Apparently the recent S3 models have the long life service option!!!! The electronic chip decides when you go to service for an oil change!!! When the car had 800km it said that I should go in 10800km: Now that I have 3000km and have gone for a trip it says 20400Km not bad.!!!!! THE PROBLEM ¡!! Now that I have to do a bit of a refill no official AUDI dealer has this OIL VW 503 01 (the oil that is indicated in the owners manual)!!!! Do any of you have the same problem and what was your solution??

My S3 has 500k and i plan to change oils on 1500k but the dealer here in greece told me that the oil VW 503 01 is not yet for sale ut least here in Greece. However if you must add some oil (up to 0,5L) you can do it without losing the Long life service schedule(Audi's opinion). My question is what will happen if we reach the 15000 thous K and the oil isnt still availiable?

Well, my 1.9TDI has 2000KM and the computer says:

"SERVICE IN 41000 KM" so I think I will go on holiday with the money saved from oil refilling :)

I have sent an Email to Audi and am waiting for an answser!!! Maybe you should send an email too. As soon as I have an answser I`ll post-it.

Moritz S3. monaco red

What is this long life oil, just a good grade of synthetic perhaps???

My wife got her A3 1.8T in 9/99 and the handbook states that this model qualifies for the long life service, as long as VW-503-00/01 oil is used. The local UK dealer had never heard of this spec. They said they would use Synta Gold at the service - which doesn't meet the new spec.

Contacted Audi UK and they said that the long life service interval was not agreed with the UK. Gave me some story about how it doesn't suit fleet car managers, who need to plan their servicing costs. Audi UK don't currently have the oil and are "discussing this with Germany". This presumably applies to S3 and TT owners as well. They said they would be notifying their dealers that the long life service is not supported, although I haven't heard anything about this from my dealer. I'm sticking with the long life service, it's what the service manual states.

Castrol say that their Formula SLX meets 503 00/01 spec, although it's not listed on the container. It's a workshop grade oil which means you'll probably only find it at dealers in refill size packs. I'm using this for topping up.

I reckon it's important to get the oil right, especially in turbo charged and high performance engines. Audi have messed up here.

paul.