Constant Need for oil top up

[APJ 123]

Good Afternoon

I am hoping that someone can help.

I have an Audi A4 S-Line with 58K on the clock.

However i need to put a litre of oil in it every few hundred miles - i estimate that i use 20 litres a year.

My Mechanic says to find out what it is he would have to strip the engine - is this a common problem.

Thanks very much

APJ

 

 

[Magnet]

Hello Adrian,

Thanks for joining and sorry to hear about your issue. 
Steve y on here should be your authority, but we have certainly come across this issue before with models around your year - just put it on a forum search under say ‘Oil consumption’. As I understand it - but Steve will clarify with sound knowledge - it’s to do with VAG’s attempt to use skinny piston rings too hopefully!! reduce friction. Result:- excessive oil consumption. 
Your post suggests you have owned this car for some time -? so you wouldn’t have any comeback on the seller.

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Stevey Y]

5 hours ago, APJ 123 said:

Good Afternoon

I am hoping that someone can help.

I have an Audi A4 S-Line with 58K on the clock.

However i need to put a litre of oil in it every few hundred miles - i estimate that i use 20 litres a year.

My Mechanic says to find out what it is he would have to strip the engine - is this a common problem.

Thanks very much

APJ

 

 

Hi from 09-13 they sold a lot of cars like this, get your engine code and then go on the net with it, somewhere on there is a list of all the affected engines, assuming this is the petrol version, if not and its diesel it could be a number of problems ranging from injector seals to a failed PCV valve not to mention gearbox rear crank seal.

Steve.

[APJ 123]

Thanks Steve & Gareth 

Sorry to be stupid is my engine code included within the windscreen long code ?

Where do i go on the internet please to see if my engine is effected ?

If it is, is there no cure and do i just need to keep topping up ?

Yes i have had the car 6 years, i would'nt mind paying the repair if it fixed the problem.

Thanks very much for your time and replies

Adrian 

 

 

[Steve Q]

Engine code should be on the build sticker in the spare wheel well or in the inside front cover of your service book. 

[Magnet]

Engine code will also be on the V5 Adrian. 

We will need Stevey Y to give you the link to the website. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Stevey Y]

23 hours ago, APJ 123 said:

Thanks Steve & Gareth 

Sorry to be stupid is my engine code included within the windscreen long code ?

Where do i go on the internet please to see if my engine is effected ?

If it is, is there no cure and do i just need to keep topping up ?

Yes i have had the car 6 years, i would'nt mind paying the repair if it fixed the problem.

Thanks very much for your time and replies

Adrian 

 

 

Hi Adrian, as Steve said you have to get the engine code which will definitely be in the handbook, armed with that just google Audi A4 2011 [engine code] oil consumption problems, that will throw it up, can you please confirm petrol/diesel as both engines  are very different problem wise, if its a 2.0 petrol it is probably suffering the ring problems, as for getting it rebuilt I would asses that would be the thick end of £4000 and you may be better served buying a reconditioned unit from eBay and just bolting on your ancillaries from the old engine, other than that you can try to live with it.

Steve.

 

[APJ 123]

Good Evening Steve & Gareth

Thanks very much for your help.

I will complete this when i find the document.

Sorry i have another question, is this likely to deteriorate ?

My car is petrol, i have had it for 6 years and i was going to keep it for another 5 or so years.

Its a lovely car and i have looked after it, this has put a question in my mind whether i should keep it for that long.

Thanks again 

Adrian 

 

 

 

[Magnet]

Hello Adrian,

My first port of call would be to check if it is indeed affected by this engine issue. 
Even if it is, it would be worth getting the other possible causes mentioned by Stevey inspected to at least eliminate them as aggravators. 
If it is indeed the engine issue in isolation, if it were mine, I would just keep putting oil in it if it passes the emissions - far cheaper over 5 years than getting any engine work done. 
At 20 litres/a I would be dispensing with annual oil changes, and simply changing the filter. 
You could try using a 5w/40 grade oil to see if that has any benefits. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[APJ 123]

Good Evening 

I have found my engine number and even though i cannot be sure that i am effected i have read an article originating from USA.

It says that owners should contact Audi - i know that this sound mad but i have done less than 60k miles and therefore the car should be covered.

