LongLife service from new?

[jdwoodbury]

My dealer told me that I need to do an inspection service at 9000mikes before I can switch to LongLife,, does not sound right to me?

[Guest 2]

What is your annual mileage?

Do you do more short journeys than longer ones?

[jdwoodbury]

What is your annual mileage?

Do you do more short journeys than longer ones?

About 16k per year, mostly distance work.
Already decided I wanted LongLife, just confused why the dealer said I could not enable it now.

[jbanfie]

My dealer didn't even ask, just went straight for longlife and said that's how they set them all up.

[jdwoodbury]

Seems my dealer was lying then!

[jbanfie]

Well, I'm sure opinions on this particular matter will be bi-polar, but it would appear your dealer is favouring a revenue generation model yes.

I'd give Audi UK a call and see what they say, you'll probably get a free umbrella as good will, but given your driving 16K a year long distance, that's exactly what the long life service thing is for.

More than that, Audi offer all of this because if you have to dutifully pitch up at the dealer every 12 months, you'll buy a different car, it's one of the reasons I ditched Lexus.

Another question is whether your deal actually believes he is looking after your engine in his heart, or just try to screw a few more quid out of you, if the 9000 mile 'inspection' is free it might be the former????

[renmar]

Probably oil and filter should be changed (what is anyway good for your engine :))

[johnsimcox]

My dealer didn't even ask, just went straight for longlife and said that's how they set them all up.

+1

[Timothy Nathan]

My dealer didn't even ask, just went straight for longlife and said that's how they set them all up.
Mine asked loads of sensible questions and we agreed long life from the get go.

[skibuddy]

Agreed with my dealer that based on my annual mileage it should be longlife, but they set it to fixed length anyway so had to take it back to have it changed. Apparently cars get shipped from the factory with longlife oil so it was only a five minute update to the MMI.

[sijomi]

I bought a 5 month old 2012 Audi demonstrator from an Audi dealer. It had done 8000 miles on fixed servicing. They agreed to service it before delivery and switch it to longlife. Mileage is now ~9000 miles and MMI now shows:
Next oil change in 17,400 mile/683 days
Next service in 9,400 miles/570 days
I thought longlife servicing meant that oil change and inspection services were performed together at variable intervals but not exceeding 24 months, but my MMI display does not seem to reflect this. Am I interpreting the MMI data incorrectly?

[jbanfie]

Interestingly my car has now started to report Oil Change and Service mileages and dates, noting that the car has only done 431 miles, it reports:

Oil Change 9100 Miles, 723 days
Service 18100 Miles 723 days

I was expecting the oil change to also be at the 18100 level, anyone have any clues or is this standard?

[Guest 2]

thats about right as the inspection is set to longlife so the oil change is every 10,000 (ish)

or if you dont do 9100 within 723 days then both oil change and inspection services will be done.

[jbanfie]

OK - the oil is only good for 10,000, I can go with that; at Lexus you had to have a service every year even if you did no miles!

[skibuddy]

Interestingly my car has now started to report Oil Change and Service mileages and dates, noting that the car has only done 431 miles, it reports:

Oil Change 9100 Miles, 723 days
Service 18100 Miles 723 days

I was expecting the oil change to also be at the 18100 level, anyone have any clues or is this standard?

Mine was consistent with yours when I collected from the dealer. After some discussion and chasing of paperwork they agreed it had been set to fixed interval not variable length servicing as I had requested. Ten minute job for them to reset it as the car is delivered from the factory with long life oil anyway. I have done 5383 miles and the display is showing Next Oil Change 14,100 or 616 days, Next Service 14,500 or 616 days.

[jbanfie]

So the oil is good for 19000 then, hence the term long life!

Hurray I can now go and complain to my dealer - didn't really want to have to do that, but it is something I'm good at, sure it will be fine.

[jbanfie]

I'm really confused, the oil changes are supposed to be:

10,000 or 1 year fixed
Upto 19,000 or 2 years variable

My car appears to mix the two, in that it says the oil change is 9100 miles or 723 days, implying 10,000 oil life, but 2 years?????????

My dealer is going to call me back!

[adamss24]

If you value your car then i suggest you forget about longlife servicing and do it once a year and replace the oil at no more than 10k ! I personally drop oil at 6.5k-8k but i use my car for towing which is particularly hard on the engine so more freqvent oil changes are a must ! When you consider that oil is 30 quid i TPS for a 5L can then it makes sense since you can get one of them Pella oil extractors and do-it at home yourself without messing about and dropping undertrays !
Lack of proper lubrication and complicated electronics is what's killing modern engines/machines hence why they don't make it to high mileage anymore !

[jbanfie]

I hear what you are saying and don't disagree, I'm more keen to get what I asked for, so I can monitor the behavior of the car and make my own choices.

[jbanfie]

Further news, with 722 days to go till next service / inspection we now have:

Oil Change 11,200
Service 18,600

Earlier today the oil change was 9,900!

So my conclusion is that the system needs a bit of time to bed itself in, but is obviously set for long life, and if I keep my steady driving style the two will align I guess.

