Service Intervals

[Petrolthreads]

Hi all first post, sorry in advance,

I'm after an Avant, got to get back to the fold having previously run an B6 S4, just a quick question.

The car I viewed today only has one stamp in the book at 17,500 miles it's being serviced this week at 34,500, is this ok? just seemed like a long way between services.

I know when I bought my M3 there way a big concern over running in services not carried out at 1200.

Any help appreciated because I want to buy it.

[W8PMC]

It's not a problem as the car is obviously on variable servicing so every 16-18000 miles is normal & my car is on the same service schedule. I'm on 45K miles now & the car's only had 2 services with the 3rd due in about 8000 miles.

In an ideal world the car would benefit from an oil change every 6K miles, but Audi obviously designed the car to cope with longer service intervals so nothing to worry about.

BMW M's are a little differnet (i had an E60 M5), as the car's are shipped with a break in oil for the engine & gearbox (different viscosity), so the 1200 mile service it to remove this & replace with regular oil.

[Petrolthreads]

Thank you for the feedback, presumably is you do change the oil yourself it has to be synthetic of a certain grade to keep your warranty?

[SR71]

I'm not sure I quite agree with W8PMC.

The AVS schedule algorithm does, indeed, seem to throw up extremely long service intervals for the car. Mine is coming up for AVS2 with almost 28K on it...

However, just so you are aware, there are concerns within the RS community with the longevity of the VW504 oil when used in this particular car. You can do the research and see for yourself what owners on here are tending to do. Perhaps it would be fair to say, most of us on here, for the sake of a few quid in oil, change our oil alot more frequently as Paul alludes to...

The problem is not just concerns about the ability of the oil to do its job, but also, the secondary effects "unhealthy" oil has on this design.

So whilst I am sure that Audi did design the car to go these long intervals, whether or not it is sensible is open for debate.

And, of course, we know that, sometimes, the design gurus do get it wrong.

Again, many would point you in the direction of the DRC design to justify the aforementioned comment.

So in conclusion, the schedule is probably spot on and you will, of course, always have recourse to Audi with this being the case, but hopefully the owner changed the oil a little more frequently even if that isn't in the book (although I make sure all such changes are in the book.).

[SR71]

PS: Approved oil is VW504. Fully synthetic 5w-30.

[P_G]

Just to add weight to W8PMC's comment my RS4 only had it's 3rd AVS at 48,500 miles, previously at 16,000 and 32,000 miles. I am however just about to independently change my oil at 55,000 miles and will continue to change my oil every 5-8k miles now just to maintain engine longevity once I have an oil drain tank big enough to hold 10 litres of oil!

[Petrolthreads]

Thanks all for the advice, I would agree that while it's in my care an oild change in between services as a minimum will be in order.

[mip]

I just switched mine to fixed intervals as I will be doing so few miles a year i would rather get it done yearly

[Petrolthreads]

Interestingly the indicator has just popped up after the service last week, and says !4,000 miles. It might be me just enjoying it a little too much of course.