3 years before they flip the car on....

Seems likely its on 'variable service' schedule. That's based (in theory) on time elapsed and mileage/style of driving. So it counts down time (nearly 2 years normally) but adjusts for harder driving so it may request a service quicker. Nice long easy runs probably push the number of days back up as it assumes you are going to do easy long drives rather than stop/start/cold start city stuff.

The alternative is straight time/mileage based where its something like 'annual or 9,000 miles whichever comes first'.

Main thing is that having had car a few months, dealer should have serviced it and/or re-set the counter from where you collected the car as I would definitely not expect to be servicing a delivery mileage car a few months after buying it.

In reply to Xharlie:

I think it might be because the car is approaching a year old. Some computers on newer cars work out the service interval on miles & date - whichever comes first.

So although you've probably done hardly any miles, the car was pre-registered, so the computer sees the car now approaching annual service time.

Definitely with double checking with the dealer though.

In reply to Xharlie:

The computer in my yeti insisted I get a service/ inspection a few months after I bought it. Was 2nd hand from a Skoda dealer 2014 model with only 20k km on the clock.

I thought it was premature too but had the service anyway... 500 days or something to the next one.

Cant comment on the number going up however, that's very strange as I thought it went in X number of Km or X days, whichever was sooner.

In reply to Xharlie:

Not a direct answer but maybe an insight. My 2011 VW Touran (1.6tdi) is just back from yet more work at the garage. I asked them to top up the oil as it has used half a litre since its last service in April (5k miles ago). I also asked if it was normal for it to be using this quantity of oil over such a short period. They suggested it would use on average half a litre every 1k miles!! So it's worth checking the level.
Do others experience this with VAG diesels?

In reply to Xharlie:

I have a similar thing going on my new Golf. The ordinary service is more than a year away, but Oil service is now due in about 6 months (car was new in June).

Essentially as the car is new it will need its first oil change a bit sooner due to the engine being tighter in the run-in period. As I understand it many dealers simply do a check on the oil and then reset it rather than a full drain and replace at the first oil service warning.

Best speak to your dealer

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Ok. I guess I'm off for another German lesson, next Monday. (My German isn't too terrible but, honestly, I struggle to deal with dealer-types in English! Trying to actually communicate in a foreign language with someone motivated by commissions is not easy.)

Or... I'll need to get a set of Winter tyres in about a month... or less (when the daytime temperature falls below 5, I believe) so... do you think I can just ignore the warning until then and kill two stones with one bird?

On that note: I've been advised to get winter wheels with a low diameter (15") because, apparently, they'll perform better than my large summer ones. Is this true? Can anyone comment on Summer/Winter wheels? (I come from South Africa - a land where everyone starts channelling Scrat, from Ice Age, should the temperature fall below 5)

In reply to Mark Eddy:

Some can apparently be high users of oil, but not in my experience from the four VAG diesel cars I've had. Generally less than one litre added between services is my experience over some 18 years. Two of the cars BTW were on variable services and so that was nearly 18k miles between services. Of course they were getting "low" for the service, but that would still only be around 1.5 l used over the 18k miles.

In reply to Xharlie:

you could consider something like the michelin-crossclimate or goodyear vectors. Modern all season tyres that can actually handle snow and ice as well as wet and dry.

In reply to Xharlie:


Check the service interval type for your car (in the manual). I presume it will be coded as QI6, which corresponds to a variable service interval. The car will monitor how it is being driven and update the oil change date depending on things such as journey length. As such it is normal for this date to be pushed back by long distance driving.

"Oil service" means drain and replace. I don't think that an early oil change is an unusual specification for a new car. My new motorbike had its first scheduled oil change after 600 miles!

In reply to MarkJH:

I have never had a car since the 80s that required an initial early oil change. Even my current one, new in Feb, does not. It is set to fixed service against my wishes but that is another matter. That said, the modern stop start systems will probably be harder on the engine and its oil, and so I am thinking I may just live with fixed at 9000 mile services.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:


OK. I've never owned a car that is new enough to know. Maybe just bikes then...

In reply to Xharlie:

That's approx a year ago and so sounds to me most likely to be on a fixed annual or 9000 m which ever is sooner service. In the UK the service is set at the PDI (i.e. when it is first registered).

Don't know about your country but in the UK your warranty would be at risk and certainly reduced to two years if you do not have it serviced as the computer says. As you have only owned it since summer maybe the garage will come to some arrangement with you, say a reduced cost service?

In reply to MarkJH:
Never owned a motorbike .

In reply to Xharlie:
Don't know but all I've seen/had where they are as per manufacturer specifications, the wheels are indeed smaller diameter (larger tyre sidewalls). As to why I can only speculate, but there must be some sound reason for this!

In reply to MarkJH:

Very few cars require it these days, but it is still not a bad idea to do it anyway - you get a lot of swarf in there in the early days.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:


At a guess, it will be because winter tyres use a softer rubber compound (so they remain softer at lower temperatures and don't lose grip), as a result at warmer temperatures they might 'bottom out' on bumps (lumps of ice, potholes etc.) if they were low profile. In addition, you might want to run them at a lower pressure for grip on softer surfaces, again favouring a deeper profile.

The above is all speculation though.