It also says the problem will get worse and eventually the engine will fail as the the cylinders will "score".

Any suggestions please - should i consider getting rid of the car ?

Sorry to be a pest - it also suggested recording the mileage interval that i top up

Many thanks

 

 

 

[Magnet]

Hello Adrian, 

Forget about the USA - VAG treat their customers differently in this country! 
Warranty on a 12 year old car? Forget about that too, although as I understand it, VAG were making some contribution on <10 year old vehicles will FSH until a couple of years ago, but not any more as I understand it. 
Not that it matters, but you don’t tell us how long you’ve owned this car Adrian, and what level of servicing has it had throughout its life. 
Re getting rid of it - I think I’ve already suggested what I would do if it were mine, but only you can counter or agree with that advice. 
Be prepared that if you were to sell it, the trade are likely to know of the issue and will price it accordingly. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 
p.s. no question of you being a pest -  we are here to offer some advice which you can add to other advice given, and then form a more considered opinion. 

[APJ 123]

Quote

 

Good Evening Gareth 

Thanks again for your help.

I have had the car for 6 years and it is serviced regularly and maintained as necessary.

Just my luck to buy a car with a problem 😔

I am unsure what to do - i would like an A3 saloon but to buy one of these would cost me £12.5k after a 5k part ex quote.

I have decided to maintain a log of the mileage between re-filling the oil.

Would it be an idea to take it to Audi and ask them to confirm the issue if they put it on the diagnostic machine ?

Could the engine deteriorate and go "bang" in the future.

Thanks for your continued help

Kind regards 

Adrian 

 

[Magnet]

Hell Adrian,

I’ll come back to you in the morning. I sense you are understandably concerned/worried about it, but just sleep on the fact that it’s no worse today than it was a month ago, and hopefully a lot of much nicer things have happened in the last month. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Magnet]

Good morning Adrian,

Much of this will be a repeat - so apologies in advance. 
Again, if this were mine:-

I would not be worrying about it. It won’t have any beneficial affect on the car, but will have an adverse affect on you. 
I would not be wasting money with Audi by ‘asking to put it on their diagnostic machine’.

’Just my luck to buy a car with a problem’. All cars come with problems (that’s why people sell them), so you could indeed swop this car, damage your wallet, and end up with some other unknown problem. 
Oil burning will not result in the car going bang. 
Monitoring the oil consumption would be good, so at least you know how much it uses in say 1K miles. I guess you don’t do a large annual mileage.

I would buy myself a 20ltr drum of oil to make its consumption affect as economical as possible., but before hand, I would experiment with 5w/40 Incase that reduces the consumption. 
Finally, be wary of making any rash decision, and just give the issue some coats of thinking about over a month or so, otherwise you will probably end up making a decision you might later regret. 
Just be positive and think it only boils down to the convenience of having to add some oil every now and then. Everything else can work out positive. 
Definite repeat! - do not worry about it. 
Just as an aside:- I clocked 80 last month, and that was great, and I can assure you I’ve ‘worried for Wales’ on occasions during my lifetime, but take a bit from my experience - it’s never changed anything, and the likelihood is something else will come along that needs worrying about!,  and this problem will merge into the background.
As well as the inevitable car issues, I’ve got a bit of a recent major issue to now worry about, but when I see some poor folks at the treatment centre then I think -how lucky am I? 
It’s a minor hiccup you have with the car Adrian, and it’s likely to give you continued good service. 
Good luck with it and kind regards,

Gareth. 

 

 

[Itspointless]

My 1.8 tfsi was the same, completely stripped the engine and it would seem half the oil was passing clogged up control rings and the other half was coming out of the crankcase breather due to abnormal crankcase pressure because of blow by (compression rings) stuffed. 

When I removed the rings it was packed with carbon behind them. 

[Itspointless]

Eventually due to increased amounts of carbon build up due to excessive amounts of oil being burned, chunks of carbon will get trapped in the valve seats and cause pitting which leads to the valves leaking and will lead to something like this happening.

 

[APJ 123]

Good Evening David

Thanks for your posts .. can i ask for your advice .. i cant believe an engine with 55K miles on the clock is like this.

