Checking Engine Oil Level / Oil Consumption / Oil Light On

[Guest001]

Thanks Hillbilly! Is there a particular oil brand people recommend here. I looked for the VW recommended castrol edge professional long life III 5w-30 but it isn't stocked anywhere, seems like only available through the service centre. I was told pennzoil is a good alternative, but I'm unsure.

**EDIT**
Just saw on the castrol website they do say to use Castrol Edge titanium Engine Oil - 5W-30 A3/B4 as a top up only so perhaps I should just use what the recommend.

Penrite Enviro+ is an approved oil and is cheaper than Professional III The Edge is a 502/505 and the Enviro+ is a 504/507 rating

Here is a link to the full list of VW approved oils https://drive.google.com/folderview?...GM&usp=sharing

A fair bit of reading but gives the right info

You would be best to got to a dealer and buy the right stuff as should you use a non approved oil and later have engine probs VW may use that to duck out from under on a warranty job as they have been known to do oil tests to check whats in it.

[Ideo]

So, I'm not using any oil. Should I be worried? :p

[Guest001]

so, i'm not using any oil. Should i be worried? :p

no !!!!!

[changas]

Hi all,

I've spoken about my oil consumption previously in the observations / questions thread a while back (prior to my 45k service).

A quick summary was that between 0-15k and 15-30k the oil levels were usually very good, minimal consumption and the services were flawless.

Hit 43k, check oil warning popped up, took her to VW just to share my concern, they advise that 500mL / 1000km is quite normal consumption - isn't that a fair bit? No, it's quite normal - OK, happy days who am I to argue with the experts. They had advised that I continue monitoring it.

Did my 45k service, not a problem in the report, everything was fine. I do a lot of highway driving so my usage is quite high - oil light pops on at 52k. Again, I refill it with the recommended oil (Castrol edge professional long life III 5w/30). 58,500km - check oil light pops on again - think nothing of it...VW's must use a lot of oil.

Get my DSG service done (pay with one of my kidneys, apparently I was the first R DSG service at the dealer) at 60k. I drive 62,200km and the check oil light pops up on the way to work. I take it to VW, get an oil consumption test done...they find that it uses about 100mL / 1000km...fairly acceptable. Another few thousand km and it pops on again at 69850km...refill, suck it up...fairly normal.

Fast forward again and I've had my 75k service conducted - again no drama's or anomalies. My engine light pops on at 77958km and I follow the same process, I refill 1L of oil (I check the dipstick each time, it's at the min. mark when the check oil light pops up and when I refill with the 1L Castrol bottle, it sits exactly at the maximum mark). Light goes away, go about my business and then the light pops on again at 79869km. So that's roughly 523mL /1000km now; I will be topping the oil up with a litre bottle every 2000km (7 times between services?!?!) I organize with VW again for a oil consumption test and this time they've found that its using around 350mL / 1000km now.

I had noted before that there was no oil spill below the car in the driveway nor in my parking bay at work so i have difficulty believing that it is a leak - this is still the case. No modifications, everything is bog standard, I do heaps of highway driving between Canberra, Sydney and Newcastle hence the high km's in a short amount of time.

Would love some more comments or advice! Very much appreciated! I am somewhat concerned now as I've owned the car brand new for 2.5 years and my warranty runs out in December 2013!

[gavs]

Checking engine oil level, oil light on

Hi all,

I've spoken about my oil consumption previously in the observations / questions thread a while back (prior to my 45k service).

A quick summary was that between 0-15k and 15-30k the oil levels were usually very good, minimal consumption and the services were flawless.

Hit 43k, check oil warning popped up, took her to VW just to share my concern, they advise that 500mL / 1000km is quite normal consumption - isn't that a fair bit? No, it's quite normal - OK, happy days who am I to argue with the experts. They had advised that I continue monitoring it.

Did my 45k service, not a problem in the report, everything was fine. I do a lot of highway driving so my usage is quite high - oil light pops on at 52k. Again, I refill it with the recommended oil (Castrol edge professional long life III 5w/30). 58,500km - check oil light pops on again - think nothing of it...VW's must use a lot of oil.

