Technical Car/Motor Issues > Skoda Octavia II - 08 1.9TDi Service Interval. Big change. Suspicious Miscellaneous
Thread Author: IJWS14 Replies: 47
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 08:09 
 Skoda Octavia II - 08 1.9TDi Service Interval. Big change. Suspicious - IJWS14
1.9 TDI Octavia new in April 08, Services so far have been 18k, 37k, 54k. Set to Varuiable Service (Company car) so it is doing about 18k between services.

Last week it told me to service in 400 miles, no prior warning but id did 1000 gentle miles last week - Staffs to Dundee and back plus commuting. This would put the interval at 10k!

Does not use much oil, has to put 1/2 liter in before each of first two services, none since.

Anything I should worry about? Am due to drive down to Brive in about 5 weeks.
Last edited by: Webmaster on Sat 21 Aug 10 at 12:28
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 08:31 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - CGNorwich
Cam belt is due for a change at 64,000 Km/40,000 miles. Nothing to worry about (as you aren't paying!)
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 08:34 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - IJWS14

>> Cam belt is due for a change at 64,000 Km/40,000 miles. Nothing to worry about
>> (as you aren't paying!)
>>

But it has doen 64k MILES not 64k km.
Last edited by: IJWS14 on Thu 19 Aug 10 at 08:35
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 08:33 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - IJWS14
Booked in for service today and just spoken to dealer to highlight my concerns, dealer thinks (they have done all the services) it was reset to 10k servicing last time and did I really want it doing . . . . .

As it is a company car it gets serviced when the car says it wnat servicing regardless of milage or Inchcape would be unhappy with me.

Problems I have with them saying it has been set to fixed:

1 It chose 9k and not 10k . . . . Do they do this? My experience of VAG cars is that they are dead on 10k.

2. The warning was "service in x miles or n days" which he says is the variable service warning. Fixed sevice interval warning is apparantly "service in x miles" and warning starts as 1k before due which this did not (I thought it was 2k). Anyone confirm?
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 08:43 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
just get it serviced. The car says so and thats the end of it.

Why loose one iota of sleep over the servicing interval, and why it changed, its a company car. That why you have a company car so as not to worry.

After all, your not buying it are you, you wouldnt spend your hard earned on a Turbo diesel thats only had 3 services in 64k miles would you.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 19 Aug 10 at 08:44
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 08:52 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - CGNorwich
What mileage will you have done when the service is due. Surely your car is telling you that it is due for a 64,000KM/40,000mile service
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 09:02 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
>> What mileage will you have done when the service is due. Surely your car is
>> telling you that it is due for a 64,000KM/40,000mile service

No ifs on variable it would come up demanding service on

18k miles, 36k miles, 54k miles. The next should have been 72k, but it came on early.

The VW variable servicing thing is a right con, they might as well say its either 10k or 18k per service depending on what oil we bung in. The variable service thing would still say 18k even if you used ground up dog poo.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 09:12 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - hobby
>> The VW variable servicing thing is a right con, they might as well say its
>> either 10k or 18k per service depending on what oil we bung in. The variable
>> service thing would still say 18k even if you used ground up dog poo.
>>

They just say "up to 20k"... some have been known to get there... but it depends on type of use... just like "ordinary" servicing is 12 months or 10k... just as much a con using that argument...
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 09:14 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
>> >> They just say "up to 20k"... some have been known to get there... but it
>> depends on type of use... just like "ordinary" servicing is 12 months or 10k... just
>> as much a con using that argument...

I had two VWs, neither did antything other than decide on anything other than 100 miles either side of 18k.

There is nothing in the car to check the quality of the oil (despite what they say) it just runs off the engine ECU.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 16:28 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - DP
>> There is nothing in the car to check the quality of the oil (despite what
>> they say) it just runs off the engine ECU.

There is some debate over this, Zero. One theory from the Audi forums is that the VAG approved Longlife oil has a chemical additive in it which becomes diluted as the oil wears and ages. The "oil quality" sensor, which is apparently built into the oil level sensor in the sump, detects the concentration of this chemical, and when the concentration drops below a predetermined level, it sticks the service request message up. Whether it's true or not, it's perfectly plausible, as this chemical additive could form part of the Longlife oil spec.

An easy confirmation would be to test VAG's claim that topping up with more than half a litre of "non longlife" oil between services will trigger a service request on the system. If it does, there simply has to be some kind of oil monitoring going on.

