[samitjain]

Faced similar oil issue in my Audi Q5. At 6200 km mark the engine oil light came up. Went to service station and advisor showed me it’s written in manual that the car can consume .5l for every 1000km. He also said that the showroom people provide extra 1 Ltr oil at the time of delivery. But my car didn’t have that and they topped up free of cost and I also bought additional 1 litre for future to be kept in the car.

[Dr ST]

Hi,
Our Tiguan Allspace also consumes oil. It is well-documented among the TSIs. Buy 2 litres of oil which will cost you close to 1300 Rs and keep it in the boot. Perform periodic oil level checks yourself. Please don't lose your sleep over this issue. Enjoy your drive.

Regards

[snappysam]

Originally Posted by Dr ST

Hi,
Our Tiguan Allspace also consumes oil. It is well-documented among the TSIs. Buy 2 litres of oil which will cost you close to 1300 Rs and keep it in the boot. Perform periodic oil level checks yourself. Please don't lose your sleep over this issue. Enjoy your drive.

Regards

Why do VW engines consume so much oil? What are the reasons for this? Almost all VW owners I know, vouch for this VW habit. Why?
I own a 12 year old Diesel Swift and drive pedal to metal almost always, tradfic permitting. And done almost 125000 Kms too. Till date my car never needed oil top-up. Regularly check oil levels abd done all services at MASS.
If someone can give the reason, it will be nice.

[Hayek]

The fact is that Oil consumption in modern engines when combined with long service intervals (10,000 - 15,000 km / 1 year) makes minor services to top up oil fairly common.

The last non German car I owned was a Honda Coty 1.5 GXi - it had a three month service interval. My Superb consulted about 0.5 l of oil every 1500 km. The Vento consumed less oil than that. For the X3, the condition based oil service usually starts at 12,000 km but has been triggered every 7000-8000 kms.

Yes, 3500 km for an oil top up seems extreme but I think the right thing for you to do is to give this a pass and enjoy the drive.

[NiInJa]

Originally Posted by snappysam

Why do VW engines consume so much oil? What are the reasons for this? Almost all VW owners I know, vouch for this VW habit. Why?
I own a 12 year old Diesel Swift and drive pedal to metal almost always, tradfic permitting. And done almost 125000 Kms too. Till date my car never needed oil top-up. Regularly check oil levels abd done all services at MASS.
If someone can give the reason, it will be nice.

Turbo petrols (and diesel engines i.e. high pressure engines) usually will have more oil consumption as they are engineered to cope up with frictional losses during cold starts or high output scenarios by pumping more oil. As more oil goes to the system, friction is reduced and better fuel efficiency is achieved, but some oil will escape through the piston rings and will burn, reducing its overall volume. This is all by design and trade-off between durability, efficiency vs. oil consumption. As long as the oil consumption remains constant within a specified range, its all good.

As for VW engines specifically consuming more oil, it probably has got to do with the way they have designed their engines to minimize wear of components, especially piston rings within their specific limits. If I am not mistaken, even Toyota engines consume oil.

P.S. One of the reasons why short trips on turbo petrols is not a good idea. The engine needs to attain optimum temperatures to burn off excess oil that helped reduced frictional losses, but if not not burnt fully, it can clog injectors over longer period of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVd-ZS5bnyY

[VwRabbit]

VW engines especially the old TSI’s have a habit of drinking oil. The new one’s i think fare better at least till they start wearing out. My 2019 1.2 TSI has done 50K in 4 years with a remap and does frequent highway ripping and had to top up the oil every time during the 6 month interval routine checkup because as per service centre the oil level used to be slightly low.

Their TDI’s seem to fare better in this regard and with high end VAG cars say Audi and the likes they provide an extra castrol 1 litre bottle stored in the boot at the time of delivery. So for peace of mind always carry an extra bottle of oil especially if frequenting long highway runs.

[supermax]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

Check the oil level after you park the vehicle for a few hours, its possible that at this time it maybe overfilled.

No, you should not wait for a few hours, but maximum 30 minutes. The reason for this wait is to let the splashed oil settle down and also cool down slightly, so you don't get spattered with really hot oil when you pull out the dipstick. Waiting for a few hours causes the temperature of the oil to fall too low, which would affect its viscosity and therefore the volume when you measure it, leading to an incorrect reading.

Originally Posted by Newtown

I would urge VW-Skoda owners to consider following my practice of 6 months or 7,500 km for oil changes.

These are values that one comes up with, without a basis. If a manufacturer says that you get optimal mileage in higher gears, without revving too hard, but someone else says no issues with redlining all the time, it's the manufacturer that has it right. The manufacturer would like to have fewer problems with their cars, not more, so they wouldn't deliberately give false or incorrect information. My Octavia's interval was 2 years/30000 km I think. Sticking to the manufacturer's recommendations is good enough.

