How much oil do you use

[eko]

Hi All

My 2.0 tdi 140 bhp Passat might be using a little bit too much oil. I have had it now for 5 months and I have covered 11800 miles and in this time I have ued nearly 4 litres of oil. Is this normal? The car is on a long life service. My previous Passat (B5 1.9 tdi 130 bhp) did not use this much oil not even when it was 4 years old with 171000 miles.

Is anybody else using this much oil or am I worrying too much.

Thanks.

Ed

[Crasher]

The 2L 16v does use a little oil but that level of consumption is OK; the turbo is the usual culprit.

[Stuart W]

Hi All

My 2.0 tdi 140 bhp Passat might be using a little bit too much oil. I have had it now for 5 months and I have covered 11800 miles and in this time I have ued nearly 4 litres of oil. Is this normal? The car is on a long life service. My previous Passat (B5 1.9 tdi 130 bhp) did not use this much oil not even when it was 4 years old with 171000 miles.

Are you saying it's covered 11,800 from new or while you've had it.

If from new then it's probably nothing to worry about, since it seems that new cars tend to burn a bit of oil while running in, so your consumption should hopefully start dropping a bit.

That was the sort of mileage when mine started using less.

On the other hand, 4 litres is certainly a lot more than mine used (about half that), but I suspect you're still well within manufacturer's tolerances.

I've been getting well over 10,000 miles per litre for a while now, but I suspect that VW would consider several times this as acceptable.

[eko]

Yes I have had the car from new. As you say hopefully it will start using less oil soon. It will need a service in approx 6000 miles so I will mention it to the dealer.

Ed

[domestos]

I only have to put oil in around 5,000 miles after a dealer has had it in for a service. They must use the quick burn stuff in my opionion. Not sure if that is the one I should use too as I am on long life service, and I have no idea what it is, but I usually put in the bog standard Castrol GTX for diesels, the stuff you get from a motorway service station as that is when the oil light tends to ping...

Does this cause a problem? I've gone 70,000 already without any issues...

[Stuart W]

Yes I have had the car from new. As you say hopefully it will start using less oil soon. It will need a service in approx 6000 miles so I will mention it to the dealer.

Ed

According to the manual it can use up to a litre every 1,000 km (not much more than 600 miles), so you should be thankful that yours is only sipping oil by comparison

[claranet]

I got my Shadow blue 170 Manual Sport Estate from new(Oct 07). It has now done 6000 miles of mixed motoring and I have put in just over a litre of Castrol SLX Oil. Due to the ever increasing price of Diesel I rarely take advantage of the power available but when I do it don't half go !!

I don't think that the Oil consumption is excessive although more than my old 03 B5 S 100 Estate which hardly burns any oil at all between services and that car which my wife now uses, has now covered over 51000 miles.

My dealer advised me to keep an eye on the oil level on a regular basis but apparently they use less oil, once they get to the 10000 milemark.

This is not a problem. THE problem though is VW's insistance on using a black steel dipstick; why on earth don't they use bright steel or even a stainless steel dipstick....it would be considerably easier to read the damn thing !

Cheers
claranet

[Stuart W]

This is not a problem. THE problem though is VW's insistance on using a black steel dipstick; why on earth don't they use bright steel or even a stainless steel dipstick....it would be considerably easier to read the damn thing !

Well when the car was brand new the oil was more or less invisible on the dipstick for the first few thousand miles or so, but now that the oil is blacker in colour I would say that it's the dipstick's design that makes it difficult to read rather than its colour; I'd prefer a more traditional design.

[shudman]

Black oil on black dipstick.....dumb idea ! I eventually waited for the "low oil" light to come on, as it was more accurate (I know, I know....not a good idea)

Anyhow, on to the question in hand....
I originally posted some time ago, that I was concerned at the level of oil my 170 was using, and was reassured it would diminish - I was using about 1 litre per 1000 miles.
After the 1st service, around 19,000, I can honestly say that I have only put ½litre in, and I have done 8,000 miles since then. So, whatever they did in the service stopped my car eating oil. (it *was* burning it, not dropping it). The usage certainly didn't change before then.

[Stuart W]

Are you sure it just wasn't coincidence?

My 140 settled down in the low teens mileage wise (12-13,000 perhaps), but it was certainly never burning as much as yours, so perhaps yours just took a little longer to settle down? Since it settled down I would say it's burning about the same as yours, however.

As for the dipstick, it's not the colour that bothers me but the shape - it just doesn't lend itself to an accurate reading in my opinion - you're never quite sure where the level is, particularly when it's on those bolbous bits at the high/low extremes.