I have a 1.3 diesel its done just under 5K miles and is approaching its annual service rather than the 18K trigger. The mileage is made up of long distance trips at the weekend and city driving.
I understand that there is a low milage service for all cars which essentially keeps the car under warranty and as mines a diesel it will tell me when the oil needs changing.
My dialema is do I pay for a full service or do I pay for a low milage one and then hope my car lasts more than another year before it descides it needs an oil change ? Im guessing that the combined cost of a low milage service (~£120) and oil change (~£90) (any one got better numbers?)would be more than a standard annual service. I would certanly concider changing the oil and filter myself using the proper stuff but I'm guessing that reseting the oil change feature requires a professional piece of equipment rather than a few buttons on the dash.

Can the dealer tell if the diesel is due an oil change ? I assume the software logs the number of DPF regenerations to determine if the oil is to "used" and I wondered if the car would tell the dealer if it was more than 50% "used" based on my current driving style continueing.

This isnt neccessarly a cost cutting question I understand the need to maintain a full service history but this car has a time/mileage serivce interval and a separate oil replacement regime. Dealing with both cost effectivly is all im after.
It may just be easiler to do a full service each year -which sort of negates the 18K intervals.

Jake

dealer can tell through examiner if oil needs/or soon will be needing oil change.

my advice (for what its worth) is ignore low mileage services & get the car serviced fully, afterall it costs you enough to buy so looking after it is of high inportance.....& yes the service counter has to be reset through examiner and the ECU also has to be told it has had a oil change.

T14086 said:

dealer can tell through examiner if oil needs/or soon will be needing oil change.

my advice (for what its worth) is ignore low mileage services & get the car serviced fully, afterall it costs you enough to buy so looking after it is of high inportance.....& yes the service counter has to be reset through examiner and the ECU also has to be told it has had a oil change.

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Thanks I always have done it that way in the passed with other cars however the additonal oil usage on this car confussed the issue slightly !

low milage service includes oil change

RobW said:

low milage service includes oil change

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Except for DPF equipped engines where the ECU software determines when the oil needs changing.

Regarding the original question- I can't speak for other Dealers, but we always go in on Examiner before doing a service on a DPF vehicle, record the level of oil degradation/number of miles left until it needs changing, and relay that info to the customer.

That way, if it looks like it'll need changing before the next service, the customer is aware and can make the choice.

I have just booked my diesel in for its first serive and taken the full service (£170) rather than the low mileage option. I was advised that the a low mileage option would be best taken on the second year as the price for that one is £322 presumably because it replaces the brake fluid and fuel filters.

Jake