turbocharged798
Veteran Member
All MK4s (except 99.5s[more on that later]) have a service interval reminder built into the cluster. For some reason it is turned off for the US spec cars. It is possible, however, to turn it on with VCDS pretty easily. IMO, this is a GREAT feature and I cannot figure out for the life of me why VW turned it off for the US cars. Makes keeping track of oil changes MUCH easier.
To turn it on, fire up VCDS and go to 17-instruments, go to coding, and the next to last digit will be a 3, to turn on the service interval reminder, replace the 3 with a 0. You can just leave it that and flash the service light after 10,000 miles or 365 days, which ever comes first. At around 8K miles into the oil change, it will display "SERVICE,2000miles and count down from there) At the 10K mark, it will flash SERVICE when the key is turn on for the first 30 sec or so.
You also can go into adaptions and change the time and mileage when the service display come on. It is set at 15K KM and 365 days from the factory.So for example, if you want it to come on for your fuel filter changes instead of oil changes, you can set it to 30K KM and it will come on every 20K miles.
To reset it with VCDS, you can use the SRI reset which work well, or you can go into the adaption and change all the numbers manually, or if you do not have VCDS handy, you do the following; switch off ignition, press and hold the trip. reset button, turn on the ignition while holding the button. The service icon will stop flashing and turn on steady. Turn the clock knob to the right. The cluster will now display the mileage and the service has been reset.You can now turn the ignition back off.
As for the 99.5 cars, they are pretty much out of luck. The physical icon is in the mileage display and will show up when you run output tests in VCDS, but it will not accept the service interval coding. The cluster is simply not capable of doing it. The only way I know to get around it is to swap in a later cluster. It will require modification to make it work(including completely rewiring the air bag light) and probably is not worth it. I have plans on swapping a later MFA cluster into my 99.5 and as a bonus, I should be able to have the service reminder working.
To turn it on, fire up VCDS and go to 17-instruments, go to coding, and the next to last digit will be a 3, to turn on the service interval reminder, replace the 3 with a 0. You can just leave it that and flash the service light after 10,000 miles or 365 days, which ever comes first. At around 8K miles into the oil change, it will display "SERVICE,2000miles and count down from there) At the 10K mark, it will flash SERVICE when the key is turn on for the first 30 sec or so.
You also can go into adaptions and change the time and mileage when the service display come on. It is set at 15K KM and 365 days from the factory.So for example, if you want it to come on for your fuel filter changes instead of oil changes, you can set it to 30K KM and it will come on every 20K miles.
To reset it with VCDS, you can use the SRI reset which work well, or you can go into the adaption and change all the numbers manually, or if you do not have VCDS handy, you do the following; switch off ignition, press and hold the trip. reset button, turn on the ignition while holding the button. The service icon will stop flashing and turn on steady. Turn the clock knob to the right. The cluster will now display the mileage and the service has been reset.You can now turn the ignition back off.
As for the 99.5 cars, they are pretty much out of luck. The physical icon is in the mileage display and will show up when you run output tests in VCDS, but it will not accept the service interval coding. The cluster is simply not capable of doing it. The only way I know to get around it is to swap in a later cluster. It will require modification to make it work(including completely rewiring the air bag light) and probably is not worth it. I have plans on swapping a later MFA cluster into my 99.5 and as a bonus, I should be able to have the service reminder working.
