wessexcamper
VIP Member
Hi All
We bought our 2013 California SE 180 DSG a little over a year ago, from a well known camper van dealer on the south coast. It had done very few miles - just over 10,000. There were no stamps in the service book apart from one where the dealer who sold the van to us had it serviced at a local (non-VW) garage.
This service was in Feb 2017, with just over 10,000 miles on the clock. The service was quite basic but the box showing that the oil was changed with long life oil had been ticked.
Fast forward to now. The van has done 13.5k miles, so 3500 miles and about 15 months since it was serviced. The van tells us that it wants an oil change now (63 days ago) or in 8900 miles.
I spoke to the guy who did the service and he assured me that he would have used the correct long life oil and reset the computer correctly - but that the service intervals are programmed at the factory and it might be on a 12 month service interval. I thought to get the oil changed anyway, but the local (non-VW) garage I spoke to wanted £190 to do it. So I called the two nearest VW commercial centres to see what they think. Interestingly, neither of them asked for the reg number to check on what service might be due (which is the first thing the BMW garages do when you call them). One quoted £198 and the other quoted £222.
I explained the background (as above) and questioned why, considering the van is on a 20,000 mile / 2 year service interval, it should be flagging up an oil change after 3500 miles and 11 months. Both of them more-or-less said the same thing. They said that the oil quality sensor in the sump would be detecting that an oil change is needed due to bad oil quality I asked if that implied that the previous oil change had used a poor grade of oil and they said no, that it would be because the oil had degraded since it was changed. They tried to give me a lot of talk about EGR valves, exhaust particulates, carbon content of oil, viscosity etc. and talked about vehicles without a lot of use not reaching adequate working temperatures and so on. One of them suggested that if we were not going to use the van more, we should consider changing from a 2 year service interval to one year.
Now I try to be open minded, recognising that I am not an expert here. Nevertheless, I fail to understand why a van which has done just 3500 miles needs its (long-life) oil changed after 11 months. I can't see why, had we done another 10,000 miles, the oil would still be good for a further 6500 miles or 9 months. This is not a daily runabout. The shortest journeys it does are well over 30 miles / 1/2 hour and typically a hundred miles or more. Maybe it is that the long-life oil deteriorates while sitting in the sump over the winter, not being warmed up every now and then?
The chap who did the service in Feb 2017 thinks it is perfectly Ok and offered to reset the computer again for free. We may take him up on this. However, we don't feel comfortable driving around in a vehicle which tells us it should have been serviced 2 months ago. Interestingly, the van says that it needs an inspection exactly 2 years to the day after the service in Feb 2017 and about 25000 miles on from then, which suggests that the on-board service computer was correctly re-programmed at the time.
Any thoughts about what we should do (ignore the service request or get the oil changed)?
Thank you!
We bought our 2013 California SE 180 DSG a little over a year ago, from a well known camper van dealer on the south coast. It had done very few miles - just over 10,000. There were no stamps in the service book apart from one where the dealer who sold the van to us had it serviced at a local (non-VW) garage.
This service was in Feb 2017, with just over 10,000 miles on the clock. The service was quite basic but the box showing that the oil was changed with long life oil had been ticked.
Fast forward to now. The van has done 13.5k miles, so 3500 miles and about 15 months since it was serviced. The van tells us that it wants an oil change now (63 days ago) or in 8900 miles.
I spoke to the guy who did the service and he assured me that he would have used the correct long life oil and reset the computer correctly - but that the service intervals are programmed at the factory and it might be on a 12 month service interval. I thought to get the oil changed anyway, but the local (non-VW) garage I spoke to wanted £190 to do it. So I called the two nearest VW commercial centres to see what they think. Interestingly, neither of them asked for the reg number to check on what service might be due (which is the first thing the BMW garages do when you call them). One quoted £198 and the other quoted £222.
I explained the background (as above) and questioned why, considering the van is on a 20,000 mile / 2 year service interval, it should be flagging up an oil change after 3500 miles and 11 months. Both of them more-or-less said the same thing. They said that the oil quality sensor in the sump would be detecting that an oil change is needed due to bad oil quality I asked if that implied that the previous oil change had used a poor grade of oil and they said no, that it would be because the oil had degraded since it was changed. They tried to give me a lot of talk about EGR valves, exhaust particulates, carbon content of oil, viscosity etc. and talked about vehicles without a lot of use not reaching adequate working temperatures and so on. One of them suggested that if we were not going to use the van more, we should consider changing from a 2 year service interval to one year.
Now I try to be open minded, recognising that I am not an expert here. Nevertheless, I fail to understand why a van which has done just 3500 miles needs its (long-life) oil changed after 11 months. I can't see why, had we done another 10,000 miles, the oil would still be good for a further 6500 miles or 9 months. This is not a daily runabout. The shortest journeys it does are well over 30 miles / 1/2 hour and typically a hundred miles or more. Maybe it is that the long-life oil deteriorates while sitting in the sump over the winter, not being warmed up every now and then?
The chap who did the service in Feb 2017 thinks it is perfectly Ok and offered to reset the computer again for free. We may take him up on this. However, we don't feel comfortable driving around in a vehicle which tells us it should have been serviced 2 months ago. Interestingly, the van says that it needs an inspection exactly 2 years to the day after the service in Feb 2017 and about 25000 miles on from then, which suggests that the on-board service computer was correctly re-programmed at the time.
Any thoughts about what we should do (ignore the service request or get the oil changed)?
Thank you!
