The usage of the Polo has dropped dramatically over the last few months.
BHPian fluidicjoy recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
My Polo 1.0 TSI’s 1st Oil Change Service
So our car went in for its first oil change service today. Sadly, the usage has dramatically dropped over the last few months since I moved away for my Masters. My dad rotates the Polo and Tiguan, and so I was slightly lazy to get the car serviced on exactly the first-year mark. There were no new issues to be specifically sorted out on the Polo during this service.
Dealer Scenario in Pune
Earlier, we had two different sets of dealers in Pune, Vidyut Motors and BU Bhandari. Vidyut Motors shut shop last year, and their Sales and Service Facility in the heart of Pune was taken over by BU Bhandari. In the last few years, we had switched to BU Bhandari from Vidyut Motors for service, because of a few positive experiences and good rapport with their service team. The only downside for someone like us living in a small suburb on the outskirts of town, was that the BU Bhandari Service Centre was about 16kms away via the highway, which is about a 30 mins morning drive, or a 50 mins drive back in the evening when the Hinjewadi IT park traffic starts to peak. My father is a doctor and fully self-driven, just doesn’t have the time to drop off the car or bother about the service needs of each car, and hence like a lot of individuals, prefers the Pick-Up and Drop service. When I would drive the car for service, I’d prefer to take the nice drive along the highway to BU Bhandari Wakad, and I’d usually stay and watch the car scanned, serviced and billed and then I’d drive back unless there was something that would need more time and I’d have to Uber back. Now that I wasn’t going to do this myself, sending the car far off to Wakad seemed like a bad proposition. Luckily, the nearer service centre in the city is now associated with BU Bhandari too, and so that’s where we sent our Polo this time. The Polo was picked up when the Tiguan was dropped from service, and you can read about the Tiguan service experience on the Tiguan Diesel Official Thread, once I pen it down and upload it.
Instructions To The Service Advisor
I called the Service Advisor and strictly asked for only the mandatory service operations to be performed. I specifically asked for No Wheel Alignment, No Wheel Balancing, No Tyre Rotation (since I was a little sceptical about the car’s handling and TPMS system too, but I’ll make a separate post on this) and No Dashboard Polishing. I gave the instructions once and wanted to see how the Service Advisor would deal with these instructions since this is what will be happening to a lot of customers who do not know about the small bits and bobs that a service advisor might slide into the bill for maximising dealer profits.
VW Service Cost Calculator
Thankfully, we now have a VW Service cost calculator on the VW India website for a quick assessment of what should be done and should not be done during the service. As per the site, the First Year Service at 1 year or 15,000 km, whichever is earlier the Engine Oil, Engine Oil Filter, Cabin AC (Dust and Pollen Filter) will need replacement. The engine air filter seems to be recommended to be reused during this service since it was not billed in the service bill on the website. This seems to be billed only on the 2nd Year or 30,000 km service, a snapshot of which has been attached here.
To access further service and repair costs, please refer to this link below, which is working as of now. If it is rerouted, then the Service Cost Calculator should be available on Volkswagen India. You can access it from this link.
VW Service Camera
I have seen this feature is used only for the Dialogue Reception to inspect the vehicle, and never after that. This video let me have a look at everything the Service Advisor checked while making the vehicle inventory. This is a good tool to see the condition of all your trims and how the service advisor inspects them. After seeing the video, I dare say I found the handling of the trims to be fairly rough and panic-inducing. Thankfully, if anything breaks on camera, we can push for replacements due to the proof they generate.
I would have loved to see more service-specific footage on this VW Service Camera feed, and it would be nice if any users who have experienced this to chip in and share how that feature works e.g vehicle needs replacement of brake pads etc.
Service And Parts Used
I think the service went just fine for the most part. The technicians had to remove the underbody stone guard before they could drain the old oil and remove the bottom facing oil filter on this engine. I believe for a DIYer, this design change to the bottom facing Oil Filter has a benefit over the previous engine since there was always a chance of spilling some old oil in the alternator in the previous upward-facing oil filter on the CBZB 1.2 TSI and even a friend’s MPI which I once got to service.
The oil filter needs a cup type socket to be removed. If you want to procure the VAG Tool, it is a VAG 3417, but a 74mm Cup Type Socket or a Belt/Chain drive oil filter tool will work out a lot cheaper and should get the same job done.
