[Slye]

Red light came on. Checked the oil. Nothing showing on the dip stick. Had last oil change at 32 000 Km. Now 37 000.

I put 3 liters of oil in and called the dealership the next day. Was told they will check but it might be normal as Eos can use half liter of oil every 1 000 Km. Seems a bit excessive to me. What do you think?

Eos is 2008. Driven carefully in four seasons. First time the light came on. Never check the oil as maintenance always done on time at the dealership. Never thought I had to on a recent car.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

 

[nail-z-gull]

Some EOS do seem to use a lot of oil - you're not alone. Others have reported the same issue. I assume there's no obvious leak?

I think a lot depends on how it's run in from new. Personally, my car doesn't use any oil - but many with the same TFSI engine, VW or otherwise, report very high oil consumption.

Luck of the draw I guess?

 

[John_F]

Red light came on. Checked the oil. Nothing showing on the dip stick. Had last oil change at 32 000 Km. Now 37 000.

I put 3 liters of oil in and called the dealership the next day. Was told they will check but it might be normal as Eos can use half liter of oil every 1 000 Km. Seems a bit excessive to me. What do you think?

Eos is 2008. Driven carefully in four seasons. First time the light came on. Never check the oil as maintenance always done on time at the dealership. Never thought I had to on a recent car.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Slye,
Had a similar experience with my 2.0 TDI. Oil level warning light came on after 3000 miles of motoring in my 09 model. It turned out that I had a serious oil leak from the camshaft cover gasket. The leak had contaminated the camshaft drive belt plus the fan belt, both of which had to be replaced, all under warranty. No hassle with dealer who provided a Golf TDI for 3 days while the Eos went in for repairs.
Car now has 5000 miles on the clock. I now check the oil level every week & have not had to add anything since.
Not used to all this oil level checking. Previous cars - Toyota Avensis (4 years), Ford Scorpio (10 years) - never used a drop between changes.

 

[Slye]

Just a follow-up.

The dealer did an oil consumption test. They found that the car takes .43 litre of oil per 1000 km. Since this is under the limit of .5 per 1000 km, this is acceptable under VW specifications.

I find this very annoying but I guess there is not much I can do.

Slye

 

[SiJ2000]

This is fairly normal with the FSI Turbo... Apparently the Diesel Turbo also.

You just need to check it and put some in.

Use a good oil like Mobil 1 0/40 Fully Synthetic...

 

[cb391]

Oil consumption and VW seem to go hand in hand and has for a long time. I don't know but it may go all the way back to air cooled days. I use up a quart every 4,000 miles (US figure) and think that's good as I have never had a vehicle that has ever been anywhere as good. I recently saw on a forum that a quart every 6,000 miles is excessive. Some claim that they go from oil change to oil change at 10,000 miles and never use a drop. VW still is sticking to their one quart in 1,000 miles policy which I think is too low. I think there are many factors in consumption. Could be the way the engine was broken in, or where or how the car is driven. Could even be how the engine tolerances were when the engine was assembled. All you can do is keep track of the level. Some people check every time they put gas in the car. I check mine every couple weeks or so.

 

[Kieranol]

I would have to agree with you (cb391) regarding the manner in which an engine is driven in. I had a VW Golf TDI which was driven in a not so careful manner in its early days. Unfortunately it responded by using oil at a rate that was a little concerning for me but not for VW. I now have an Eos that I treated in an understanding way in its early days, and it has rewarded me with no oil consumption and impressive fuel economy. So I think there may be a lesson there.

As you stated there are many factors that play a part in the making of a good car and to some degree its a matter of luck as to whether you get an overall sound vehicle or whether you dont.

I would say this is a characteristic of mass production, although this contradicts the philosophy behind mass production.

Food for thought though !!!

 

[IRC]

oil consumption

I just got rid of my 2008 two accidents and it used a liter of oil every 4000 kms. I liked the car so much I got a 2010! This one uses no oil.

