Own a mk4 golf GT TDI 150 on a late 53 plate. Has been serviced every 20k at the main dealers (longlife service). I bought the car a few days ago and it has done 69k (obv motorway mileage) and its last longlife service and cambelt change was done at 60k.
Now I don't know what you people think but I really am not keen on this longlife service lark. 20000 miles without opening the bonnet seems crazy to me but vw state that modern engines + motorway mileage is perfect for longlife servicing...
Anyway I am not going to live on the motorway, i mainly do city stop-start traffic (75% of the time), country lanes (20%), and motorway and dual carriegways (5%).
Should i give it a normal service immediately or wait another few thousand miles??
What are your views on this longlife service?
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Depends a bit on whether the bonnet has stayed shut for 20k or whether fluid checks have been done regularly. Put it this way, when cars went from 1500 mile oil changes to 3k oil changes would you still change the oil every 1.5k? How about when we went from 6k to 12k? The Long Life is a variable program so if you do less motorway miles it will do less distance to the next service. My A3 does about 16-18k between services depending on how much town driving I'm doing, and that's predominantly motorway work still. On the other hand cars that spend their life in town can flash up a need for a service as low as 9k.
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"What are your views on this longlife service?"
No doubt of great benefit to the fleet manager or first owner and seemingly as an aid to sales.
I would love to strip and measure the bores and cam lobes on one of these, compared with a 6,000 interval on Mobil 1.
Regards
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"compared with a 6,000 interval on Mobil 1."
I retract that, if its a unit injector engine. Lets say `a 6,000 interval with the specified oil` instead.
sorry about that
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"What are your views on this longlife service?" No doubt of great benefit to the fleet manager or first owner and seemingly as an aid to sales. I would love to strip and measure the bores and cam lobes on one of these, compared with a 6,000 interval on Mobil 1.
Using Mobil 1 in a VaG PD engine could actually cause a lot more damage than the correct 506/507 spec oils on the longlife service regime. Provided you do plenty of long-haul driving, there is nothing wrong with longlife servicing. The oils used are much more robust than you may think.
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IMO it's not so much how often the bonnet is opned, rather whether oil can survive 20K miles in an engine and still be doing a good job, and in particular whether there is sludge build-up. I've had an Audi A4 from nearly new and have had it on fixed interval servicing so that the oil changes come up more quickly, and that despite the great majority of the car's mileage being done on long runs. I'm about to sell now after 41K miles, so maybe I haven't reaped many if any benefits, but I hope the next owner will.
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"whether oil can survive 20K miles in an engine and still be doing a good job"
This brought to mind the Fiat/GM 1.3 common rail diesel.
In Fiat applications it seems to be a 12,000 oil change interval, But in the Vauxhall range it seems to be 20,000 miles.
I wondered if this may be driven by fleet sales expectations or competition which are perhaps greater at Vauxhall?
Is it as simple as that?
It will be interesting as the miles accumulate on these engines, to see what condition they are in at high mileage when subjected to these different companies service intervals.
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In my few the fewer times the car has to go into a gargae for servicing, the less chance their is of them messing something up. I wish cars could be sealed for life.
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sorry - 'few' should say view!
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If you see the state of the cars on the road in detail you would want them serviced more often, not less often.
20,000 miles on motorway is covered quickly, but the suspension, bushes, belts, hoses, pipes etc have all covered the same amount of miles however quickly the miles have clocked up.
A minor brake fluid leak could be a disaster before its discovered under long life servicing. Also a fuel leak, a steering fault, suspension fault. What about brakes, its entirely possible for a caliper to stick and cause excessive wear in that time; only to find out about it in a sudden emergency and its too late for somebody!
Whether the oil is good enough is only a matter of expense. The worst it will cause is expense on new engine/parts unneccesarily. But for safety items its far too long !
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I would prefer to have the bonnet opened atleast once a year regardless of mileage. I open the bonnet on my van every couple of weeks just for piece of mind. Intervals are 9000 on mine but once it hits 60k im going to introduce an extra oil change and check over at the 6 month level - cant do any harm!
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Longlife servicing is not sutiable for all driving patterns -
www.volkswagen.co.uk/assets/Longlife_servicing.pdf
see page 3
get it set back to time/distance !
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Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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If it was mine, I'd do it much more often, it's just the way I am. The opposite of someone who never bothers.
My car is set for the same long-life servicing, but I do it myself pretty much twice a year or every 7,000 miles.
I just reset the indicator using the button on the instrument cluster.
There are plenty of new and modern cars which have spectacularly expensive engine problems, and if a reasonable cost of the regular service might reduce the chances, I'm all for it.
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There are plenty of new and modern cars which have spectacularly expensive engine problems,
That's often asked as a question on here when people are dicussing oil and I'm not aware that anyone's ever answered.
Which new and modern cars have spectacular engine problems?
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BP
VAG: Saab: Vauxhall - to name but a few. All as a direct consequence of extending service intervals. My oil pressure kit hasn't been so busy in years.
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Seems to me its due a service then! Will the fact that the car has only been serviced 3 times on the longlife schedule affected the life of the engine??
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sony
Motorway use is the best possible envirionment for long engine life. If it's really had the super-expensive Longlife oil all the time, then engine wear will be minimal - if even measurable. Stick with it [not the fixed-service PD oil] and change it as your judgement, based on use, dictates.
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