The advisor said that the technician was pleasantly surprised that it was a lot easier to remove and refit the air filter because of the RacingLine Turbo Inlet I had installed on the car, but it was my experience that because of the sheer volume of this 1.0 TSI Engine, the technicians have regardless gotten a lot faster with even the stock clamp based design on this new air intake box. Well, practice surely does make man perfect!
Parts With Billed Prices (inclusive of taxes)
- Oil Filter – 04E 115 561 H – Rs. 99
- Engine Air Filter – 04C129620H – Rs. 314
- Cabin Air Filter – 6R0820367 – Rs. 368
- Washer – N 013 8158 – Rs. 103.01
- Drain Plug – N 90288901 – Rs. 155
The drain plug on the stock engine is not reusable and is designed to be chucked. The new drain plug should now be reused by replacing only the washer each time. I read this in the service manual for this new engine and have attached snippets below. That being said, it would be nice if the cost of the washer came down since I feel a crush gasket is too expensive at Rs 100 and maybe this will happen in good time.
Optional Items (Optional as per the website, but the folks here added them regardless)
- Lubricant Spray* – G052778A2 – Rs. 745
- Windscreen Cleaner* – G052164M1 – Rs. 327
These optional items should not be pushed to you and you should be able to strike them off as unnecessary. If the service team gets pushy, call Volkswagen India and raise your concern. You will notice it increases the bill amount by Rs. 1000 even though you might just be better off without it. However, these additives would be of greater value to you if you live in colder regions with really icy conditions since the descriptions of both are as follows:
OEM Volkswagen lock lubricant works to loosen up sticky locks and to aid against frozen lock cylinders. Suitable for any VW car.
Windshield Cleaner has an anti-freeze component with a specific dilution ratio for harsh winters. However, under no circumstance should you be billed this item without them including the leftover item to you, since it cannot be emptied into your vehicle all at once. If this is the case, then you’re perhaps being billed fleeced.
Warranty Campaigns For 1.0 TSI and Suspension
VW has been performing software updates (presumably to the 1.0 TSI ECU) and the service advisor called me asking me if I wanted to go ahead with it. He said he wanted to double-check since he was concerned about the numerous feature retrofits performed and did not want me to lose any functionality due to his update I assured him that it was irrelevant and that he could go ahead with the ECU update. I recently spoke to my friend and BHPian Haritabh who confirmed that the campaign was legit since he lost all of the goodness from his remap after his recent second service.
The advisor also informed me about a greasing campaign for the suspension and I also gave him the go-ahead for that. This is the spray that they used for the campaign.
Throwback To The Air Filter
When the 1.2L GT TSI was launched in India a few years back, quite a lot of users noticed a drop in performance after their first service and it was quickly attributed to the quality of the Cylindrical Air-filter element. The one that came with the car was made abroad, while the replacement was cheaper and made in India by LUMAX.
I can’t comment on the performance yet, but the very same thing has happened to the 1.0 L TSI and this is unsurprising since this engine is now fairly localised and doing duties in a variety of India specific cars like the Taigun, Slavia, Virtus, Kushaq. The stock air filter I opened and serviced was made in Italy. You can have a look at the Air Filter service here.
The newer filter, as expected is proudly Made in India by LUMAX, but only spirited drivers can comment on how much difference it has or has not made to the performance. If there’s no perceptible performance drop, then it’s a big win for the localisation of this part since this is the new bread and butter VW engine.
Battery Test Report
I had a gut feeling it’d be bad, considering the amazing reputation VW’s OEM batteries have, but the battery test report checked out and I didn’t have to plead for a new battery. That being said, the original battery has a 2 Year Warranty, so make sure you service your car within the two year mark, so you can push for a new battery if it fails within the battery warranty period. I learnt this the hard way with our Tiguan and I’ll share it soon.
Oil Grade Talk – To be taken with a pinch of salt – Conclusion At The End
Frankly, it is my conclusion that VW India themselves are confused about what engine oil is to be used in these new-age Petrol engines. I say this for a couple of reasons. From what I’ve been hearing, dealers have been using different engine oils for different vehicles in different cities. I know quite a few T-Roc and the Tiguan All-Space who have specifically seen the use of 0W-20 Engine oils in their new TSI engines. I have also seen dealers in different cities use 5W-40 in these cars as well.
