Variable Service - Advice Please!!

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Darren C

Admin Team
Can anyone please assist me??

I am sure that the subject of 'variable servicing' has been covered before in these forums, however, I would appreciate some advice from other A2 owners on this topic.

I purchased my A2 TDI 'Special Edition' on the 5th October 2005 with approximately 6900 miles on the clock. The 'miles to service' indicator showed 17300 miles until the next service and I was reasonably happy with this.
Having purchased the vehicle, I covered about 335 miles on a full tank before the fuel warning light came on and I filled up. [According to the handbook there should have been about 7 - 8 litres of fuel left in the tank]. This mileage consisted of 100 miles of motorway driving, followed by 'short' journeys around town. The 'miles to service' indicator at this point indicated only 16100 miles until the next service, despite having only covered 335 miles of real time driving since the 17300 displayed on the indicator on the vehicle collection day. [I put this down to my short journeys to work [around 2 miles], when the car does not reach 'normal' operating temperature and therefore this would presumably affect the life of the oil. Incidentally, the car is left on the drive and I figured that the temperature fluctuations would also play a part].
Today, however, my wife and I travelled to the outskirts of London and accrued around 130 miles. I assumed that giving the car a good run and having the engine up to operating temperature for such a long time would have a positive effect on the 'miles to service' indicator, as I realise that this can go both up as well as down. To my horror, however, upon returning home, my vehicle is now showing 15000 miles until the next service. I am completely bemused by it all!!!
I bought this car for the excellent mpg claims and drive the car accordingly. As a rule I am changing gear between 2000-2500 rpm and today drove at a consistent and steady 70 mph for the most part.
At this rate I will only be able to travel a few thousand miles before I will need a service; meaning that I will not benefit from the 2 years or 30000 mile 'variable servicing' intervals and I will probably need a service before the car has registered 10000 on the clock.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems or do you think that the car will eventually settle down and adjust to my 'conservative' driving style??

I am thinking of taking the car to my local dealer for their advice; am I over reacting??

Also given my newly adopted 'conservative' driving style, [by that I mean economical], is my mpg a fair reflection of this??

335 miles [mileage consistency shown above] = 35 litres = 7 gallons = 43 mpg with 7 to 8 litres remaining in my 42 litre tank. [Oh how I wish I had DIS!!].

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!

I still love this car and had some fun today watching a Volvo disappear in my rear view mirror as I drove 'sensibly' around the twisty stuff in slightly foggy conditions. The handling of this car obviously provided me with more confidence than the Volvo did to its driver, despite the fact that they where following my tail lights. [Needless to say, this brought a huge smile to my face and confirmed that I made the right decision in purchasing the A2].

Kind Regards,

Darren
 
variable servicing

Hi
ihave a 52plate 1.4tdi with amd chip and got it at 5000miles (ex demonstrator),the 1st service was 30,000miles
second service was 58-60,000 miles you cant complain at that

I wouldnt worry about it as I think it varies on what it sees from the driving
and I drive stop start in london most days!

Be prepared!
Mine needs oil top up every 3000miles and the oil light comes on so it should have a spare 1 liter oil canister in the boot velcro fixed to the righthand side of the boot wall.
make sure its the corect audi longlife oil or the castrol version (which has just had its name changed , so check it carefully)
it uses less as time goes on...? I think

I started checking my service interval timer regularly as well but but it will let you know in plenty of time what is needed.

I'm sure someone can elaborate why this is the case for you
 
The variable service interval milage will depend on how the car is driven. I drive mine fairly slowly doing around 15 mile trips. The service interval mileage showed 9600 to next service just after being serviced. After around 4 weeks it went to 18600 miles and is now slowly coming down. The service interval will depend on how it is driven havent worked out yet whether its based on speed or long journeys. All I know is when its due for a service it MUST be done. As for the amount of oil the car uses I am yet to find a dealer who can read the bl**dy dip stick I keep checking it but now it has new oil find it impossible to read. I always carry long life oil in the boot just incase the light does come on .
 
Hi Darren

There is loads of archived posts on this subject.
Just enter 'Service Interval' in the drop down Search box on the top tool bar.

Cheers Spike
 
Thanks for yor help....& fuel economy figures

Thanks very much to all of you for taking the time to reply. Greatly appreciated!!

I will continue to monitor the ‘service interval’ indicator during the course of the next month or so and see what happens. Hopefully this will either increase or at the very least settle down and show some sign of stability.

I also plan to view the archived posts as well to gain additional info; thanks for the tip Spike!!

ULP,
I agree with your comments. For a diesel, I was most disappointed with the economy that I had achieved over-all. This was indeed the tank of juice that the dealer supplied; however, I still have doubts as to whether or not my ‘mpg’ figures will improve dramatically. To give you some idea of what I am achieving on this tank according to the fuel gauge, please note below: [figures are approximate]

• 102 miles – ¾ tank left
• 200 miles – ½ tank left
• 290 miles – ¼ tank left
• 335 miles – fuel warning light and indication; gauge half way between empty and ¼ tank.

