My car is due a service in 400 miles and I was planning on going down to torquay next week (540mile round trip). Is it best to get it done early or just wait until the service light comes on? Also a few weeks back I had the glow plug light flash once while driving and go out again. It hasn’t come on again since so I’ve thought nothing more of it. Should I get the glow plugs checked? 2002 Audi A6 1.9 tdi

Anybody had a Terraclean service done on there diesel car?

+/- 150 miles will make no difference

They might read off the fault codes whilst its there, might tell you why it flashed.

No idea, i never use those flushing solutions or engine cleaners, seems like a recipie for washing crud into bits of the engine that wont appreciate it. Stick some redex or similar in if youre worried.

Minimum before a big trip obviously check tyre pressures lights/levels etc but if your not particularly technical having the service done and the safety check would give you peice of mine.
No one want to be broke down on the side of the road in shitty weather in the middle of no where, from a snapped altanator belt that could have been spotted as split/cracked pre road trip.

Id always service early.

I service at 8k on my 10k interval car.

Keen ear detects that it gets clattery(old style non common rail tractor diesel) and the oil comes out thin if i run it to 9k,

What ,akes you want to terraclean it ? Wouldnt stick it near my car.

I wouldn’t worry too much. Get it done if you get chance but don’t panic if you don’t.

Thanks for the input everyone. It runs well 167K miles, so I may just stick a Redex in it before I fill the tank up. It needs an MOT in January so I may just leave it until then and get both done together.

Someone recommend the terraclean, I was just wondering if anyone had got it done.

Unless your car is failing its MOT based on emissions, at 167k, I’d leave well enough alone.

As someone said ^ if it’s got to that mileage I wouldn’t be messing about with magic in a bottle stuff in the fuel or oil system, cleaners by their nature are designed to break down or remove dirt the grim that’s in your fuel/oil system isn’t doing any harm at the min and I could bore you with story’s of diesel injectiors seizing after overzealous fuel additives and piston rings sticking after miracle engine cleaners.
Check the lights/levels and top is as ness if your not going to service it.

Engine oil flushing is one thing I would never do. If you have ever added a small amount of WD40 (ie thin aggressive solvent) to a bike chain then you will see how little thin oil it takes to massively change a thicker oil. Flushing oils might be great for cleaning engines, but I worry about the 5% that remains even after a thorough drain. So I just change the oil at regular intervals instead and never flush. Petrol additives I am less than convinced about. My FSI has had injector problems this year and injector cleaner made zero difference.

Only oil related frequent(ish) failures on that engine at that age is the turbo usually due to a blocked or at least narrowed oil feed pipe. Regular changes keep it clear, taking it off and cleaning it is one to two hours work.

I wouldn’t recommend oil treatments and havin work done before a trip probably increases the likelihood of breakdown although you would hope most garages will get an oil change right.

My car is due a service in 400 miles and I was planning on going down to torquay next week (540mile round trip).

Get it done before, why wouldn’t you?

I’d not worry about the service but there’s post after post on the Skoda forum of people who have had terracleans and it essentially ruined their car. I would definitely avoid.