I will ask my friendly VW technician when I next see him, and see what his take on it is.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 16:34 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
>> >> There is nothing in the car to check the quality of the oil (despite
>> what
>> >> they say) it just runs off the engine ECU.
>>
>> There is some debate over this, Zero. One theory from the Audi forums is that
>> the VAG approved Longlife oil has a chemical additive in it which becomes diluted as
>> the oil wears and ages. The "oil quality" sensor, which is apparently built into the
>> oil level sensor in the sump, detects the concentration of this chemical, and when the
>> concentration drops below a predetermined level, it sticks the service request message up. Whether it's
>> true or not, it's perfectly plausible, as this chemical additive could form part of the
>> Longlife oil spec.

Complete tripe, many VW dealers put the wrong oil in, and it still came up with 18000 miles.

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 Thu 19 Aug 10 16:41 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - DP
>> many VW dealers put the wrong oil in

And you accepted that?
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 16:45 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
No idea if it happened to me, how would I know? but many reports of VW dealers putting in the wrong oil by mistake when long life servicing and the new oil specs came in.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 19 Aug 10 at 16:45
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 16:50 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - DP
When you said "it came up with 18,000 miles", I took it you were talking about your car.

I wonder if anyone has ever tested the claim that adding more than half a litre of non-Longlife oil between services will trigger a service warning. That would be definitive proof one way or t'other.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 16:56 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
>> When you said "it came up with 18,000 miles", I took it you were talking
>> about your car.
>>
>> I wonder if anyone has ever tested the claim that adding more than half a
>> litre of non-Longlife oil between services will trigger a service warning. That would be definitive
>> proof one way or t'other.

On a company car do you think that any driver pays 13 quid for an oil top up? Which is what a litre of long life spec oils costs.

I certainly never did.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 17:05 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - DP
>> On a company car do you think that any driver pays 13 quid for an
>> oil top up? Which is what a litre of long life spec oils costs.

In my company car days it was all covered on the fuel card. You just bought whatever was suitable, sent the receipt back to head office every month with your mileage report, and that was that.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 17:09 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
Few comany fleets run fuel cards these days, the tax to the driver is too high

On my fleet you couldnt claim for oil.

I lay you a fiver that 90% of company car drivers never top up the car with the correct spec.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 17:16 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - DP
>> Few comany fleets run fuel cards these days, the tax to the driver is too
>> high

I paid my private mileage at an agreed rate per mile, so no tax to pay on the card. The company provided the fuel card as I, and others doing my role, were going through upwards of £300 worth of fuel in a typical month on company business, which is a lot to ask people to stump up and claim back. And that was at 2005's fuel prices.

I gave up my last company car (moved companies) in December 2005. In many ways, I regret it. I miss the "drive it and forget it" convenience.

Some people, even with a fully expensed car never top up the oil at all, or bother getting the thing serviced. It's shocking.
Last edited by: DP on Thu 19 Aug 10 at 17:17
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 13:52 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - J Bonington Jagworth
"I lay you a fiver that 90% of company car drivers never top up the car with the correct spec."

I doubt that many know they should (or how to).
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 14:47 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Mapmaker

>> I lay you a fiver that 90% of company car drivers never top up the
>> car with the correct spec.


I'll have that fiver, thanks. The actual number is 98%.


;)
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 17:32 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - rtj70
>> In my company car days it was all covered on the fuel card. You just bought whatever was
>> suitable, sent the receipt back to head office every month with your mileage report, and that was that

Not sure how we're meant to do oil purchase - I assume the same. But no petrol station will stock the oil needed for a Mazda6 diesel with DPF. That'll be a trip to a Mazda dealer.

Luckily Mazda thought of this problem so dilute the oil with diesel between services. Therefore I never have to top up the oil ;-) You have to keep an eye in case it gets too high though.
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 22:26 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - ....
>> On a company car do you think that any driver pays 13 quid for an
>> oil top up? Which is what a litre of long life spec oils costs.
>>
Some cost a lot more than that.
Last time I was filling the bike up I noticed a rack of oils, not needing any I looked in passing at the Castrol Edge 5-30 my car uses. 27.95€ for a litre top up.
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 22:53 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - rtj70
As I tongue in cheek already said, the Mazda6 Dexelia oil my car would need is not available from anywhere you fill up with a fuel card*. Luckily the car dilutes oil with diesel so you will never need to top it up. It's not expensive oil though... and maybe if I looked and needed it it's available. But my car's oil is about 0.5" above max and it was serviced less than 2 months ago. To top up you could always use diesel anyway because the car does that automatically.