Second fill up was worse: [mostly around town driving though!!]

• 85 miles – ¾ tank left
• 175 miles – ½ tank left

Knowing that I was going on a fairly long drive I topped the car back up yesterday. [Fuel economy appears a tad better, however, mostly consists of motorway driving].

• 135 miles – ¾ tank left [current]

I am being ‘light footed’ on the accelerator and would have hoped for around the 400 mile mark myself from a full tank; although I am doubtful that I will ever see figures like that.
The only other thing that I can think of is that the ‘supermarket’ diesel does not contain as many additives as the leading petrol stations and perhaps this would improve things. [The down side of course is that you pay more in the first place – a vicious circle me thinks!!].:rolleyes:

Cheers,

Darren
 
I have used both supermarket fuel and garage fuel and I can honestly say that I get more from a gallon using garage fuel than supermarket. Dont use supermarket fuel any more and I am not the only one thats said that. Most people who have switched say the same. It maybe cheaper but cheap is not always best.
 
Hi Darren


My A2 is just approaching the 3rd VS service, which will be around 92,000m
The first was 32K, then at 63K.

My A2 sits on the motorway twice a day. And because I'm up early I drive like a grandad! apparantly, oh and I have cruise?

I do 60mpg, and try and get the "bong" at 350 miles from full. And I've managed to get 50miles out of it, after the bong :)

Have never tried garage diesel, but I might try for a week to see if there is any truth in the extra mileage malarkey.


bba
 
fuel and mpg

Hi
i'm amazed you get 60mpg
i can only get 55 if I drive like a grandad at 55-70 for five hours without stopping
I regularly get 48 ish and I use mainly BP (keep it british!)
and drive it fairly normally

its chipped so I uppose that eats abit and go into London most days.

I tried that super diesel and it made buger all difference other than costing me more!

anyone tired biodiesel or shhh... red diesel?:cool:
 
Try Biodiesel at your peril. I tried a tankfull on my last A2 and it ran fine until the tank was 3/4 empty then it became next to impossible to start the b****r. The cause was down to fuel starvation caused by a bunged up fuel filter - caused by the biodiesel.

Things may have improved in the last 18 months in terms of quality control, but in my view, it is simply not worth the bother - you get poorer economy and the price differential only just about makes up for this. Add in the increased maintainance needs and it just doesn't stack up.
 
ULP said:
However, your economy sounds pretty awful! If this was your first tank of fuel I wouldn't be surprised if Audi didn't brim it so you might have used less than 7 gallons... My warning light comes on at about 415-450 miles depending on the driving I do.

Do the old brim it; drive it; brim it and work out the economy that way;

Fuel used in litres / 4.5461 = gallons. Total milage / fuel used (in gallons)
Click to expand...

Remember that there are 2 different tank sizes, so one person may get more to a tank full than another (older car)! And I agree, the brim method is the only accurate way of measuring the consumption...
 
In response to the comments about biodiesel.

I used to run my previous Golf TDi on 100% biodiesel and there were no problems with it. I plan to run my A2 on it also.

There are a number of things to be careful if you do use it:

1. Make sure its not Palm Oil based as this tends to go thick at low temperatures RME or rape based biodiesel is much better. And does'nt support the destruction of rainforests.

2. If a car has been running on ordinary diesel then gradually increase the % of biodiesel. Biodiesel will lift deposits left by ordinary diesel and clog up filters and injectors.

3. You will get slightly less mpg from biodiesel as it has a lower calorific value so it should be cheaper per litre.

4. From sometime in 2004 Audi withdrew warranty from cars running biodiesel. Apparently on the instructions of Bosch. So if you have a 2004 onwards car you might invalidate your warranty.

One of the biggest problems with biodiesel is the variable quality as it can be made with different oils and they all have different operating characteristics.

If anyone is interested in using biodiesel you can use B5 which is 5% biodiesel and can be used in any car and will not invalidate any warranties. Its cleaning properties will be beneficial for the car, its greener and should'nt cost any more.

see http://www.biodieselfillingstations.co.uk/outlets.htm for retailers
 
Darren,

My A2 had just had a service when I bought it last September, the service mileage interval said 11,500 to next interval as the previous owner had just pootled about town. Since then I've done mainly motor way driving and its shot up to 22,500. Which I'm pretty happy with. I think once the engines settled into more long distance driving its performance etc improves and so its component life along with it, I guess, which equals a higher service interval. So I'd just keep an eye on it and see how it goes.

Re fuel I get around 340 to a tank in my 02 tdi 75. Thats running into the reserve a bit but so there's around 3 litres left. I'm reasonably happy with that as its a 30 litre tank (or so I understand) and so gives a resonable mpg 57 approx (not got DIS).

It seems to me from other emails that they do tend to use oil I've done about 8,000 miles and had to put in half a litre which surprised me, but if you look at the recent oil usage thread is nothing unusual.

happy driving!! :)
 
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