Oil changes

[Sunny43.5]

I hope people can see this video , it reminds me of how stupid VW was to build the Tiptronic auto and say it never needed servicing "Sealed for Life "yes I know engine oil is a different viscocity but I know what our auto fluid looked like after it died and it wasn,t far off the same as this . Car Throttle - Spoiler alert: 90k miles without an oil...

[gldgti]

Every major manufacturer says "sealed for life" on some of its cars transmissions these days, its more common than not. And unfortunately, it has always been mis-interpreted. Sealed for life means a lot to a fleet customer, and to them its true. Sealed for the warranty period? Sure.

PS - VW didnt build the tiptronic, ZF did.

[Sunny43.5]

Not really caring who built it VW fitted it Sold it and then ignored it , I was in contact with VW here in Australia and no mattter who you spoke to not one of VW,s people knew what sealed for life meant . I asked for a time frame or kilometres travelled and each time I only got vague answers or just total inability to give an answer . If someone asks me what is life well my answer would be until it's death , so to me it means when the car has reached a point of no longer being a driveable then thats probably life , NOT 120000km . PS ours was reported to VW at 65000 with problems and thats when they told me about Sealed for life .

[feenix74]

The Golf Mk3 digital odometer resets to zero at 300,000 km therefore I assume that means that VW's design life for the Mk3 was 300,000 kms. Unfortunately, I agree with you Sunny that falls far short of what I consider what the life of a VW should be. If would be certainly interest to test this Sealed For Life claim/guarantee through Fair Trading/Consumer Affairs, noting their particular emphasis on the car industry practices at the moment.

[Sunny43.5]

The Golf Mk3 digital odometer resets to zero at 300,000 km therefore I assume that means that VW's design life for the Mk3 was 300,000 kms. Unfortunately, I agree with you Sunny that falls far short of what I consider what the life should be .

I think that sort of thing with the reset of the speedo smells of that famous expression coined back in the early 1900's Planned Obsolecence . Apparently there is a light bulb in a fire station in New York that has been on and still working since fitting back in those days , apparently they used to last so well that bulb makers decided to decrease their life span so as to sell more bulbs hence Planned Obsolecence , car makers maybe are still using that philosophy .

[feenix74]

Absolutely, it is certainly part of modern engineering design that all machines and even buildings are designed to meet a "design lifespan". What is considered "good engineering" is to be able to engineer a component or an entire system so that it reliably and consistently meets the design lifespan requirement and then fails soon after, therefore the component or system can be built in the most economic way possible.

"The optimist says the glass is half full, the pessimist says that the glass is half empty, the engineer says that the glass is twice as big as it has to be."