A5 2.0T excessive oil consumption

[Scottb733]

Hello everyone, 

New to this and am hoping to find some advice.

I've recently (6 months ago) bought a 2009 A5 2.0L T and soon had needed to top up the oil a couple of times. Completely unaware of this known issue that i have now read up on so think i understand the problem.

i devised a DIY test. My understanding is Audi claim this engine will consume about 1 litre of oil every 1200 or so miles. Last time my oil warning came on i  topped up with a litre and reset the odometer. The oil warning came back on after only 383 miles.....

I've not much service history unfortunately and i am confident i don't have an oil leak, so.....How concerned should i be? 

Thanks for any advice !

Scott

[Steve Q]

Does sounds like you're another victim of this. You can try your luck at seeing if Audi will cover any of it under warranty but doubtful as the car is 11 years old and not full service history. My advice would be to bite the bullet and get it fixed. But be warned, it's not cheap. 

Cheers

Steve

[Scottb733]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for taking time to reply I appreciate it. I'd read that Audi would not be much help given the age and service history. I don't really want to pass the problem on by selling the car but my guess is the repair will be disproportionate to actual value of the car. Guess I'd better get my thinking cap on and make a decision.

Thanks again.

Scott.

[Magnet]

Hello Scott,

Sorry to hear of your issue. It will be a hard decision, but one which may be tempered by first having to be sure what is causing the (ridiculously) high oil consumption. As I understood it, these engines sometimes do not exhibit the classic signs such as excessive smoke, so is this a piston problem or not, or indeed as well as say valve guides? I cannot see that it will be possible to estimate the extent of work necessary and the parts needed until this is determined. 

Being realistic, I think you are right in believing this won’t be an economic repair, and with due consideration for not wanting to pass this issue on to some private buyer buying this from you, you could consider seeing what We Buy Any Car will offer. All their vehicles go through auction, where it’s buyer beware! 

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Scottb733]

Hi Gareth,

Thank you for the reply, interesting considerations there that I'd not thought of - there is hardly any smoke coming out...? Out of curiosity would you know what the end game of this problem is? Will the engine just die eventually or limp on but with increasingly regular oil top ups? I'm guessing the more oil leaks into the engine as it get worse the power will fade away as it impairs combustion etc? Essentially I'm wondering what will happen if I keep it and just drive on?

best regards

Scott.

 

 

[Magnet]

Hello Scott,

Yes, you can soldier on with adding oil to this engine - at the approx. rate of 1000 miles covered it will burn approx 3 litres of oil. Take it the grade is 5w 30 ? If so you can look for the cheapest oil in say a 20 litre pack and just keep adding it! Inconvenient? Yes. Expensive? could be worse! As I see it, this is likely to effect the emissions for the MOT ( take it you were conveniently given a new MOT on purchase?) so you have to bear that in mind in under 6 months or so. 

You will of course know the economics of this, but it might be time to pass it on to WBAC. 

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[Scottb733]

Thanks Gareth, yes you're correct on these assumption. Saving grace might be the MOT was in place before dealer I bought it from had the car, and passed everything OK,  so hopefully nothing fishy has gone on there. I will probably look into selling it as manageable or not,  it's never getting better just a question of how quickly it gets worse...

Thank you again for taking the time to reply.

regards

Scott.