Get my DSG service done (pay with one of my kidneys, apparently I was the first R DSG service at the dealer) at 60k. I drive 62,200km and the check oil light pops up on the way to work. I take it to VW, get an oil consumption test done...they find that it uses about 100mL / 1000km...fairly acceptable. Another few thousand km and it pops on again at 69850km...refill, suck it up...fairly normal.

Fast forward again and I've had my 75k service conducted - again no drama's or anomalies. My engine light pops on at 77958km and I follow the same process, I refill 1L of oil (I check the dipstick each time, it's at the min. mark when the check oil light pops up and when I refill with the 1L Castrol bottle, it sits exactly at the maximum mark). Light goes away, go about my business and then the light pops on again at 79869km. I organize with VW again for a oil consumption test and this time they've found that its using around 350mL / 1000km now.

I had noted before that there was no oil spill below the car in the driveway nor in my parking bay at work so i have difficulty believing that it is a leak - this is still the case. No modifications, everything is bog standard, I do heaps of highway driving between Canberra, Sydney and Newcastle hence the high km's in a short amount of time.

Would love some more comments or advice! Very much appreciated! I am somewhat concerned now as I've owned the car brand new for 2.5 years and my warranty runs out in December 2013!

I will pop some photo's up when I figure out how!

Changas, coming from the polo community I know about vw oil consumption! There are ways to accelerate oil consumption but just to be clear, vw see 1L/2000kms as acceptable oil consumption so unless you can comfortably get below that then they won't do much I'm afraid...

[walbjj]

Ive heard that using a heavier weight oil. 5w-40 will slow oil use.
A mate pushed his oil topups from every 3k km to 7500km by using the heavier weight oil
I guess it's a matter of dealing with it when it comes to vw ownership.

[nat225]

i think if u had the warning light on a couple of times then u may need to revisit the user manual and actually read the owner responsibility for regular maintenance, ie checking oil level regularly..

Hi all,

I've spoken about my oil consumption previously in the observations / questions thread a while back (prior to my 45k service).

A quick summary was that between 0-15k and 15-30k the oil levels were usually very good, minimal consumption and the services were flawless.

Hit 43k, check oil warning popped up, took her to VW just to share my concern, they advise that 500mL / 1000km is quite normal consumption - isn't that a fair bit? No, it's quite normal - OK, happy days who am I to argue with the experts. They had advised that I continue monitoring it.

Did my 45k service, not a problem in the report, everything was fine. I do a lot of highway driving so my usage is quite high - oil light pops on at 52k. Again, I refill it with the recommended oil (Castrol edge professional long life III 5w/30). 58,500km - check oil light pops on again - think nothing of it...VW's must use a lot of oil.

Get my DSG service done (pay with one of my kidneys, apparently I was the first R DSG service at the dealer) at 60k. I drive 62,200km and the check oil light pops up on the way to work. I take it to VW, get an oil consumption test done...they find that it uses about 100mL / 1000km...fairly acceptable. Another few thousand km and it pops on again at 69850km...refill, suck it up...fairly normal.

Fast forward again and I've had my 75k service conducted - again no drama's or anomalies. My engine light pops on at 77958km and I follow the same process, I refill 1L of oil (I check the dipstick each time, it's at the min. mark when the check oil light pops up and when I refill with the 1L Castrol bottle, it sits exactly at the maximum mark). Light goes away, go about my business and then the light pops on again at 79869km. So that's roughly 523mL /1000km now; I will be topping the oil up with a litre bottle every 2000km (7 times between services?!?!) I organize with VW again for a oil consumption test and this time they've found that its using around 350mL / 1000km now.

I had noted before that there was no oil spill below the car in the driveway nor in my parking bay at work so i have difficulty believing that it is a leak - this is still the case. No modifications, everything is bog standard, I do heaps of highway driving between Canberra, Sydney and Newcastle hence the high km's in a short amount of time.

