Service Intervals

marty_34

Active Member
Apr 21, 2012
1,183
2
TEESSIDE
Skidpan that's fine as long as the dealers know what they're doing. Mine was serviced by SEAT in Durham and they ticked long life in the book but set the service indicator to 10k/1 year. When I queried this they told me it couldn't be done, then proceeded to set it to 'nothing'.

My car is now set properly having been done by a competent dealer.

Pfftt - competent dealer! Not many of them exist is there
 

AJ

Active Member
Oct 16, 2013
250
3
I was going to buy 1 litre for top ups which are not part of the service plans some of us have bought.

I researched the pricing and found that Euro Car Parts beat all others hands down:

The Specification is Castrol Edge Fully Synthetic 5w - 30 4 litres VW 504 00 and VW 507 00
Fulfils the requirements of the former VW 503 01 specification

Opie Oils 41.99 + 4.99 PnP = 46.98
EuroCar Parts 27.99+ Free Delivery = 27.99 ( since I bought it you have to use the voucher code oilbonanza30 to get this price - it's on their home page.

At this price for an item that has a long shelf life it was worth buying rather than 1 litre. Mind you I have not used any oil yet.

How are others faring on the oil burning front? I have a 1.2TSI and it's a little cracker IMHO

Dep, I totally agree with you, I too was looking at buying a 1 litre top up oil and found this offer last year (they seem to run this promotion from time to time) so bought this as its a good buy - Halfords sell 1 litre of this stuff for £20 what a rip off. Seems like VAG still recommend the same oil with their current engines too as my MY2009 A3 CR TDI was recommended to use the VW 507 00 spec oil, I still have some left in my garage so am glad I can use it in the new car :D

From my experience on long life servicing with a diesel engine, the oil top up light comes on about 1200 miles before the oil service light comes on and I find if I top up with about 1/2 litre of oil it sees me through to the service. Why put in loads when it will all be changed at the service ;)
 

Shiners

Active Member
Jun 29, 2013
78
1
Scotland
Best way to do it is to ring SEAT UK and ask if your car is on long life. It will be logged what service plan your car is on :)
Just off the phone from SEAT CS and they confirm what my car says - Long Life Service regime. SEAT CS 1 Dealer 0 :p
 

Jarre

Active Member
Dec 9, 2011
5,365
11
Stockton-On-Tees
Just off the phone from SEAT CS and they confirm what my car says - Long Life Service regime. SEAT CS 1 Dealer 0 :p

Glad you've got it cleared up :) if you don't do high mileage and wish to have it put onto time/distance you can do that, just ask them to switch it over at your next service and inform SEAT :). Mine was originally on long life, then a previous owner switched it to time/distance. It's now back on long life :)
 
Jun 15, 2013
268
2
From my experience on long life servicing with a diesel engine, the oil top up light comes on about 1200 miles before the oil service light comes on and I find if I top up with about 1/2 litre of oil it sees me through to the service. Why put in loads when it will all be changed at the service ;)

The general idea is you check your oil regularly, I do it every couple of weeks and if and when it gets down to the midway point between top and bottom marks I add some oil. Waiting for the light to come on can be like Russian Roulette especially since some cars do not have oil level lights. If the oil pressure light comes on its probably too late to add oil, best to PX it immediately.
 
Jun 15, 2013
268
2
Just off the phone from SEAT CS and they confirm what my car says - Long Life Service regime. SEAT CS 1 Dealer 0 :p

Get it in writing from Seat CS. My experience has been different people will tell you a different story.
 

Shiners

Active Member
Jun 29, 2013
78
1
Scotland
Glad you've got it cleared up :) if you don't do high mileage and wish to have it put onto time/distance you can do that, just ask them to switch it over at your next service and inform SEAT :). Mine was originally on long life, then a previous owner switched it to time/distance. It's now back on long life :)
Thanks again, I'll get mine changed to Time/Distance as don't do a big mileage. Just a shame the dealer didn't do this in the first place:rolleyes:
 
Jun 15, 2013
268
2
Why? The car says Long Life. VCDS says Long Life and SEAT CS says Long Life. The dealer chose to advise different.

Why, because should your dealer continue to be a muppet you will end up arguing should you need any warranty work doing and the dealer claims since you serviced it incorrectly (in his opinion) your warranty is void.

If you have a letter simply show it to the dealer and that should shut him up.

But you need to get a letter now. When I bought my car I had issues with what the service book said, what the dash said and basically neither reflected the facts. The dealer said one thing then changed his mind. I was not happy thus contacted Seat CS and the first person I spoke to agreed with what the dealer had originally said but when their manager rang me a couple of days later they said that was incorrect and that the dealers 2nd opinion was correct.

I asked for a letter confirming this and they struggled to get that right as well. Finally got a written apology from a senior manager for their dealers and his colleagues incompetence.

Just need to find a competent dealer now for my service next June. HELP
 

Jarre

Active Member
Dec 9, 2011
5,365
11
Stockton-On-Tees
If you had any complex warranty claim then I wouldn't speak to the dealer anyway, I'd deal through SEAT UK, as I had to do last December.

