A real oil burner!

[BlackS3]

Hey guys was wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I bought a 2000 S3 2 months ago with 52k on clock. It appears to be using a litre of oil every 600-800 miles. I've had it looked at by Audi for an oil leak but they said it was fine. I know they say it can use a litre every 1200 miles but I feel that is a bit excessive. My friend has a 6 month older model and barely burns any oil. Other than that it runs absolutely fine.

[bakerdcb]

My old one, which my family still has, did used to use 1 litre every 10,000 miles. Now my dad drives it (Having done about 65K) it doesn't seem to use hardly any. Maybe half a litre in 8000 miles. I'm not aware of this engine being much of an oil burner, I would be a little concerned.

[BlackS3]

There are no tell tale oil patches where car is parked on drive and it's not smoking from exhaust. A friend who used to own an RS4 said that the heads are made by Cosworth and some don't use a lot of oil while others do?? It's not due a service (just had an oil service 9 weeks ago) and using my dad's vag-com tool isn't registering any faults so I'm hesitant about booking it in to Audi as I've already paid £60 to be told it's fine by them. Do I just keep topping it up and ignore it for now or should I bite my lip and book it in again??

[bakerdcb]

In normal use my RS uses pretty much the same amount of oil as the S3 used to. I have put half a litre in the RS in 6000 miles and that includes 4 track days!! Its going to have a service done soon because I think thats enough for oil under that kind of stress but its still only burnt half a litre.

[david7m]

My S3 doesn't hardly use any, and its chipped so under more load!

How about getting a friend to follow you and see if it throws out any smoke when it comes on boost ( like a Sierra Cosworth )

[dapster]

Clogged PCV valve? Low viscosity oil? Not thrashed enough to bed the rings in properly?

[BlackS3]

No blue smoke coming from rear. I'm using the shell Helix ultra 5w30 stuff pick it up from Audi direct but they only sell 1 litre tubs. The strange thing is Audi say 1 litre per 1200 miles is absolutely fine/normal but everyone I speak to uses far less?? Where is the oil going?

[S2tuner]

@BlackS3: Audi say 1 liter every 1200 miles is normal to protect themselves from warranty claims while the cars are still under warranty, however, your car seems to be using 1 liter every 600 to 800 miles, which is MORE than excessive, twice as much as what Audi considers tolerable.

What I don't get is that Audi don't seem worried at all by this. First off have them refund your £60 for useless diagnostics, then maybe take your car to an independant specialist. There has to be something wrong there, I have personally never heard of a 1.8T engine using that much oil, ever!

HTH,

Mihnea

[BlackS3]

I'm becoming very curious as to where the oil is going. There can't be many options if it isn't coming out of exhaust, no leaks under car or in engine bay. I've even checked coolant pot. I wouldn't say it's driven too hard my missus uses it to get to work (30 miles a day) and I get a go some weekends.

[sitas3]

my 2002 S3 has covered 56k miles now and I Hardly use any oil. In fact all 3 S3's I've owned haven't used oil to this extent.

[BlackS3]

Spoke to Audi they want me to monitor exact oil usage for 2-3 weeks then get back to them. At least they didn't charge me this time for the advice!