Would love some more comments or advice! Very much appreciated! I am somewhat concerned now as I've owned the car brand new for 2.5 years and my warranty runs out in December 2013!

[Guest001]

Doesnt sound too bad really But seriously you wait for the light to come on. Do you check it before that.

I had a Nissan that would usually go 4000k without using oil and then would use 500ml per 1000k so used to just change the oil at 5000k.
However as it was a Taxi it got checked EVERY MORNING without fail.

Most cars use some and long trips tend to burn off the impurities and so appear to use more than a car running around town and not fully hot all the time.

[nickSFC]

So I'm kind of relieved to hear that I'm not the only one that's noticed some oil usage (though mine is pretty tame in comparison to some)

Have done a shade over 25k kms in 2years of ownership, and just about to come up to its 2nd ever service, and the oil light came on as I was heading home last night. Checked the dipstick, and it was below min kind of freaked out a bit at first , but after reading this thread, I don't feel so bad

I'll freely own up to not checking the oil level before this - used to do it regularly with my previous car (Pug 306 GTI), but I'll admit complacency, due to it being my first brand new car. live and learn I guess, I'll definitely be checking it regularly in the future

Luckily, there's a VW dealership within walking distance of my house, so will head down in the morning - here's hoping they'll let me walk out with a free bottle of oil if not, I'll happily take it elsewhere for its upcoming service

[Guest001]

Ive heard that using a heavier weight oil. 5w-40 will slow oil use.
A mate pushed his oil topups from every 3k km to 7500km by using the heavier weight oil
I guess it's a matter of dealing with it when it comes to vw ownership.

As the VW oil spec is 5w-30 you may be void your warranty by using something different to the VW approved oils

OK till the yellow stuff hits the fan then after an oil test Wham.

[Diesel_vert]

As the VW oil spec is 5w-30 you may be void your warranty by using something different to the VW approved oils

That's not strictly accurate.

Volkswagen recommends the use of 502.00 or 504.00 lubricants for the vast majority of their petrol engines.

The use of 504.00 is only compulsory for vehicles on the LongLife regime (variable service intervals). Otherwise, the use of either 502.00 or 504.00 is acceptable.

Volkswagen does not recommend a particular viscosity grade for the vast majority of their vehicles.



The VW 502.00 specification limits the SAE viscosity grades to the following; 10W-40, 10W-30, 5W-40, 5W-30, 0W-40, 0W-30 (and one can easily see the variety of viscosity grades available on the list of approved 502/505 lubricants).

The VW 504.00 & VW 507.00 specification limits the SAE viscosity grade to 5W-30 (to the best of my knowledge).

Of course, these specifications are by no means set in stone and are subject to change as the manufacturer (Volkswagen) sees fit.

[Lucas_R]

So some people do not check the oil anywhere near often enough - i think im the opposite of those people. My Golf doesn't use any oil, although i still check the oil every 7-10 days just to keep an eye on it. I noticed there was a few drops of oil on my garage floor the other day, so i jacked the car up to have a look - and sure enough, the oil filter cannister hadn't been tightened up enough at it's service the week before. Degreased the area, tightened the cannister to recommended torque spec it was good to go.

Same with our other car, a 18 month old Mazda, which also doesn't use any oil - yet i still check it every 7-10 days (along with a quick look over the brake fluid/radiator fluid etc) just to keep ontop of things.

So despite neither of my cars using oil, i still check them on a regular basis. If you know your car uses oil, wouldn't that prompt you to check it at certain time or kilometer based intervals to keep an eye on it, and keep a 1L top up bottle in the boot for emergencies?

[Ideo]

So some people do not check the oil anywhere near often enough - i think im the opposite of those people. My Golf doesn't use any oil, although i still check the oil every 7-10 days just to keep an eye on it. I noticed there was a few drops of oil on my garage floor the other day, so i jacked the car up to have a look - and sure enough, the oil filter cannister hadn't been tightened up enough at it's service the week before. Degreased the area, tightened the cannister to recommended torque spec it was good to go.

