Servicing intervals - TDI 130

[philiplgbennett]

hi, i'm in the first year of owning my 2004 TDI 130 and do about 20,000 miles a year. I had a "major" service done after the first 10k of ownership, oil, filter, pollen filter, fuel filter etc, but the next 10k service has come around already.

I read somewhere about "long life" service intervals.. what are they ? Do I really need to the car serviced once every 6 months (every 10k) or should 12 months (20k) be enough ? My journeys are 100 miles a day, 4 days a week.

I bought the car to save money so don't want to be servicing more often than I should.
Any advice would be really useful.

thanks in advance, Phil

 

[towcester vag]

you can do longlife servicing using the correct oil but i wouldnt myself
i would use quantum platinum 5w40 fully synthetic and do it every 10k
oil costs about £46 for 20 ltrs from tps at the moment and oil filters are £3 from gsf
no cost what so ever!

 

[sssstew]

agreed, just drop the oil and filter every 6 months at home, cheap and easy job, then do its more major service at the 20k 12month interval and all will be happy and go on for ages.

 

[philiplgbennett]

Ok cheers. Can I admit on here that I haven't changed the oil on a car since my first Mini about 25 years ago - what I mean is I get the garage to do it. I was worried that not having a dealer stamp against the service will devalue the FSH but I don't intend to sell the Leon any time soon.

 

[towcester vag]

find a decent specialist
you still get a stamp and it will cost less

 

[Adam4D]

Use decent branded oil for pd engines, and it'll last 1 year and 10,000 miles.

Oil and filter every 10k or 1 year
Pollen filter every 20k or 2 years.
Fuel filter every 40k
Air filter every 60k

These are how I recommend people to service a pd engine when using genuine parts and shell helix ultra oil vw507.00.

Hope this helps.

 

[BenG]

60k miles on the same air filter? Seriously?!

I change the oil and filter on my FR TDI yearly, at about 6500-7000 miles. Diesels contaminatr their oil quickly and clean oil is good for the turbo bearings, it is thinner than carbon-choked oil and circulates more quickly on cold starts. I certainly would not want to risk longlife servicing with a turbodiesel. Getting the EGR flow turned down using VCDS, or blanking the valve and getting it mapped out, would help reduce oil contamination as well.

I change my air and pollen filters yearly too, such a quick easy and cheap job it's a no-brainer and the pollen filter is usually pretty mucky when it come out as the ventilation fan is always on and pulling air through the filter.

Just chaged the fuel filter after a couple of years and that was easy too, and the gearbox oil has been done once since I got the car with 53k miles on it. Brake fluid is bled through every two years.

 

[Adam4D]

I quoted factory intervals