Originally Posted by Newtown

Both times there has been an immediate perceptible difference in power and smoothness in delivering the power. I use a strong magnet to check for metal shavings in the oil that was removed. I found none.

And have you found metal shavings when you exceeded 10000 km? Not finding metal shavings (which indicates a very serious issue) at 1/4th the recommended change interval is supposed to show what exactly? If you'd tested at say 1/2 the interval (15k km) and found metal shavings, you'd have a valuable piece of info. The absence of issues at a far earlier point doesn't prove or disprove anything other than the fact that engine is doing well enough at that point.

[lapis_lazuli]

Just one doubt : If the LOW ENGINE OIL light is already lit up, is it still safe to drive or has the safety threshold been breached already? The manual asks for pro-active, periodic dip-stick checks IIRC.

I have a 2019 1.8TSI MT but touchwood, never had to top up. I followed the run-in exactly by the book, plus 3 more months. Briskoda forums also have mixed opinions on whether the TSI drinks oil or not. It is entirely user specific, it seems like.

[Newtown]

Originally Posted by supermax

These are values that one comes up with, without a basis.


Not finding metal shavings (which indicates a very serious issue) at 1/4th the recommended change interval is supposed to show what exactly?.

The basis of doing so is my personal experience with five previously owned and driven Skoda-VW vehicles. Basis the conditions I drive in and how I drive, this is what I am comfortable with. You are absolutely entitled to your opinion about sticking to what the manufacturer suggests.

I have not corelated metal shavings to the oil change interval. Using a magnet is what I have been doing for years during oil changes. It is not done to prove any point.

[svsantosh]

Why cant one just check the oil level after collecting from service? Either the individual can do it themself or have someone (read - driver/employee/friend) do it for them. It is so basic and the prices at which a car sells these days, it is becomes more of a 'hygiene' to do those checks, say twice a month if time permits.

It takes all of 5 minutes to check for engine oil level, brake fluid, coolant. Some cars you cannot even check the coolant level, only the dash board has to indicate it.

Imagine the 5 min check as time you spend on weekends to clean your bathroom or rearrange your bedroom closet or similar to your 10Lac to xxx Cr home. Wear the same thinking hat and look at your 10Lac to ...xxx Cr car (if not you, someone who can show the level to you). Can we agree to that?

[Gagarsaur]

Originally Posted by thirdmainroad

I have had a couple of Hondas, and each time I went to Kun Honda for service, I would always come back with a bad taste. They would either over charge me, or any repair would not be carried out to acceptable levels.. This had happened quite a few times, and I had found that Sundaram Honda seemed to be much more ethical in their work + billing. I had thus, sworn never to go to Kun Honda.

I have recently got a Volkswagen Taigun 1.5 GT plus. 2.5 months after delivery around the 10th of March, I had hit 7500km and the vehicle was due for a service checkup. Thinking anyway its just a check up, and nothing major, I left the car with KUN Volkswagen Madras South, OMR, Chennai. I wasn't happy when I received the vehicle - it was not cleaned properly, a job I had wanted had not been carried out . . I just shook my head then, told myself I should have stuck to avoiding KUN. The service advisor told me that parameters had been checked, engine oil filled up, and all was ok.

About a month after this 7500 service, on April 15th, I had by now clocked an additional 3500 km, and had about 11,000 km on the odo - the check engine oil light came up. Being close to the KUN service center I went there. When they topped up the engine oil in front of me, the car took 800 ML of it. Now this clearly shows that they had not checked / refilled the engine oil when the vehicle had come in for periodic maintenance. When I asked them how the car could have consumed 800 ml oil if it had been filled just 3500 km / 1 month ago, they said "oh but you have clocked 3500 km, so it can happen." Liars, obviously.

This again shows how unethical KUN is, and KUN VW is no different from Kun Honda. KUN as brand seems to be unethical and just downright bad. If they fail to check the most basic yet very important thing such as Engine Oil levels on a brand new car, and lie saying they have, and show it on the invoice - imagine what all they really can do!

Have sent a stinker email to VW regarding this and demanding a refund of Rs 750 KUN charged me for the "extra oil" lets see what comes off it.

Nevertheless, after years of repeated bad experiences with KUN, I urge all of you to stay away from them and find better authorised workshops!

As an owner of a Taigun 1.5 DSG, I can confirm that VAG cars, in general, consume engine oil.

When the oil light came on for the first time, I was surprised since this was my first VAG car. However, after talking to a few friends who also own VAG products, I realized that this is normal for VAG cars.

The engine oil first needed topping up at around 8000 km on the odometer, then again during the first service at 15,000 km, and again at 27,000 km. Instead of sticking to the 15,000 km service interval, I recommend taking the car for a general check-up every 7500 km or keeping a bottle of engine oil in the boot.