I know with closed crank case vehicles some oil consumption is inevitable, but what is excessive? Wife has a 07 A4 with 2.0T, 75K miles, recently the low oil light started coming on before 5000 miles. It's a CPO so we take the car to the dealer for the major maintenance intervals but I do the minor ones and change the oil every 5000 miles with VW spec oil. Took it to the dealer and they preformed an oil consumption test. The car is losing 0.17 quarts every 1000 miles, as far as Audi USA is concerned that is well within acceptable levels. Is this correct? So I asked the service adviser, a loss of 1.7 quarts within their oil change interval of 10K is okay. According to Audi USA, Yes. The engine holds less than 5 quarts, so roughly 35% of the oil is lost before the recommended change interval and that is well within the allowable range. Yes. Am I wrong to think that it is too high? Anyways I asked what Audi would call excessive to where it is above their allowable threshold, are you ready? A loss of ONE QUART EVERY 1200 MILES. WTF! So if our car was right below the threshold I would be adding 7 quarts in between their recommended oil changes and that is considered normal? Help me out here, Is this really the acceptable level for Audi?
Evelynes A4 burns through a quart in between changes, car runs great hasn't affected anything. Doesn't really surprise me in a high revving turbo.
Mongo, is Evelyne changing her oil at 5K or 10K? Like I said I knew that there would be some loss, I just didn't figure just under a quart every 5K. That just seemed high to me. When I had my 78 K5 blazer I was putting a quart every 500 but that's a different story.
our 2010 A4 Avant did the same for the 10k miles we had it. Lost a little under 2 quarts throughout that time. It's normal for the cars, don't fret.
I think she's doing it every 5k since hers isn't driven all that much per year, still have to add a quart in between.
Well I guess it's pretty normal from what I have seen on Audi forums and such. It just surprised me at the rate, but the allowable limit of 1 quart per 1200miles is high IMHO.
May depend on the oil as well, some oils cook off the light elements into vapor pretty fast which would account for some of the loss. Twere it me, I would switch to something like Castrol 0/30 or 5/20 and retest..
1 quart per 5k miles is the absolute most acceptable amount in my professional opinion. Audi certified independent tech here. Make sure whatever oil you use conforms to VW 505.01 spec/ I like Lubromoly 5w40.
I go through a quart or two between oil changes on my TT with a 1.8t engine. I usually run 6-8K between changes. If it matters, I use Rotella T6 synthetic
Much older car, but 20 years ago I had a Porsche 930 turbo and it was spec'd at a quart every 500 miles.
You might want to check the engine for some leaking gaskets or seals, other than that its not that bad.
I had this discussion with one of our VW regional tech guys today, he agrees that the allowable rate is ridiculous, but I did a consumption test on an Eos (the worst offenders) and it came back using 1qt every 1067mi and tech line said that it was acceptable. At that rate there would be no oil left in the engine with around 30 miles before the next oil change was due.