Does nothing light up on the dashboard for low oil then? All I ever get is the service required message after 9500 miles
Your car is on VAG’s fixed (annual time and distance) service regime which is why it shows the ‘service required’ message after 9,500 miles. I seem to remember that service intervals on VAG’s fixed servicing regime is the sooner of 12 months or 15k kilometres - converting 15k km’s to miles is 9,320 miles so VAG have probably rounded this to the nearest 500 miles, hence the message appearing at 9,500 rather than 9,320 miles.
As for a low oil level warning light - I find the best and easiest way to know what the engine oil level is is to use the old school method of regularly checking the level on the dipstick. I do this when I clean my car (usually every couple of weeks) and along with checking the coolant level it takes no more than a couple of minutes to do these under-bonnet checks. If my car’s engine oil was getting low, then I’d prefer to know this in advance of a warning light telling me it’s dropped to the minimum level; IMHO proactive is better than reactive.
I’m aware that with VW, some (all?) models of the current Golf no longer have a dipstick (that might also be the case with the latest generation of Seats and Cupras) - owners are expected to rely on a low level warning light on the instrument display; extreme penny pinching by VW IMHO not to fit a dipstick. The dipstick tube on the engine block is still there but VW have decided to fit a blanking cap over the top of the tube rather than provide a dipstick. I’m aware of an owner of a new Golf on one of the Golf forums who’s removed the cap and fitted a dipstick which they were able to buy from their dealership’s parts department, although if doing this it would be vitally important to ensure it’s the correct dipstick for the engine, otherwise any oil readings taken might be incorrect!