[robbyg]

Took mine in for warranty work last week (no leaking doors now hoorah). I asked why if i am set up on "long life" service interval it has since day one estimated that the oil change is due at 10k or 2y, and the full service at 19k or 2y. The brochure made it clear that its upto 2 year long life servicing.

Service manager told me the new audi long life servicing still needs an oil change every 10k.

In my head this is not long life servicing. I dont want to get into forum arguments about how often you "should" change the oil, i used to regularly change it in my older mineral or semi synthetic oiled cars, but this is very expensive fully synthetic oil. My wifes diesel alfa mito needs servicing every 2 years or 20k miles regardless of how you drive it, same for my previous 2 volvos. Even my 300bhp porsche cayman was 18month or 18k. Those engines all get much harder use than my lazy big V6 sat at 1500rpm on the motorway.

I see no need for mine to have a 10k oil change, thats way behind other modern cars. Anyone got any other story from the dealer?

[JamesMo]

Took mine in for warranty work last week (no leaking doors now hoorah). I asked why if i am set up on "long life" service interval it has since day one estimated that the oil change is due at 10k or 2y, and the full service at 19k or 2y. The brochure made it clear that its upto 2 year long life servicing.

Service manager told me the new audi long life servicing still needs an oil change every 10k.

In my head this is not long life servicing. I dont want to get into forum arguments about how often you "should" change the oil, i used to regularly change it in my older mineral or semi synthetic oiled cars, but this is very expensive fully synthetic oil. My wifes diesel alfa mito needs servicing every 2 years or 20k miles regardless of how you drive it, same for my previous 2 volvos. Even my 300bhp porsche cayman was 18month or 18k. Those engines all get much harder use than my lazy big V6 sat at 1500rpm on the motorway.

I see no need for mine to have a 10k oil change, thats way behind other modern cars. Anyone got any other story from the dealer?
Your dealer is talking total rubbish! The oil changes and inspection services are separated on the latest service regimes and you can choose to have annual oil changes or longlife oil services dependant on your driving - lots of short journeys they recommend annual changes, more regular long journeys and longlife changes will be fine.

Sounds to me like the car has been set-up on the wrong regime at the dealer during the pdi - check in the service book - in my a4 there is a box that has been ticked to signify longlife regime. The cars all come from the factory with the longlife oil so there should be no reason why this can't be switched over by the dealer.

[Big Gaz]

Mine is sitting at 13k already and dash says service due in 6200 miles and oil change due at 6100 miles. Checked with Local Audi and they had not heard of a 10k oil change when on longlife.

[jbanfie]

Hi Robby,

Mine is the same as yours, that is, it expects an oil change at roughly 10K or 2 years and service at 19K or 2 years - this I also thought was not as promised.

However, I've been keeping an eye on it, and after some longer journeys the oil change went up to 11,200 miles, but with shorter journeys has come back down again. Taking it easy on the throttle doesn't seem to help, in fact I think it improves with a bit of a 'drive' if you know what I mean.

I have kind of concluded that the engine is looking after itself and provided an oil change is under £100 I'm probably going to go with it.

Keep the info flowing on this, especially if you get any more out of Audi.

On another note are you getting new software for your power steering module?

[robbyg]

Al of the above makes me think there is something not right. Emailed audi uk customer service last night, dont hold much hope though, will keep you all posted if their reply makes sense.

JB yes i got the power steering software upgrade, very minor change, i read the tech brief on their screen, something to do with preventing erroneous power steering error messages, not safety or performance related.

[jbanfie]

I had the steering thing done today, no biggy.

On the oil thing, I'm not too happy - oil change is £172 and first service is £360 including an oil change, therefore having an oil change after 10,000 they might as well not bothered, cause you will still need the service - this is a bit sharp.

I did chat this through with the service guy and he said - yes it's changed, I guess I shall be having services every 18 months or so then, which is still better than Lexus at every 12 months, but my wifes Mini Countryman is bang on for 19,000 miles and 2 years!

I'll be very interested to see what Audi UK say to your email

Hmmmm

[robbyg]

Audi just phoned.
Says my car shows on the system as being on "new long life service schedule"

This means "oil change between 9k and 20k depending on usage" and "inspection service every 20k or 2yrs"

She recommends i go to a dealer and get the car plugged in to see if actual is set for long life servicing as my indication doesnt sound right. That would be dealer visit number 3, so i will wait until i happen to be passing by an audi garage at my convenience and just drop in i think.

£172 and £360 is less than i expected audi would hit for an A6 so is a reasonably pleasant surprise to me. The pain is going to the dealer getting to work and then picking it up again and hoping they havent damaged it.

I will let you know once i get it plugged in.

John, you say you guess it will be every 18month then, is that because you only do 7k or so a year miles?

[jbanfie]

Yes I'm aiming to be around 6 to 7K a year, but it's all going to be shortish stuff kind of 15 mile journeys. From what I'm seeing at the moment, the engine barely gets warm after travelling that far, and it's not even winter yet!!!!!

[ti rich]

My car just had its first oil change and pollen filter change at 19k miles as requested by the MMI. No one ever discussed service intervals with me. It as it is fully maintained by Audi I guess they service it as little as possible.