Service indicator scheduling services too quickly?

[Ari]

My car was serviced at 29,331 miles on 22nd March by the main dealer.

On the Digital Service Report that was issued at the time it states next service due March 2013 or 45,331 miles, whichever is first.

So we're six months on and the car is now on 36,000 miles, so I should be six months or 9,000 miles away from the next service.

Yet the instrument display is showing about 2,500 miles to the next service (which at the current rate will be toward the end of next month).

The car isn't driven hard (it's a 3.0 litre auto SLK so you can't over rev or keep your foot in for long without doing silly speeds anyway) so I'm at a loss to know why its scheduling a service halfway through the recommended time/distance frame.

Any thoughts?

[tyranical]

Alot of cars have these intelligent servicing systems so there must be something in your driving style or habits that is telling it to be serviced sooner, if you do lots of short distance driving or not getting it warmed up properly etc there is many different possibilities as to what the cause could be.

[Ari]

I tend to do a mixture of long runs and short runs, I work from home so it's not on a daily commute or anything. My fuel consumption since I got it is working out at 27.5mpg which I'd have thought is fairly average for this type of car (ie not indicative of a car only used around town).

I wouldn't have thought I have a use pattern that halves the service time but it's a good point.

[wolf1]

A lot of cars are now fitted with oil quality monitoring which will flag up an oil service. Also the service indicator gets overlooked quite often and doesn't get reset.

[Ari]

Hmmm... That's a thought. Although surely in that case it would be showing overdue now as would be way past the time and the mileage for the previous service.