Oil Consumption

[rubdub]

I know this topic has been covered 1000's of times on the forum.. but going through old posts I notice there are some which say 1ltr per 1000kms is the VW tolerance, but the other 50% say 1ltr per 1000 miles. That's 400kms in the difference 😮

Wondering what the general consensus is on what's normal usage

Also, when do ppl using check their oil.. from cold? or operating temp?

[pudding]

Have you got the original owners manual?  It will say in there if it's KM or Miles. It probably is KM being the car's origin is a metric country.

I don't think many GTIs actually use that much, it's just classic lawyerism, like 'Up to' used by Broadband companies.  Yeah pay us £30 p/m for 80mbs, but it'll be 'up to' 80mbs, so if you get 60 in reality, sod off, basically. Yeah right. If only we could pay them 'up to' £30, right?

Anyway, it's hard to get a general consensus as K03 and K04 engines have different consumption rates, and engines vary considerably in mileage and usage. e.g. a thrashed GTI will use waaaaay more oil than one used for shop runs.

My ED30 uses 1/2 litre per 4000 miles on average, perhaps a shade more if driven hard regularly.

I always check when cold after all the oil has dripped back down to the sump, but VW say to check it 10 minutes after a run. Not sure why, maybe due to expansion and to account for some still in the head etc.

[colesey]

I know this topic has been covered 1000's of times on the forum.. but going through old posts I notice there are some which say 1ltr per 1000kms is the VW tolerance, but the other 50% say 1ltr per 1000 miles. That's 400kms in the difference 😮

Wondering what the general consensus is on what's normal usage

Also, when do ppl using check their oil.. from cold? or operating temp?

I always understood it to be 1l per 1000km, which isn’t that much different to the premix ratio on a 2 stroke mx bike.

[rubdub]

Thanks lads.

Just checked the manual there and yeah VW have it stated at 1 liter per 1,000km. At the moment I've just over third left on my dipstick and have got around 450 miles on my latest trip reading. So I should still come within VW's tolerance I guess once I hit the min mark. Still seems super excessive though.

Going to change the oil and sparks next week. So am planning on changing to a 5w40 oil and see if they gets me any better consumption.
I haven't noticed any smoke under boost, but still think I might do a compression test and check the PCV while I'm doing these few bits.

[pudding]

If you're still using the horrible 5W30 longlife stuff, then switching to 5W40 should help reduce the consumption.

I definitely noticed quite a sizeable reduction when switching from 5W30 to 0W40 Mobil 1.

These engines don't generally smoke unless the turbo is shot.  They just 'use' it. Most turbo engines do because of the bigger piston clearance/ring gaps equalling more crank case pressure, which consequently blows more oil vapours through the intake, compared to naturally aspirated.  Annoyingly, my old R32 used absolutely nothing at all between 10-12k oil changes