2001 A3 Guzzling Oil

[jobbywotsit]

Hello,

I've got an X-reg A3 1.6 that is going through a LOT of oil. Complete oil and filter change at 62,000 miles with 4 litres put into the engine. At 64,000 miles there's naff all left.

No obvious signs of leak or burning excess..... where's it going?! Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome - at this rate it's going to cost me about £250 a year in oil!!

Cheers.

[aa120n]

i know it may sound stupid, but how much oil came out when you did the oil change?

[Crasher]

The AKL engine has a bad reputation for burning oil, you can’t see it as the cat takes the colour out up to a certain point. I saw a really clean 2001 Bora 1.6 being scrapped just because of this.

[jobbywotsit]

Drained 3 and 1/4 litres during the oil change, but had topped up 2, maybe 3 times in previous months, so I reckon over about 7500 miles, the engine burned off between 3.5 and 4.5 litres. I guess that's not too bad considering the rate at which the handbook suggests. It does suggest that the amber oil warning light comes on when there is still about 2.5 litres of oil in the engine....does that sound about right?

The amber light came on again after 1850 miles, so perhaps it burned off another 1.5L or so (4L put in after oil change). Have topped up again so will keep an eye on the rate it's being burned off.

Can anyone recommend a decent oil for this model - and where to buy it? The fully synthetic is generally about £10 per litre. I've heard that part-synthetic oil would be ok, even though the handbook doesn't recommend this (nor does it recommend against it).

Engine code is AVU.

Thanks folks.

[Crasher]

Not so common the AVU, quite a different engine to the AKL and not so prone to idle problems, cleaner emissions too being EUIV. I would use a semi synthetic such as Quantum Synta 10w/40 or Quantum Platinum 5w/40.