At the end of the day you will service it when your car tells you to. If the car is on long life now, it will have been when it was delivered to the dealer, so the service book, in the front, should have long life ticked rather than time/distance. If the service book says long life and the car is set to long life then nor the dealer or SEAT uk would be able to argue you should have had time/distance service.
 

Fred99

Active Member
Sep 21, 2013
448
1
Granada, Southern Spain
The important thing to note is the simple fact that the MAX distance/time on the longlife schedule is 2 years/20,000 miles.

Also remember since the longlife schedule is condition based even if you do a low mileage many short journeys may make the indicator on your dash come on well before the 20,000 miles or 2 years. That is why for low mileage users the fixed time/distance is the best to go for. .

I am struggling to understand this.

All things being equal (which of course they aren't) having it serviced every 2 years should work out cheaper than every year even if you do a low mileage.

I can see that lots of short round town journeys would increase the need for a service because of the usage characteristics and under these circumstances the 0ne year option would be more appropriate.

I do about 5000 miles a year but they are nearly all motorway journeys of at least 15 miles at 75mph. Which service would be best under those circumstances? It's a 1.4TSI
 
Last edited:
Jun 15, 2013
268
2
I am struggling to understand this.

All things being equal (which of course they aren't) having it serviced every 2 years should work out cheaper than every year even if you do a low mileage.

I can see that lots of short round town journeys would increase the need for a service because of the usage characteristics and under these circumstances the 0ne year option would be more appropriate.

I do about 5000 miles a year but they are nearly all motorway journeys of at least 15 miles at 75mph. Which service would be best under those circumstances? It's a 1.4TSI

Just go to the link in my post #30

Seat state that if you do less than 12,000 miles a year you should be on fixed and not flexible intervals.

Also remember that the 2 year flexible service is way more expensive that the 2 year fixed service. OK, you will also have to pay for a 1 year fixed service but overall to a low mileage user the cost difference is minimal.

Also must say that it astonishes me that when people pay £15,000 plus for a car they resent paying money to maintain it correctly. If you want to maintain a car like a banger i.e. wait for it to break buy a banger.
 
Jun 15, 2013
268
2
I'd service it once a year. I wouldn't want oil in my car for 2 years!

When I had my BMW 1 series it was flexible servicing regardless of mileage. That meant every 2 years for me. Being a bit old school I like to change my oil more frequently than that, probably over the top with modern oils but changing it will do no harm provided the oil is the correct spec. To make the job simple I bought a Pela oil suction device, hot oil was sucked out of the sump via the tube in about 5 minutes. No mess and simply replace with the correct BMW LL04 oil. I accept it did not get 100% of the oil out but it was better than nothing and far easier than removing the engine shield etc to access the sump plug.

My Leon is on fixed intervals thus the Pela will not be required.
 

Fred99

Active Member
Sep 21, 2013
448
1
Granada, Southern Spain
Just go to the link in my post #30

Seat state that if you do less than 12,000 miles a year you should be on fixed and not flexible intervals.

Also remember that the 2 year flexible service is way more expensive that the 2 year fixed service. OK, you will also have to pay for a 1 year fixed service but overall to a low mileage user the cost difference is minimal.

Also must say that it astonishes me that when people pay £15,000 plus for a car they resent paying money to maintain it correctly. If you want to maintain a car like a banger i.e. wait for it to break buy a banger.

It may be different in Spain as they don't seem to have fixed price servicing. They just charge for labour and materials. The labour charge is only about £35/hr plus vat so the cost is pretty low. They also always give 40% discount on the expensive oil.

I agree with you about paying for a regular service. When I gave my 14 year old Leon to the dealer under the government replacement plan they had never seen a car that old with a full dealer service record! The Spanish never seem to service their cars after the warranty runs out!

I know what SEAT recommend but my point was that I have an unusual driver profile by driving a relatively low annual mileage but all of it at motorway speed and in Spain you never get start stop driving on motorways.

As a matter of interest, you say that a 2 year service is much more expensive than a one year service - how much more?
 

AJ

Active Member
Oct 16, 2013
250
3
The general idea is you check your oil regularly, I do it every couple of weeks and if and when it gets down to the midway point between top and bottom marks I add some oil. Waiting for the light to come on can be like Russian Roulette especially since some cars do not have oil level lights.

Good call about checking the oil regularly but its something I have never got into the habit of doing :)

As my current A3 does have the low oil warning light which comes up in the DIS (and I assume the Mk3 Leon will have this too) I tend to rely on this as an indication when I need to top up the oil and the system is spot on TBH. Everytime the light comes on and I check the oil there is always a bit over the min mark on the dip stick. So this works well for me, although a lazy way. But it has not caused any issues for me and after having covered 110k miles the engine is still running perfectly :)


If the oil pressure light comes on its probably too late to add oil, best to PX it immediately.
I have never seen an oil pressure light come on though, what does this look like?
 
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