Monday was a rainy day here, and my A3 service was 12 days away, so it was an opportunity to get it done.

Nothing unusual or exceptional – oil/filter change, fluid checks, remove and clean engine and cabin intake filters, check/measure brakes, measure tire treads, inspect wipers, main battery test, and schedule tire balance/rotation (completed this yesterday). Took me about 4 hours at a leisurely pace.

Previously, I’ve always done the service interval indicator reset using the steering wheel / instrument panel procedure that I documented and posted on the forum a couple years ago. I acquired a Launch Elite 2.0 MB OBD scanner about 6 months ago, which worked to kill the annoying auto start/stop function, and it also lists service interval indicator resetting among its special functions.

I plugged the scanner into the OBD port and did a diagnostic scan for my records, and then proceeded through the menus to the service reset, where there are 3 options for various generations of the function. I selected the “Reset General Maintenance” that indicated the current state was A3 with 12 days to go, and there was a single option “F3”. Pressing this button reset the service interval indication to B6, -464 days, and 40,000 km – WTF?

I then selected one of the other options “Maintenance Light One Button Reset”, and this reset the service interval indication to “A Service Due in 365 Days” which as I recall was the indication when I took delivery of the vehicle. Navigating into the “Assyst Plus” using the service interval reset procedure rejected any attempt to reset the service interval.

Another anomaly that resulted from this Launch scanner reset is that the Oil Level graphic is no longer available. No great loss – it was never easy to find and looked like artwork from a second grader.

An interesting indication I did discover that I have not seen reported in the forum is that when I invoked the steering wheel button sequence to get into the “Workshop” and went into the menu “Vehicle Data”, scrolling up presented an actual measured oil level in qts (and oil temperature), which said 9.7 qts (close enough to the 9.5 qts I poured in).

Bottom line is don’t use the Launch scanner to do a service interval reset. I plan to file a problem report with Launch and see how they respond.

Finally, I don’t rely on any of the A and B service interval indications, so none of this really matters to me as long as I don’t receive service overdue messages every time I start the vehicle. I do 5K/12 month A/B servicing and I keep better service records than anyone will ever coax out of a MB dealer’s service department. All this service interval resetting is nothing more than a money maker for the dealerships. If it was really a useful function, MB would have made it far easier for owners to use. Instead, MB makes it nothing more than an annoyance that you pay a dealer to make go away.

I'll follow up with any reply I receive from Launch.

 

Thank you for taking the time to post this, you just saved me some pain I was about to walk into.

And again I am much appreciative for your generous time on the LKA mod you performed for me a few years back.