Oil consumption

[Anth]

Evening all ,

The car is in for a little warranty work in a few weeks so a good time to mention to Audi UK I may have a problem . The Car runs beautifully at present, great power and no concerns at all . But, I've noticed I use a lot of oil, 4.5Ltrs in 3500 miles to be exact. All my driving is short trips over maybe 15mile round trips and used in dynamic mode . I do feel after looking on other threads this is accessive for oil consumption?

Car is coming up 20k and had oil done 6k ago . No leaks, no blue smoke of any kind .

[Iain]

13500 miles and due its first change in 2000miles - oil marker showing 3/4 full - never opened the bonnet since I got it at 110miles

[zzz]

There was a recall and and ecu flash, after this mine started using noticeably more oil.

[MountainMutant]

I had a C5 which I never put oil in between services.

Have only done about 1500 miles in my PE and had to put a litre in the other day. Not 100% on the oil level when I bought it (from Audi) but was surprised to be topping up so soon.

MM

[Markp]

Ouch. That is a lot of oil in such a short distance. Had mine for 35K and never put any oil in - except at oil changes obviously. It did not appear to use a drop between services (9k).

[Foxy]

Mine's a 2017 PE with 12k on the clock and it's had a litre. I check it religiously.

[wildbore]

That's a mind-blowing level of oil consumption. Short trips or not. You say you do short trips of 15 miles so the oil is only just getting up to temperature towards the end of the trip, so do you gun it (you say you are in Dynamic) on these short trips?

[Anth]

Evening all,

Car is in for some warranty bits, (tail pipe corrosion, bubble in skirt). The car went in Friday and they haven't had chance to test but I was told the car can use up to 500ml evey 1000 miles this is within Audi tolerances, slightly shocked. But I've asked them to look again when it's in with them full time .

Wildbore, I always have the car running in garage prior to use for 5m or so and only ever use hard in dynamic when oil is over 70c at least, trips of 15/20m are common id say although its in dynamic I mainly just have this on for engine/sports exhaust and I'm not doing anything unreasonable . Somthings not right as I've put 4.5ltrs in 3000 miles so this is well above the tolerance they advised .

Edit : It's full now on the read out so 3000 I've added 4.5ltrs but It is full so I'll monitor, I've not really questioned until I've seen other C7s using significantly less.

[wildbore]

@Anth: I assume from your description that you start the car and leave it idling while it warms up? While I wouldn't lay the blame for your high oil consumption directly at the door of your habit of pre-warming the car in the garage, the perceived wisdom is that you shouldn't start an engine and then leave it idling. The slow/idle engine speed means a slow oil pump speed, and, combined with cold, thick engine oil, that leads to oil starvation in the engine's upper galleries, especially around the cams and valves, for a considerable period of time. Best practice is to start a car and immediately drive off. The higher engine speeds caused by driving work the oil pump harder; and the open throttle causes more fuel to burn so the engine heats up faster. End result is that the oil starvation (leading to premature wear), which is inevitable from starting a cold engine, is minimised.

[Anth]

@Anth: I assume from your description that you start the car and leave it idling while it warms up? While I wouldn't lay the blame for your high oil consumption directly at the door of your habit of pre-warming the car in the garage, the perceived wisdom is that you shouldn't start an engine and then leave it idling. The slow/idle engine speed means a slow oil pump speed, and, combined with cold, thick engine oil, that leads to oil starvation in the engine's upper galleries, especially around the cams and valves, for a considerable period of time. Best practice is to start a car and immediately drive off. The higher engine speeds caused by driving work the oil pump harder; and the open throttle causes more fuel to burn so the engine heats up faster. End result is that the oil starvation (leading to premature wear), which is inevitable from starting a cold engine, is minimised.

Hello WB , very interesting I really had no idea about this,I have always assumed that running in the garage helps the temps before driving . And obvisly the seat to get warm! I will however amend my habits based on the comments, thank you .

[Tadass910]

Evening all ,

The car is in for a little warranty work in a few weeks so a good time to mention to Audi UK I may have a problem . The Car runs beautifully at present, great power and no concerns at all . But, I've noticed I use a lot of oil, 4.5Ltrs in 3500 miles to be exact. All my driving is short trips over maybe 15mile round trips and used in dynamic mode . I do feel after looking on other threads this is accessive for oil consumption?

Car is coming up 20k and had oil done 6k ago . No leaks, no blue smoke of any kind .

4.5 liters in 3500 miles, something is not right, try Audi dealer to check your car

[DaveBee]

According to the manual, oil consumption of up to 0.8Ltrs/1000Kms is considered normal. I have to say if mine was consuming oil like that I'd think something was seriously wrong. I've put 0.5Ltrs in during the first 5000 miles of me having mine, but I don't know what the level was before so hard to say what it's consumption is. Nothing like Anth though.

[MikeFish]

They tend to use more oil as the oil gets older. Normally my 1st top up is after 6k after a service. Then the time between top ups keeps gradually decreasing until the next full oil change.

[Anth]

Just updating this, I've noticed today when the car was on idol there was an small emmision of white smoke of the tips of the exsuast , when Revd this would produce a small white emission then back to normal, repeated this about 5 times and seems if it's sat on idol for a few minutes then this would produce the emissions, is this irregular I've never really noticed until now I'm scrutinising it ....

If it's over using oil wonder what Audi will do under warranty? I think it's being burnt off somewhere after looking at the consumption .

Edit. It is running a octane booster on the last fill which could be the reason possibly I've just tried it in the V Power

[Weiß-sechs]

Oil smoke tends to be blue. Sure it's not just Co2 you're seeing?