Audi A3 TDI - Audi long-life service intervals

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Mon 21 Jun 2010 15:02
Audi A3 TDI - Audi long-life service intervals - Hopki

My 2002 A3 1.9 TDI was last serviced by Audi in Oct 2009, at which point it had covered 121,000 miles. It had a long-life service and I wasn't expecting to be back in the garage for another service until I'd racked up somewhere around 20,000 miles.

It's now covered 133,000 miles and the car's service indicator is telling me it requires a service in 1,600 miles. So it will have covered approximately 13,800 miles between services.

As far as I am aware the service indicator counts down between services based on the mileage only - i.e. it has no sensors. My driving style has not changed and neither has my commute.

Previous experience in running a Golf GT TDI suggests that somewhere approaching 20,000 miles between services is not unreasonable. The local Audi dealer is effectively saying if the car says 1,600 miles till the next service, then this must be the case. But I wondered if we've all missed something else - could the service indicator have not been reset properly?

I've emailed Audi customer services but I'd be grateful for anyone's experience or expertise.

Edited by Hopki on 21/06/2010 at 15:04

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Mon 21 Jun 2010 21:36
Audi A3 TDI - Audi long-life service intervals - 659FBE

The VAG variable service regimen is sophisticated in some ways - but not in others. There is no oil quaility sensor (Hella are working on one) but the engine monitoring software which determines the service intervals is quite comprehensive.

Other than time and distance, the number of cold starts is taken into account together with warmup time and the amount of time the oil runs very hot.

It's not a good scheme and will not get the best life out of an engine because there is no measure of soot loading, which is crucial in a diesel. If engine life matters, use 507.00 oil and change every 7k miles/1 year which ever occurs first.

The PD engines produce quite a high soot loading in the oil - but they also deliver the torque to go with it. You can't have it all ways.

659.

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Mon 21 Jun 2010 23:14
Audi A3 TDI - Audi long-life service intervals - Peter.N.

I would concur, I don't like these long service intervals, regular lower mileage oil changes will prolong engine life.

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Sun 15 Aug 2010 17:50
Audi A3 TDI - Audi long-life service intervals - Roly93

The VAG variable service regimen is sophisticated in some ways - but not in others. There is no oil quaility sensor (Hella are working on one) but the engine monitoring software which determines the service intervals is quite comprehensive.

Other than time and distance, the number of cold starts is taken into account together with warmup time and the amount of time the oil runs very hot.

This is what I used to think, b ut no matter what type of driving my 2007 A4 does, I still get 18.6K miles between services almost on the dot. I was redundant for 8 months during the last service cycle of my car, so ,it did little mileage and this was mostly in and out of town.

Now I can do 400 miles in a day of relaxed motorway cruising , and the servie counter debit exactly 400 miles from its counter. Given the life my car has I am perfectly happy with the 18.6K service interval, but it doesn't seem to me that any science goes into how its worked out.

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