Slower acceleration after a service

Cheetah Designs

Cheetah Designs

Cheetah Designs

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10 Jul 2006
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Its a 2020 T Roc. 13k miles. My first car, first service - hence the question.

They did/changed the following:
Enginge Flush
Oil Filter
Air Filter
Spark plugs

Driving it back home I couldn't help but think that the acceleration was slower - does that make sense?
 
Cheetah Designs said:
Its a 2020 T Roc. 13k miles. My first car, first service - hence the question.

They did/changed the following:
Enginge Flush
Oil Filter
Air Filter
Spark plugs

Driving it back home I couldn't help but think that the acceleration was slower - does that make sense?
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Yes tyre pressures. Is the pressure on the sticker lower than what you put in?

I have had one put the max pressure on the sidewall moan that his car is sluggish after inflating tyres to the psi on the sticker, we can’t inflate more than what’s on the sticker.
 
I wonder why they didn't change the pollen/cabin filter too. Strange that they changed the spark plugs but not that but cabin filters do get missed off services quite often.

Not that that's actually helping with the question at hand. Is it definitely noticeably slower or are you not sure?
 
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If the spark plugs were changed, would the battery have been disconnected? Wondering if perhaps there's a throttle calibration or fuel trim that has been reset, and that it might improve after a few hundred miles.
 
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Usually cars get faster after a service as the garage often gives them an Italian tune up. Modern smart ECUs respond to the heavy foot and adjust accordingly to the latest driving style.

What’s an engine flush? Is the lease term coming to an end? I presume modern VWs have built in obsolescence which slows the car down towards the end of the lease and force owners to upgrade.
 
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Engine flush and plugs at a 13k service on a 2 year old car seems unusual and would indicate that there was possibly a problem they were trying to diagnose or fix. Is that the case?

Does the car have drive modes? Possibly stuck on an eco setting reducing throttle response?
 
JonRGV250 said:
Why did they change the plugs on a first service???
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It is probably down as "inspect" but charged for a full service (replacement) and looks like they changed them until you look closer at the actual paperwork - seems to be a sneaky thing some main dealers are doing now - though more normally with things like air-filters and wipers than engine mechanical components.

EDIT: If it is a recent car with some kind of finance or certain warranty products, etc. on it then unfortunately there isn't much option but to get a qualifying service on it to maintain the terms of the product.

Scuzi said:
Does the car have drive modes? Possibly stuck on an eco setting reducing throttle response?
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Dunno if the case here but something which annoyed me back around 2011 or so was dealers doing software upgrades which included the changes that were made to the latest version of the car where the normal driving mode/profile has been tweaked to behave more like an eco mode - probably due to emission scandals, etc. I'd imagine a 2020 car already had anything like that if applicable though.
 
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Conscript said:
If the spark plugs were changed, would the battery have been disconnected? Wondering if perhaps there's a throttle calibration or fuel trim that has been reset, and that it might improve after a few hundred miles.
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tom_nieto said:
Modern smart ECUs respond to the heavy foot and adjust accordingly to the latest driving style.
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This isn’t a thing. Fuel trims are done on the fly and there is absolutely no learning involved. They follow a fixed map.

Anything that may get reset with the battery being disconnected would have zero noticeable impact on anything to the driver.
 
Have to say I always notice it with my vehicles post a proper service there is a different feeling - can't really describe it - as if the vehicle operation is tighter but less responsive - after a couple of days of decent trips it starts to loosen up a bit again and feel like it used to. Possibly part of that is due to the oil change.
 
andy_mk3 said:
Anything that may get reset with the battery being disconnected would have zero noticeable impact on anything to the driver.
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Oh I dunno, I get proper grumpy if ever my battery is disconnected, the stations are all cleared from the wireless and I have to wind the bass down on the stereo because the default is too boomy.
 
On my truck AC settings are the only thing which get reset - kind of annoying as I'm usually a mile down the road afterwards before I remember - usually because the temperature is wrong, AC off, and I'm getting blasted with ambient temperature air due to the default fan speed being high :( I really need to remember to check before pulling away after work/service involving that.
 
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