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Mk V GTI Service Intervals


poobarr
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I have an '06 GTI it was serviced after 1 year (last April) at 6000 miles, not by me. The cars says it wants another service at a cost of £300 (with oil change).

It is set to long life (apparently), but my last GTi didn't need its first service until 17,000 miles.

Is it me or is this a bit excessive; the cars only done 16,000 miles will have had two services?

I do about 12,000 miles a year, is my only option to just pay up?

Cheers

Dave

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If you have the invoice for the Longlife service then your dealer should be able to reset your car.

My dad had a similar situation with his new Golf. The car indicator said it required it's first service after 12 months and about 10,000 miles. He phoned the dealer to book it in but they said that their computer had it down for Longlife servicing and the car must be set incorrectly. He took the car in and they reset the computer accordingly.

I guess it depends on what the dealer's computer is set to.

I'm a bit old school and believe that a car should have at least an annual oil change - especially if it gets short runs. If you can afford it / happy to afford it then I would personally just get it done again. VW recommend Time and Distance servicing if you cover 10,000 miles or less per year I believe.

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  • 3 months later...

Yeah my car has just reached 10k and is about to be a year old and its telling me I need a service in 400 miles/or 30 days.

So I assume its set to Time/Distance service intervals.

I assumed it was set to long life intervals (dealer told me it was) and benefiting from the longlife oil in it (which I have been topping up with Castrol Edge oil suitable for longlife service intervals).

Although I agree oil should probably be changed every 10k or so.

Intend to get my computer set to longlife - not sure if I will get the 10k service or not (which is basically an oil change anyway) or just get an oil change done cheaper elsewhere.

Edited by vinyldj
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Yeah my car has just reached 10k and is about to be a year old and its telling me I need a service in 400 miles/or 30 days.

So I assume its set to Time/Distance service intervals.

I assumed it was set to long life intervals (dealer told me it was) and benefiting from the longlife oil in it (which I have been topping up with Castrol Edge oil suitable for longlife service intervals).

Although I agree oil should probably be changed every 10k or so.

Intend to get my computer set to longlife - not sure if I will get the 10k service or not (which is basically an oil change anyway) or just get an oil change done cheaper elsewhere.

If the car and VW network computer down as time and distance then your car will need the service done so as not to invalidate the warranty. Many dealers set the car to time and distance at PDI stage. They did with mine and explained this at the time of service.

Daft I know as they all come fitted with the longlife oil to start with.

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I've read a lot of instances like this where dealers have actually told people that it's set to longlife/variable and it hasn't been. Seems a bit poor that a dealer is misrepresenting the car like this, mine averages about 14k miles between long life service which adds up to a few pennies difference to me getting it serviced every 10k miles. Reckon it's them trying to get more cash...

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It can cost more on Time & Distance but I reckon for longevity of the engine if you cover less than 10k miles per year it's the way to go.

I personally think that for low mileage cars - particularly those which do short journeys, 2 years is a long time to go between oil changes. 2 years worth of cold winter start ups!

Ultimately depends how long you plan to keep the car as to whether longevity is a concern.

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It can cost more on Time & Distance but I reckon for longevity of the engine if you cover less than 10k miles per year it's the way to go.

I personally think that for low mileage cars - particularly those which do short journeys, 2 years is a long time to go between oil changes. 2 years worth of cold winter start ups!

Ultimately depends how long you plan to keep the car as to whether longevity is a concern.

Completely agree, TT. My car will be 2 years old in December and I've just covered 14k miles. I put the car on T & D as soon as I bought it and will have it serviced every 10k or 12 months, which ever comes sooner. +++

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Completely agree, TT. My car will be 2 years old in December and I've just covered 14k miles. I put the car on T & D as soon as I bought it and will have it serviced every 10k or 12 months, which ever comes sooner. +++
.....I have had my last four cars on T&D as doing under 10k a year.Is much better option imo..:eclipse:
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I've just had mine set to Time & Distance instead of Long Life.

I only live 2 miles from work and the frequent short journeys meant the service warning came on after only 9,800miles. At first the VW thought it had been set to Time & Distance by mistake but it was set correctly set to Long Life.

Just goes to show the computer really does look at how you drive and trip distances.

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  • 4 months later...

I bought a MK5 GTI back in 2007. It was from a main dealer and had 7k on the clock. When I bought it I asked if it needed a service and was informed that it shouldn't, but if it flashed up to say it did, they would perform the service free of charge. Sure enough the service warning came on a 9K, so I got in touch and requested the free service. I took the car in, when I picked it up, they told me it didn't in fact need a service as it was on a long service plan, they cleared the warning and I went away a little confused. At 19K the service light came back on and I had the service done. I am not at 34K and its back on again. I got in touch with VWUK as I felt 15k seemed a little short of the 20k longlife service intervals. They told me that the longlife plan is 20k or 2 years, whichever comes first. I also found out that the dealer logged my car as being serviced at the 9k point when they hadn't serviced it and that they had not logged my 19k service with the central system.

Anyway, long story short(ish), it transpires that the dealer changed the service plan to a long life plan (20k/2 years) at the 9k mark to avoid having to do the service free of charge, but in doing so have messed up my cars service history on VW's main computer - never mind the fact that they ripped me off by not performing a service they should have. I am really annoyed. Surprise surprise, they do recommend that my car needs the 33k and told me if the service light is on then it should be serviced.

Also my main dealer costs £330.00 for an oil change, what the f are they putting in it? Liquid Gold or something?

Sorry for long rant, but I am pretty annoyed with the situation...

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Hi Stevo1 & welcome to TSN +++

When a new car is registered on to the dealers computer, the dealer has to enter whether the car is on 'Time & Distance' or 'Longlife'. However, all VW's come from the factory with Longlife oil so in theory are all fine to go the 20k miles / 2 years as appropriate.

I bought two Golfs from the same dealer - both new cars. One was set to Longlife and the other was set to Time & Distance (no particular reason). Strangely, on my Golf Sport, the car came up suggesting it needed a service at 9k miles like yours, but when the dealer was about to book it in, they decided that the main VW computer had it registered for Longlife and like you, they reset the car computer and it then needed the service at around 19k miles.

It's worth noting that although VW suggest that Longlife servicing routines can be up to 20k miles or 2 years - whichever sooner, in practice the computer looks at how the car is driven / cold starts running speeds etc etc and calls the service when it believes appropriate. From what others on here have reported, this can be anything from 13k miles to 19k miles.

I'm probably a bit old fashioned when it comes to servicing. I have my GTI serviced on the Time & Distance schedules and request for the better quality Longlife oil to be used.

With regard to cost, I would recommend shopping around. I saved £140 on my 2nd year service by phoning 3-4 different dealers in my area. You could try playing them against each other to get a better price. +++

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Thanks for the info Mr Terrorist. I basically beat up the dealer and got him to do the service for £174.00 and I was much happier. They also pointed out that my car needed a 4 wheel align, possibly due to all the speed humps and pot holes in my area. Going to wait until the tyres are completely shot then get it done with all new ones.

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