When the car goes to auction next October, the car is a 57 plate Mazda6 Sport hatchback in a nice mica grey colour. Anyone wanting to check more details at the time can get me via the mods ;-)

* I have a fuel card and pay pro-rate for fuel purchased each month based on business miles vs private miles. Delaying or filling early can change the pro-rata rate quite easily in either mine or the company's favour depending on how close to pay day you are... guess what I do.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 20 Aug 10 at 22:54
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 16:53 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
Hold on - yes I do know.

My touran had 24 k on the clock when it arrived with me, and had had a service at 18k (long life) and then an interim service and oil change by the prep company when handed over to me (the oil was clean)

At 36k it came up and said "service me"

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 Fri 20 Aug 10 23:38 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Bill Payer
>> One theory from the Audi forums is that
>> the VAG approved Longlife oil has a chemical additive in it which becomes diluted as
>> the oil wears and ages. The "oil quality" sensor, which is apparently built into the
>> oil level sensor in the sump, detects the concentration of this chemical..

All VAG approved oils have a chemical marker in them, so that if there's an engine problem, VAG can analyse the oil and make sure you used the right one.

Oil quality sensors work either by infra-red (literally looking through the oil) or are dielectric (the capacitance of the oil changes as it deteriorates). It's strongly suggested that vehicle manufacturers rarely take any notice of the sensors, and instead look at things like number of cold starts, full throttle accelerations etc.
I've also seen it suggested that they sometimes just use the car's overall MPG, which of course would be bear a close relationship to how the car was driven.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 08:52 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - hobby
>> 1 It chose 9k and not 10k . . . . Do they do this?
>> My experience of VAG cars is that they are dead on 10k.
>>

Mine regularly come up at anywhere between 9k and 10k, never exactly 10k!

Re the warning, mines on fixed servicing and started at 2k before its due and counts down in miles...
Last edited by: hobby on Thu 19 Aug 10 at 08:53
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 10:38 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - AnotherJohnH
>> My experience of VAG cars is that they are dead on 10k.

SWMBO's Fabia wants attention between 9 and 10k.

I presumed it was converted from a metric design interval of 15k kilometres

(about 9k400 miles).
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 10:42 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - IJWS14

>> Re the warning, mines on fixed servicing and started at 2k before its due and
>> counts down in miles...
>>

Can you confirm if the fixed service message is just miles to go?

First message appeared with 400 odd miles to go.

To anaswer Zero - if it is a sign that something big is failing I don't want it to fail when I am on holiday in the middle of France. Myay be a company car but it is MY holiday.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 11:13 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - rtj70
Book it in for a service. 400 miles is close enough for it to be done now before your holiday. I think our cars can be booked in at least 500 miles early. You don't need to be spot on with the miles to do before a service.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 12:06 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - hobby
>> Can you confirm if the fixed service message is just miles to go?
>>

Well it seems to be counting down... its at 1400 just now... so I assume it is...
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 16:05 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
As I said, it has no idea something big is failing, in no way does the service indicator monitor the state of the engine.

If something big is failing or failed it will bring up an error code saying fix me now, not service me in 400 miles.

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 Thu 19 Aug 10 16:44 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - DP
>> Re the warning, mines on fixed servicing and started at 2k before its due and
>> counts down in miles...

My Golf TDI does this too, eventually resorting to a SERVICE NOW message when it gets down to a few hundred miles.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 20:11 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Alastairw
Variable servicing is precisely that - VARIABLE. When I bought my Octy it was showing 10100 miles to the next service. A month or so later, after only covering a couple of hundred miles, the indicator is doen to 8800 miles left. It may not check the condition of the oil, but the ecu does have an algorithm that tallies up cold starts versus warm running to work out when the service is due.
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 Thu 19 Aug 10 20:16 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
Never varied on three of mine by more than 300 miles.
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 08:19 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - IJWS14
They say it has reset itself to fixed ! ! ! !

I now have a car with a blank service indicator display - they are going to call me when it is due ! ! ! !

They have offered me a free oil change before I go to France.

I claim for oil so it getrs topped up with the right spec - you don't have to buy the big name oils to get one meeting VAG spec.

Used to have an A2 and there was a guy on the A2 forum who had seen 34k between services with the 1.4TDI so the system must monitor oil condition.
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 09:04 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - DP
>> Used to have an A2 and there was a guy on the A2 forum who had seen 34k between >> services with the 1.4TDI so the system must monitor oil condition

I'm inclined to think it does too. I would have thought a manufacturer would be on very dodgy ground legally for advertising a piece technology on a car, or any other product for that matter, that doesn't actually exist.