Same with our other car, a 18 month old Mazda, which also doesn't use any oil - yet i still check it every 7-10 days (along with a quick look over the brake fluid/radiator fluid etc) just to keep ontop of things.

So despite neither of my cars using oil, i still check them on a regular basis. If you know your car uses oil, wouldn't that prompt you to check it at certain time or kilometer based intervals to keep an eye on it, and keep a 1L top up bottle in the boot for emergencies?

Exactly. I check my oil every second fill up. And I don't use any oil at all.

It's basic maintenance that a lot of people overlook.

[Diesel_vert]

Most engines will be fine so long as the oil level is kept between the MIN and MAX lines.

However, it's generally best practice to keep the oil level near as close as possible to the MAX line.



I have a theory that the general populace have forgotten what it's like to regularly inspect the car and have been spoilt by the general trend of increased reliability and reduced maintenance requirements of modern cars over the decades, particularly in markets where Japanese marques dominate the sales charts.

But notwithstanding the fact that VW have decided to make certain batches of cars feature abnormal or elevated levels of oil consumption that would make a rotary owner blush, 15 000 km or 12 months is a long period between services. A modern car can handle such schedules of course, but from an owner's point of view, a lot can happen within that distance or timeframe.

In exchange for the manufacturer reducing the frequency of services, the onus is on the owner to carry out basic checks between services. Electronic sensors reduce what (little) burden there is, but it doesn't hurt to periodically check manually, if only to confirm the sensors are still functioning, which are of course, not immune to malfunction.

[changas]

hello all! thanks for all the replies, my last post was done in haste so I may not have been as clear as I would have liked to been.

overall, ownership of the car has been brilliant. with regards to checking my oil, believe me, I check it quite regularly (particular during the previous summer as well as before long road trips and normally when i fill up provided it's not pissing down or freezing cold) - I carry multiple 1L bottles in the car currently.

more than comfortable with the level of oil in the car as long as it's between min / max. The method of madness was suggested by the tech guys to assist in monitoring oil consumption (roughly 1L between min / max). Basically, they wanted me to monitor the L / 1000km usage, log it and bring it in as, in their own words, was within acceptable guidelines however with the type of driving that I do and the period of ownership it was a bit unusual.

during the different services they've adjusted / updated the fuel management system (code 87vw007), replaced the PCV valve /gasket due to an internal mechanical fault (vw06f129101n + vw06f103483e), did a through check to ensure there were no leaks (as well as being checked by myself), updated my DSG software as it was quite clunky - apparently a confirmed complaint (would mis-gear and rev out quite often) refer to TPI 2026959/3.

To be honest, it's been quite an experience with this vehicle, the amount of electronics compared to the other vehicles that i have owned.

as i stated before, my concern is that it appears to be worsening and is on the threshold of what the owners manual states (1 L / 2000km) if you hadn't noticed in my previous post, I've exceeded that in my last occurrence @523mL /1000km OR 1.046L/2000km.

Please hear my out, I am not criticizing the vehicle, I have been very happy with it. Coming from other Japanese and Euro vehicles, I have just found that this oil consumption behavior is
A) somewhat unusual for a relatively new vehicle
B) concerning due to my perception that the oil usage exceeding guidelines
C) and due to the fact that my warranty is running out, i don't want to find out after warranty that my rings need replacing or something else

in terms of what is currently being actioned, I've been given a case manager and a reference number from VW Australia but due to their overwhelming work load I won't receive an update until later next week.

I guess what I'm here for is for perhaps other individuals whom have gone through a similar experience or if there is anyone that has very intricate knowledge of these cars to share some of their wisdom.

edit: i'm not trying to get in a **** fight with anyone regarding whether or not the manual has been read, the viscosity of oils and the difference between approved / recommended, etc...just some constructive discussion about whether or not I should really be concerned and if not, why? and vice versa...I'm sure overall the community would benefit from such constructive discussion.