 

[geoffa1]

My Eos was serviced at the dealership at 7500km, 15000km and last week at 30000km. She is 2 years old and I have never added oil myself.

Thats not to say that she uses none, but its not enough to worry the low oil warning, and the service people haven't commented on low oil.

 

[Starburst]

I'm going through a liter a month of oil
Mostly around town driving and a few dual carriageway journeys
It's scary how much oil it's going through

 

[voxmagna]

Eos is 2008. Driven carefully in four seasons.

We seem to have a couple of conflicting answers so I'll throw in mine! We had a company car driven like a bat out of hell by many drivers with no respect. That vehicle covered 150k miles and never used more than a drop of oil. The same model owned by a lady driver for local mileage had done 30k miles and drank oil like you were putting in gas!

I was very curious and after an engine teardown saw the problem: On first look at the cylinder bores I could still see the factory honing marks (No wear!). When I pulled the pistons the oil control rings were totally gummed up and stuck in the piston ring gaps. The cyl. head was cleaned up, new rings fitted and after the first 500 miles, her son was told to borrow the car once a month and drive it 'with attitude'. It never burned any oil afterwards.

The oil burning complaint for modern engines starts with their design: To achieve high mileage engine life, car pistons are cast oval with integral expansion metal and sit in round steel cylinder bores. As the engine heats up the oval pistons become round and a better fit. This avoids the 10 thou or so bore over size tolerance that older engins with round pistons used to have knocking 20k off the engine bore wear life. With these new oval pistons, if a car is babied and doesn't get regular long mileages at normal engine temperature, oil leaking past the pistons starts to gum up the oil control rings. Ask your local car rental company if they see this problem - I bet they don't!

After learning to change your driving habits, you can sometimes get improvement by using an engine cleaner additive and driving the engine hard on a long journey. But remember, if you bought a used low mileage car, the engine damage may already have been done by the P.O.

IMHO I would never wait for an oil light before adding oil. The warning level can vary and can be a lot more than the liter I would expect to replace. Running oil levels down lower increases sludge in the oil and reduces cooling. When you drive around sharp bends (with the low oil light lit) the oil pump can get starved of oil increasing engine wear and more oil burning.

 

[Starburst]

Thanks for the info guys
I will pass this on to the garage

 

[voxmagna]

Good luck because few garages will do much with engine internals these days? They can split the work and costs: First they do a compression test which will tell if there's serious wear issues but the results won't say anything about the oil rings. Then lift the cyl. head and wipe black used engine oil around each bore for a piston at BTDC. As they manually turn the crank and watch the piston come up and go back down, there should be no trace of black oil on the bore if the oil ring and scrapers are good. If there is, then the engine will need a full replacement piston ring set and you will have to decide whether burning oil with long term issues for the CAT is cheaper than fixing the engine? The good news is your engine cyl. bores and pistons may still be like new and have not worn much.

 

[paul_c]

They could stick a borescope down the spark plug hole. Not sure if its worth it because what if they find scored bores?

I can't remember if these turbos suffer from seal issues. If it were the turbo, they're quite expensive to replace.

 

[paul_c]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the 2 litre TSI isn't regarded as a durable engine. The direct injection means the intake path cokes up which is fixable but a bit of a PITA, given the low prices is it worth ploughing £££ into a high mileage one when low mileage ones are around, and are much more likely to be better condition (in all areas, not just engine)?

 

[voxmagna]

A bad engine is the worst of all things. It's hard enough having confidence in the EOS roof reliability without the added uncertainty of the engine. Overall I've had very few issues and been pleased with my older BMM Tdi, but it's less complex than later versions although a notch down in emissions.

Diesels have similar inlet manifold and TVA coking/gumming problems caused by recirc., but this isn't responsible for excessive oil burn - just engine faults and limp mode. Unfortunately, diesel is most likely 'end of the road' now and when I compare all the extra emission control kit and complexity of modern gas (or diesel), I think it's time to hold fast on a new vehicle and consider electric vehicles, although there are different issues to overcome.