lack of oil

[David Knight]

Car is a 2003 VW Passat TDi 130 with 117,000 on the clock.

Car was serviced back in 2011 and everything with the car has been excellent. A year later on a drive to London a message came on the display saying 'low oil please check' on checking the oil at the service station we needed to replace as the level was right down.

Is this about right for a car of this age?

[martin1810]

You should be checking the oil level weekly, not once a year.

[David Knight]

Perhaps I should of checked it more regularly. I used to have a Citroen Picasso year 2000 with more mileage and it never used to use the oil. I have had other cars burn oil before but was asking if this would be normal behaviour for this type of engine over this amount of time?

[Toonmania]

Yes quite normal for diesel, but nether the less you should be checking the oil at least twice a month if not once a week, you can then spot anything early do you not do much mileage then? as the oil changes on these are about every 10-12k on a Longlife service but personally imo i think the oil should be changed every 5-6k miles or every 6 months whichever comes first.