I have spoke to Audi and to get it fixed will cost £4,800.

I traditionally keep my cars for 10+ years and i have had this for 6, im not sure whether to get it fixed or sell it for reduced market value.

Your feedback would be appreciated 

Thanks

Adrian 

 

[Magnet]

Hello Adrian,

Again this is repeating, but I think you are over thinking and over worrying about this issue. 
To try to boil this down:- 

You want another 4 years out of this, and trying to judge your apparent low annual mileage, the objective to me would be to get as many of these years out of it as you can by adding oil. 
Seems eminently doable to me, without catastrophy along the way. It isn’t likely to go bang along the line.

Yes, you can view photos of internals of engines and elevate the concern factor, but this engine will continue to propel this car with drinks of oil as it goes along.

Having said that, I get the impression that you no longer want to ‘take a chance’ with it, and want to get rid of it, and perhaps you are now looking for someone to agree with that concern. It’s obviously your choice Adrian, but it might be well to think on, and whatever you replace it with is likely to come with unknown issues which could end costing you far more than a few litres of oil. 
Can’t really say anymore.

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[APJ 123]

Good Evening Gareth 

I hope you are well.

Thanks for your advice, to be honest i have'nt really decided what to do other than keep a diary as to how frequent i top up.

I am an accountant by trade and i am asking for advice as this is way beyond my comfort zone.

I appreciate everyone's advice and i will need to keep a litre in the car at all times.

Take care

Adrian

 

 

[Magnet]

Thanks Adrian,

Sounds all good and progressive to me.

Many thanks for the good wishes. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Wazza]

14 hours ago, APJ 123 said:

Good Evening Gareth 

I hope you are well.

Thanks for your advice, to be honest i have'nt really decided what to do other than keep a diary as to how frequent i top up.

I am an accountant by trade and i am asking for advice as this is way beyond my comfort zone.

I appreciate everyone's advice and i will need to keep a litre in the car at all times.

Take care

Adrian

 

 

For what's its worth I had same car, same year, same issue. Kept topping up and car was fine in sense it drove perfectly . All i needed to do was top up regularly. Until one Sunday driving to the Peak District and it literally went bang without any warning and into limp mode. Long story short needed a complete engine rebuild. Didn't want to pay Audi prices (more than value of car at the time) and absolutely loved the car so tried all sorts with supposed Audi "experts" who often made matters worse. Learnt a lot from this experience so not all bad. 

In end i traded it in for a newish car at main dealers, with the half sorted problems, so got a little bit for it but nothing like i would have if if it was a fully working car.  I know car prices have shot up so maybe worth being pre-emptive and getting the issue fixed as it maybe worth it,  because as i found out once it goes bang, there is a lot of collateral damage too. Repairing that will cost a lot more. 

 

But this was a few years ago and once I'd gotten over the mental trauma of the long and painful experience, ended up buying an Audi again but this time i bought a diesel and kept it cheap(ish) just in case. But got to say (touch wood) the TDI has been exceptional. It was only meant to a stop gap car, but hanging on to it for as long as i can! 

[Itspointless]

On 7/22/2023 at 9:15 PM, APJ 123 said:

Good Evening David

Thanks for your posts .. can i ask for your advice .. i cant believe an engine with 55K miles on the clock is like this.

I have spoke to Audi and to get it fixed will cost £4,800.

I traditionally keep my cars for 10+ years and i have had this for 6, im not sure whether to get it fixed or sell it for reduced market value.

Your feedback would be appreciated 

Thanks

Adrian 

 

£4800 is a bit expensive if they are only going to replace the pistons or piston rings? Bearing in mind I replaced the piston rings, timing chains, 16 valves plus the stem seals, camshaft Bridge and pulleys and a few other bits and bobs. It set me back about £1400 for parts.

A recon engine will probably be a better choice using an indy or something. 

It all depends on how much you like the car? Would it be worth your while in the long run spending 5k on it or selling it and let it be someone else's problem? 

This is a known issue with the tfsi across the whole vag range, including vw, seat and skoda! 

With mine I couldn't really sell it because it was only firing on 3 cylinders but with yours it's still running ok so you should get good money for it. 

The 2.0 tdi is a solid engine and diesels are really dropping in price at the moment.