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.

[cliffcoggin]

I repeat "nothing you can do by way of additives or treatments will help". Sorry you find that unhelpful. Would you prefer me to have advised you to spend silly amounts of money on useless materials? It's your money to waste as you want, but don't expect me to condone it.

[Steve Q]

Glad the forum was helpful regarding the central locking 🙂 

I'd recommend getting it checked a a garage, an Audi independent specialist if possible. 

Is the car pumping out blue smoke? 

Have you checked for any oil leaks, such as from the oil cooler or turbo? 

You might have to remove the undertray and put cardboard under it to test for a leak or see if the engine is coated in oil. 

But as Cliff has highlighted It is a common fault with some Audi engines of that period. Piston rings were not not up to par until 2010 but my early 2010 2.0 TSI is fine. There were lots of models affected across the VAG group and we're fixed under warranty.

I wouldn't have thought your 12 year old motor would be covered now, but worth a shot speaking to Audi. This will depend on the cars service history and mileage.

But ultimately you would need new piston rings to cure the problem.

[Andy33]

Steve Q: I'd already covered these in my post: no smoke, no smell, no leaks.

Steve Q and cliffcoggin. I appreciate your concerns to save me wasting my money on snake oil products but there is a world of difference to risk spending tens of pounds for trying out gum-loosening additives and knowing there will be thousands of pounds to rebuild the engine. My view is simply that it sounds logical and it's worth a try. I've seen many photos of the gummed up oil pasages in Audi piston rings of that particular 2 year period. The drain holes were simply too fine and, in fact, an English manufacturer supplies a better design of rings compatible with those pistons. In an effort to reduce engine friction and hence increase fuel efficiency, Audi had also reduced the spring strength. Ie the pistons were simply easier to slide up and down but at what later cost!

My post was simply asking whether others in UK had similar experience and could help me. Neither of your answers was of any help.

I don't know if either of you are aware but the internet is full of accounts of successes (and some failures) with these methods of un-gumming oil control rings on a variety of engines. It's not just the Audi tfsi that suffers: Kia, Toyota and Volvo 5 cylinder turbo have also been mentioned. There are dozens of YouTube videos. Maybe Americans are more open minded or are they all liars?  I've pasted in just one comment that I found on an American Audi forum:

"I now have 82,000 miles, I tried the Liqi Moly flush 2 times as well as running some marvel mystery oil but nothing slowed down the oil burn, it got as bad as 1 quart in 550 miles. I finally tried the piston soak method with Berryman B12 last week and it worked!!! 700 miles so far and only a small change on the dipstick level."

I'll keep you posted on my success or failure.     

[Magnet]

Hello Andy,

I’ve distanced myself from this thread, but I’m sorry to hear that answers to date have not been of any help. 
I/we don’t know what your particular discipline is in in the sphere of Chartered Engineer, but to me, the logic seems to point that you went into purchasing this vehicle, in knowledge that it was burning oil, and it would be reasonable to expect that the seller would ‘under estimate’ the extent. I don’t like to assume anything, but we just hope that it was ‘bought cheap’. 
What I am unsure of, what was the extent of your knowledge on the issue before ( in caps) you bought it. 
 

If it was as you write now, then you entered into the purchase with your eyes wide open - unlike other poor unfortunates on this site - and if so, did you do so on the basis of placing your faith in sorting this out, via. the course of action you now intend to carryout? 
Would I be on the right line by now thinking that any contra opinion is seen as unhelpful, and what you were hoping for from here was ‘ Sounds a great idea Andy’. 
Now whether you are amenable to this suggestion, or not, but what would be great would be if you were to add to our knowledge bank, and actually try your procedure - and most important to others on here - report back on the subsequent figures regarding the reduction in the vehicle’s oil consumption.

Would you be prepared to do that for us Andy?

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

 

[Andy33]

I already said I'd give feedback on my success or failure!

I thought this dedicated forum would have knowledgeable people like some American forums. I was expecting technical knowledge. For example, I joined a Honda forum with very detailed questions about the innards of the carbs on my son's CB600 F3. I got incredibly helpful replies from people that obviously got their hands dirty. I've a lifelong interest in bikes and cars and was doing all my own servicing including some engine rebuilds of both bikes and cars until I got too old.

I don't think a reply saying "you shouldn't have bought it" is of any use to man nor beast. I do, of course, understand and to some extent sympathise with the context but it was best left unsaid. That's the sort of useless and indeed harmful comment you should be moderating in my view.