Thoughts On Yearly Maintenance by VW

[MK7_Grip]

So what's everyone's opinion on the yearly maintenance offered by VW? My car is a 2016 GolfR 6spd, I've owned the car for two years and my Certified Pre Owned warranty just expired. The car currently is sitting at 21K miles. Last year I dropped the car off for yearly maintenance and VW performed the 40k miles maintenance on the car. This year when I contacted VW for an oil change they pointed out I was due for maintenance and wanted to performance the 50K miles service. I told them lets hold off for now but do you guys think it's worth it to continue with the VW maintenance schedule? Since owning the car I've only put 12,000 miles on it and that would mean next year I would receive the 60k service at around 27K miles. It just kinda feels like the dealership is trying to get extra money out of me. Over the last year, I've done an oil change, had my Haldex serviced, and re-main was replaced while doing a clutch job.

All the other cars I've owned have been Japanese and I typically just wait for the service interval to come up before actually doing it. Being the car is german (but extremely reliable so far) I'm not sure if I should stick to the same philosophy. Thoughts?

 

[scrllock]

The official 50k maintenance is an oil change and tire rotation. Do that whenever your oil has either 5k miles or 6 months on it, whichever comes first.

The accelerated intervals seem silly to me on a stock car (I assume since you mention CPO). Your warranty should still be intact even if you have service done elsewhere, I'd find a good, honest independent shop and just follow their recommendations. It would be silly to pay a dealer for a spark plug job at 27k given it only takes 10 minutes to pull them for inspection and that's half their recommended interval.

 

[Gray_Panther]

2016 GTI here. Running very strong and here is my maintenance so far:
Oil change every 7k miles
Bleed brakes every three years to prevent calipers from rusting out from inside and eventually seizing.
Transmission fluid change at 30k and 60k miles with VW GTI OEM fluid. Won’t need to do it again until 120k.
All four brakes at 50k
Spark plugs at 59k
Tires get rotated whenever switch between winter and summer setup.
GTI is sitting at 61k.
Coolant flush should be done every 8-10 years unless your waterpump gives out.
Carbon intake cleaning whenever misfires start occurring and it’s not ignition coils or spark plugs causing the misfires.
These cars are easy, reliable and strong. Except for the clutches if you like burnouts or abusing them!

 

[draftgli]

Most of the scheduled maint can be done at home with basic tools and knowledge. Generally, anything that I can reasonably tackle at home without too much effort I do myself. Anything that is over my head (or I just don’t feel like doing) I take it in. Only took it in once last year for the diff service and figured I’d have them bleed the brakes while it was there. If it were me, I wouldn’t keep taking it there for every little thing.

 

[avenali312]

The official 50k maintenance is an oil change and tire rotation. Do that whenever your oil has either 5k miles or 6 months on it, whichever comes first.

The accelerated intervals seem silly to me on a stock car (I assume since you mention CPO).

You mention the accelerated schedule is silly, but recommend an accelerated schedule haha.

I don't drive 10k miles in a year (the recommended mileage maintenance interval), so I have my oil and filter changed annually (the time based maintenance interval). I've sent in my last three oil samples and all of them have come back saying that I could push it to 10k miles without worrying about the annual timing (unless it's a really, really long time). It would take me about 16-18 months to hit the 10k. I'll still keep with the annual maintenance though just to have things like CV boots, hoses, and other preventative stuff checked over.

With all of that said, I don't go to the dealer for regular maintenance. I have a couple of Euro indie shops that I prefer and only go to the dealer for warranty work. This was also the case when I was still in warranty. Just save your receipts and all proof of work.

 

[scrllock]

You mention the accelerated schedule is silly, but recommend an accelerated schedule haha.

It would not be silly to change your oil regularly. It would be a little overkill to do the 60k service soon.

 

[avenali312]

It would not be silly to change your oil regularly. It would be a little overkill to do the 60k service soon.

Twice as often as what VW recommends on a stock drivetrain though? I know this is a debate here and all, and my MKV was a 5k interval, but whenever I read these kinds of statements I feel like people think there's a conspiracy where VW wants you to grenade your engine with a longer service interval.

 

[draftgli]

Twice as often as what VW recommends on a stock drivetrain though? I know this is a debate here and all, and my MKV was a 5k interval, but whenever I read these kinds of statements I feel like people think there's a conspiracy where VW wants you to grenade your engine with a longer service interval.

I don’t think it’s a necessarily a conspiracy. If it is, I doubt it is in that way.

Rather, I suspect VW has assessed that Americans are both cheap and lazy. If VW found a way to both decrease the cost of ownership (on paper), and also decrease the frequency of service, that’s a monster win win for VW to drive more sales in the US.

I’m no expert on oil and engine technology. That said, I doubt that the technology has improved so drastically, as to justify doubling the service interval. I concede that I could be wrong.

Me, I’ll stick with the tried and true 5k/6mo oil change interval, and sleep well at night. Besides, it’s not like it’s expensive to do, nor is it time consuming. And, if you use fcp, it’s almost free. No brainer if you ask me.

 

[avenali312]

I don’t think it’s a necessarily a conspiracy. If it is, I doubt it is in that way.

Rather, I suspect VW has assessed that Americans are both cheap and lazy. If VW found a way to both decrease the cost of ownership (on paper), and also decrease the frequency of service, that’s a monster win win for VW to drive more sales in the US.

I’m no expert on oil and engine technology. That said, I doubt that the technology has improved so drastically, as to justify doubling the service interval. I concede that I could be wrong.

Me, I’ll stick with the tried and true 5k/6mo oil change interval, and sleep well at night. Besides, it’s not like it’s expensive to do, nor is it time consuming. And, if you use fcp, it’s almost free. No brainer if you ask me.

Oh, it's 100% partly laziness haha. I, like a lot of Americans as you mentioned, don't have a ton of free time. It's much easier for me to go to my indie Euro shop over lunch at work and get the oil changed with a minimal labor charge every year (and my oil analysis reports aren't showing anything detrimental at this point). Could that change in the future? Sure (at which point I'll switch sides to the conspiracy theorists haha). But until then, I'll follow the book.

 

[mhouck]

I've always done 10k mile intervals, always on stock cars, never abused. Hell my 100k mile GTI has been in sport mode maybe 4 times? I suppose more frequently if your car is tuned or beaten on makes more sense, but for the stock folks, zero reason to do it more frequently.