Oil burning problem

[penelope pit stop]

Hello all..

 

I have been an Audi owner for many years, owing the TT, A3, RS3, TTS and now a 2010 Audi A4 Avant (family reasons!). I brought it from an independent garage and straight away i had issues with the oil light coming on. it went back to the garage and sensor changed but its doing it again and i suspect it has the oil guzzling/piston issue that affected this model car and was shown on BBC Watchdog. Although the car is under a form of warranty from the small garage i brought it from i know its not their fault and this is an Audi fault, so i want Audi to cover costs as the garage have been really good. It goes in tomorrow but i am expecting a battle. Its done 69k and out of warranty. On my side is i work for the BBC so am trying to get more information about this problem and i know a couple of the guys at Audi Solihull where its going, but i wondered if anyone else had this issue and what happened?

It also judders when cold like a kangaroo on the clutch and is sluggish to pull away until its warm which i'm guessing is due to the oil issue and the pistons not working properly? I'm really annoyed by this, its really diminishing my enjoyment of the car as i have been without it so much and i am driving round in a £350 suzuki thats bright yellow and doesn't go in a straight line! (am going to ask audi for a hire car!) 

i just want as much a portfolio of other case to put together so they have as little wriggle room as possible to getting this sorted.

 

Thanks Gemma x 

[Trevor]

Hi Gemma..welcome to the Forum

That's really unfortunate that you've experienced these problems with the A4 when you've had a good run with previous Audi's.

There are quite a few documented cases of the oil consumption issues on the net and there are also a few posts in this forum on the topic.

However, I'm not so sure the dealer will entertain the warranty claim solely because of the number of vehicles it affects, if they accept responsibility it could lead to recalls and with the current emissions scandal going on....

A lot of the problem I personally believe is how the vehicle has been driven previously....I wrote a response to a similar post from a member of this forum highlighting my beliefs about why this occurring and in a nutshell, I would put it down to the piston rings not effectively sealing in the cylinder bores. It is quite common on engines if they are driven on short distances around traffic congested town centres with the engine not achieving normal operating temperatures. If the bore/piston ring wear has not exceeded it's maximum wear threshold then it may be possible to 'bed it in' by taking on longer distance runs and gradually increasing the revs until it starts to settle down with oil consumption. Effectively 'running in' the engine.

So, what used to be considered as a good purchase...one owner, low mileage, never thrashed....is generally not as good as a Sales Rep's car driven in at sensible speeds on Motorways at a normal operating temperature.

Sorry to not be of much help but this does seem to be a problem that I don't think will go away for some time and I'm not sure there will any resolve from the manufacturers or dealers.

Let us know how you get on with this

Cheers   Trevor

[Riccardo]

Have a look at my thread Gemma