High oil consumption on Audi A3 1.8 tfsi

[Andy33]

2009 Audi A3 Convertible 1.8 tfsi Sport with 125,000 miles. I recently bought this on a summertime whim knowing it had high oil consumption but it's even worse than the seller claimed. It's only about 200 miles per litre.

The car runs beautifully and seems to be about as powerful as it should be. Fuel consumption about 38 mpg. It doesn't leak, doesn't smell and I've not seen any smoke even though I've driven mostly with it open so I'm at a total loss about where the oil goes to! I've looked at dozens of posts and videos on the net and it seems to be an incredibly common occurrence with all sorts of car engines and, for the Audi TFSI engine, it's most likely either a duff PCV or gummed up oil control rings. Receipts show the seller had spent a lot the last few years on repairing leaking seals and, in particular had the 'oil breather valve' replaced by a new one at enormous cost a year ago.

PCV When I take off the oil filler cap with engine idling there's no blowout of fumes and the engine pitch changes very slightly. I THINK this means the PCV is OK but if anyone can suggest a better test other than trial and error replacement I'd like to know.

Oil control rings Otherwise I'd appreciate any advice out there about oil treatments. I've just learnt about Forte Oil Fortifier which you just top up with for about £15. It's the simplest and cheapest but does it really do anything? At present I'm planning to carry out a long cylinder soak for 2-3 days using Berryman B12 - I've ordered two x 440 ml containers intending really to only use one. I'll follow this with an oil/filter change using Liqui Moly Proline engine flush and refilling with Mannol Elite 5-40 high ester oil. Any suggestions, advice and comments on this plan would be very gratefully received!

BTW I recently posted about my passenger door lock problem and this is now all sorted thanks partly to the help from this forum.

[cliffcoggin]

For a little while some of the TFSI engines were notorious for extremely high oil consumption. As far as I recall they required re-designed piston rings from Audi to solve the problem. If yours is one of those affected engines then nothing you can do by way of additives or treatments will help. Doubtless that is why the previous owner sold the car.

Sorry, but I believe you have bought a lemon.

[Andy33]

Thank you for your comment Cliffcoggin. I'm a chartered engineer and I think I understand the situation. I fully realise that a proper solution is an engine rebuild with the later piston design but yours is an extra-ordinarily unhelpful comment for a £2000  2009 car. What I am looking for is merely to mitigate the situation, not a proper cure. I remain optimistic despite your gloomy comment and hope that others out there are more knowledgeable and helpful.