From what I had seen earlier, the 0W-20 G S60 577 M2 Engine Oil for the AllSpace and T-Roc was slightly more expensive at about Rs. 900 a litre, but now even that has come down to Rs. 555/Litre (without taxes). I saw this on the service calculator which shows the same flat rate for all Petrol Engines in the VAG group.
I had previously found a bulletin stating that the new engine in the Polo (Engine Code DSHA) should be using the new 0W-20 VW group oil grade. I brought this up again with the Master Technician at the dealership. He acknowledged that he did see a global bulletin that said that the new engine along with the engine code for the Polo (DSHA) was listed to use 0W-20, but he also explicitly stated that VW India had not yet instructed them to switch to the new oil grade for the Polo and that 0W-20 was still reserved for the AllSpace and T-Roc, despite the price cuts.
From his experience, he commented that the factory fill was perhaps a 0W-20 since it seemed fairly thinner and was listed as a Light Engine Oil internally. He believed that VW India was picking 5W-40 over 0W-20 because of slightly better NVH by trading some fuel efficiency, which seems fair since the 3 Cylinder isn’t exactly the most refined engine at slow speeds.
But what puzzles me is if the imported T-Roc (1.5 TSI) and AllSpace are using 0W-20, then why are the newer India spec 1.5 TSI cars using 5W-40. A friend of mine, Kiran demanded 0W-20 from the dealership and has been using it on his Polo. He felt the performance was just as good, but claimed a higher efficiency figure, but this could just be a consequence of an annual service with new filters and new engine oil, so this one case is hardly proof of improvement.
The 1.0 TSI still has a minimum VW Spec 502 which is met by the VW Special Gasoline Engine Oil available in 5W-40. The Master Technician said that the change might just happen over a period of a few months or even a few years, as they localise the manufacturing of the 0W-20 oil grade. So for now, it was better to stick to what their higher management was pushing, which was 5W-40 meeting a minimum of VW 502, which is what a majority of folks I’ve spoken to have been using without no problems whatsoever.
Being too involved with any sort of technicality can prove to be a headache. I feel it’s sometimes best to be blissfully unaware and deal with changes as they occur. Since we all have a long warranty up ahead, we anyway have to stick to our dealership regardless of whatever oil they choose to put in our engines. So to call it a day, the dealership used VW 502 compliant 5W-40 engine oil and from the engine oil part number suffix on the invoice (M9), it perhaps came from a drum.
Disclaimer: Please refer to your owner’s manual and stick to your manufacturer ratings for the longevity of your engine, since the manufacturer warranty would be valid only if the car is serviced as per the guidelines received by the dealer. What I might have found, read and shared online may or may not be correct, but sadly in our country, only the action of an authorised dealer is the supreme seal for retaining your warranty.
Ending Remarks
It was a fairly routine service experience but slightly disappointed to see them push unnecessary expenses. I noticed this exact same trend during the Tiguan service. If you’re a customer on your feet and have the time to hammer a service advisor for unnecessary attempts to fleece you, then please do take advantage of the fairly reduced service costs from the VAG group, but it doesn’t mean that the dealership will stop trying to make more money off you. In my case, the Windshield Cleaner was not returned to me, making me believe it was simply billed.
Post Wash Photos
I received the following pictures from the service advisor’s phone. A big thanks to Shivam, who was my advisor for service, but I’d have loved it if he didn’t bill me for the Windshield Cleaner and Lock Spray lubricant. The Sunset Red seems to look different in almost every picture, but it’s still a gem of colour to see in person. I’m glad I went with Sunset Red.
Warranty Remarks?
The advisor said there were just too many upgrades to make a list about but since there was no trouble in the car that needed attention and everything that he could see and touch was OEM, he was happy to let it slide. In fact, he was more curious in learning more about the nature of the upgrades and if they could be done on a few other cars.
My Polo has had quite a few developments, which I haven’t had time to sit and share, but I’ll be writing about them, slowly but steadily! What doesn’t fail to amuse me though, is how much people still love the Polo, me included! There’s always a lot to hate, but so much more to love about this car! Polo you will be missed as the PQ25 production comes to a halt sometime this year, but I’m sure there’ll be bigger and better things in the near future!
Keyword: Volkswagen Polo service experience: 1st oil change & other repairs