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 Fri 20 Aug 10 13:39 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
Based on experience and what i have heard first hand, I am inclined not to think it exists.

Do they actually say they have a device to monitor the physical properties of the oil?

They dont. Its sufficiently wooly written to exclude that.
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 14:19 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - J Bonington Jagworth
"to monitor the physical properties of the oil?"

Are they putting mass spectrometers in them now, then? I much preferred it when cars had oil pressure gauges...
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 14:59 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - DP
They say:

"These engines use built-in sensors that continually monitor the oil quality, "

and

"Please note that if the engine is topped up with more than ½ litre of non-LongLife oil between services, the service indicator will come on earlier and the time or distance between services will be reduced."

www.volkswagen.co.uk/assets/common/content/owners/Longlife_servicing.pdf

If the second statement is anything other than an outright lie, there must be something monitoring the physical properties of the oil.

Last edited by: DP on Fri 20 Aug 10 at 15:00
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 16:50 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
As per my tale of the Touran above, It dont work. Mostly because it dont exist.
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 21:22 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - NortonES2
It appears that some people are fully aware that VAG cars have some form of condition monitoring for the oil. Here is a link: forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?p=2505193
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 Fri 20 Aug 10 23:24 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Bill Payer
>> "Please note that if the engine is topped up with more than ½ litre of
>> non-LongLife oil between services, the service indicator will come on earlier and the time >> or distance between services will be reduced."

That's the opposite of the Mercedes variable servicing - wait until the car asks for oil (it'll ask when it needs a litre) and adding it will extend the service interval by a couple of thousand miles. Makes perfect sense as the oil quality sensor detects the oil is a bit cleaner.
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 Sat 21 Aug 10 00:24 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - idle_chatterer
The variable servicing on my A4 used to ask for a service every 18K miles like clockwork, so it wasn't very variable - merely extended imho, the 170PD engine drank expensive oil too and it looked like sludge.

My 330d had its first variable service at 22K miles, had used virtually no oil (never topped up but regularly checked) and the oil still looked fairly clean still, it now says it wants the next one at 16K miles - maybe that's some default and it will recalculate? Anyhow, I can comment that at 22K miles BMW did virtually nothing, didn't clean it properly, didn't check/adjust the handbrake and merely changed the oil. Finally found something Audi do better although I guess BMW charged the leasing company less.....
Last edited by: idle_chatterer on Sat 21 Aug 10 at 00:27
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 Sat 21 Aug 10 10:05 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - midlifecrisis
My Audi A5 is on variable servicing and doesn't seem to have used any oil yet. But then, I've got to rely on the dash info, because Audi didn't think a dipstick was important on the 170ps 2.0d. Very, very annoying.

It's my one gripe of what is, a very good car.
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 Sat 21 Aug 10 10:09 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Zero
I would ignore the variable servicing if it were my own car. Get it back on Fixed servicing.
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 Sat 21 Aug 10 10:20 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - DP
>> I would ignore the variable servicing if it were my own car. Get it back
>> on Fixed servicing.

One of the things my VW tech mate tells me is that they can almost guarantee that a sub-5 year old VW diesel coming in on a tow truck with turbo failure will be on Longlife servicing. That's not to say that all of them fail, or that cars on time and distance never fail, but there's a very noticeable pattern.
He fixes them, and he doesn't believe in Longlife.
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 Sat 21 Aug 10 12:04 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - Avant
"Audi didn't think a dipstick was important on the 170ps 2.0d."

How very strange, MLC. My Octavia vRS has exactly the same 170 TDI engine, complete with dipstick. Maybe worth looking to see where there is a blanked-off hole for one.
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 Mon 23 Aug 10 22:57 
 Skoda Octavia II - 1.9TDI Service Interval - big change - suspicious - JohnM{P}
As related in another place before this site was even a twinkle in the eye, my 05 Golf 1.9 TDi consistantly reckons that servicing is due every 18.6k miles (+/- 100 miles) which equates neatly to 30k km. This has happened even when I do an in-between 'Pella' change at 9k ish (using 506/507), from which I deduce that either a) service interval is calculated by mpg/cold starts method or b) there is a hard limit of 30k km. As my usage pattern changed a bit during a period of 6 months last year, I favour b).
(Car is now at 152k; turbo jammed at 103k (not bearing failure) since when I have always done the mid point change, to be sure to be sure...)
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