Polo GTI High Oil Usage - Discussion Thread

[Corey_R]

Just a quick question to the guys with major problems. Did any of you run the car in as per the user manual ? Just interested to see....

Probably... it seems the only people who aren't having issues are the people who haven't opened the manual cause they were too busy running their GTI's at the race track!

[LarryRSA]

I get what you're saying, and I've seen many a "Drive the car hard from day 1" writeups. But my thinking is (and I stand to be corrected) that surely VW wouldnt put the running-in procedure in the manual if it wasnt nessesary ?!?! Same as they put the "Cooling down" after driving hard/towing Procedure in the manual, which we all know is a good idea....

[Diesel_vert]

Probably... it seems the only people who aren't having issues are the people who haven't opened the manual cause they were too busy running their GTI's at the race track!

Though redlining it from day 1 would be bit much (but fun ), I think mollycoddling the vehicle isn't healthy either.

That said, I think there are some fundamental problems with some of these engines that go beyond the mere running-in procedure.

[gavs]

I get what you're saying, and I've seen many a "Drive the car hard from day 1" writeups. But my thinking is (and I stand to be corrected) that surely VW wouldnt put the running-in procedure in the manual if it wasnt nessesary ?!?! Same as they put the "Cooling down" after driving hard/towing Procedure in the manual, which we all know is a good idea....

Though, you could look at it from the perspective in that during the warranty period, if the owner isn't too concerned about issues with the engine, then once the vehicle is out of warranty, the car miraculously has developed all of these issues, then it could be seen as a money-making exercise, illegal yes, but if a company has enough money (i.e Apple a couple years back about in-built obselescence) then these things can go away....

Just a thought

[Frostee]

Though, you could look at it from the perspective in that during the warranty period, if the owner isn't too concerned about issues with the engine, then once the vehicle is out of warranty, the car miraculously has developed all of these issues, then it could be seen as a money-making exercise, illegal yes, but if a company has enough money (i.e Apple a couple years back about in-built obselescence) then these things can go away....

Just a thought

Good point! Also, the Moon landing was fake

[Trepid4tion]

Good point! Also, the Moon landing was fake

it was here all along.... DAMN THEM

but back on topic, ive had about 6000km's under the cars belt now and the only problem ive had was the rough idle at startup which was rectified by a software update. Only thing that was concerning me was the oil that i found in the charge pipe from the turbo, but the funny thing is, the car doesnt go through oil at all! Silly question, but any other 77TSI's checked the charge pipe aswell? curious to see if anyone else is having that buildup.

[gavs]

Good point! Also, the Moon landing was fake

It was! And micchael jackson, elvis and princess Di are all playing croquet on a remote island somewhere in the pacific

did a check today of mine, 4000kms and no movement in over 1500 kms, looks like mine might have sttled, would still like to do an oil change though, a bit of grey matter (hopefully not the car's brain!) is creeping into the oil, looks like carbon...

[LarryRSA]

Good point! Also, the Moon landing was fake

Hahhahahahahahahahaha

[Hooti3]

It was! And micchael jackson, elvis and princess Di are all playing croquet on a remote island somewhere in the pacific

did a check today of mine, 4000kms and no movement in over 1500 kms, looks like mine might have sttled, would still like to do an oil change though, a bit of grey matter (hopefully not the car's brain!) is creeping into the oil, looks like carbon...

I'll be changing my oil tomorrow or Sunday.

Bought some Liqui Moly. Just have to go pick up a filter and sump plug tomorrow.

[Miles Away]

What work are they doing mate, new pistons and rings, or more serious work?

Sorry about the late reply but yes I believe that is what they are doing. They still have no idea when it will be ready though...

As far as running it in, I didnt flog or baby it, just drove it normally without doing anything stupid or redlining it. I avoid pushing any car to that point in fear ill f*ck it up.

[Eaglehawk]

My turn to put my experience in...

First oil warning light on at 4800km.

Now up to 6200km, and up to the 3rd warning, put in almost 1.5L in since the first warning light.

Car definately hasn't been babied, it's an ex-demo with 2500km on it when we first got it.

[gavs]

The issue being found (even in the Golf GTI) is that i'ts not if the car is babied or not, it's that very first 100kms. People are scared about going to the redline which I too was scared of but what is the point of not redlining the motor, really.

Here is my theory in regards to modern day running in:
Under the imense stress and heat generated in and engine, the moving parts "grow" and if you don't take it to redline, then you're likely to develop a slight lip, it might only be 0.1mm but that lip, the first time you do hit redline could potentially cause damage to the rings, potentially leading to the oil blowing by the rings more than it should, resulting in elevated oil consumption. Once you have this lip, it's always there, you can't fix it. So no matter how many sets of pistons and rings get put into that engine, the lip -which may eventually wear down- will always cause the same issues. On the other hand, the engine is taken to redline once fully warm in the first 100kms several times and allowed to engine brake also. The pistons and rings have now travelled their full distance already when the rings are new, sharp and nasty, so no lip can form from the scraping in the bores, hence, no major oil consumption issues.

This isn't based on any real science, just from what I have spent 8 months reading and researching and developing my own view on. Is it correct? Who knows! But has it worked for me? 4000kms on the clock and so far, so good.....

[Corey_R]

Whilst the tolerances are likely to be far less than 0.1mm even, and your observations not based on any "real science" as you say, there are certainly quite a few engine builders out there that agree with you. I know particularly that there was a link posted ages ago in a MK6? "How to break in your engine" thread which was by a motorbike race engine builder. He pretty much said if you aren't thrashing it within the first 15km of its life, you are damaging your engine!

Now the thing is, the Polo GTI engine isn't overly new, but we do know that it has quite a few updates in it (Guy H mentioned some, I'm not sure if there are any detailed lists of these updates and changes from official sources). My worry is that they may have updated the piston rings (or something related to that) in the thought that these engines are destined for a "hot hatch" and have overestimated how hard new owners will be pressing their cars during this crucial period. Just like you gavs, I'm not an engineer, I'm just stating my observations from this and other related threads.

[gavs]

Supposedly (not sure how true or not it is) but there is supposedly a new CAVE spec engine, a Mk2 if you like, supposedly being fitted into polo gti's that are being delivered into the UK, I can't read german all that well but from my limited translation skills, I'm guessing they're getting it too. These "new" CAVE engines have a different piston / ring combo factory fitted and many an oil-drinking Polo GTI is getting these components installed, seemingly to no effect. That being said, I cannot speak for the people with these cars and I doubt that with the new pistons etc going in the engine are also being matcched to a nice, new, re-honed bore. That would be too much work. Are the people getting whole new engines still experiencing oil consumption issues? Yes. Why? Like you Corey, I can only speculate that it is due to how those bad-boy engines are being run in.

As far as I can gether, only 1 person I know of that claims to have done the "hard" run-in (yet he still didn't take the car up to redline by his own admission, just used 3rd gear to load the engine, then engine brake) and is experiencing oil consumption issues. This could be the old chestnut of developing a lip in the engine because he has had new rings etc and the problem is still there. The interesting thing is that only dav has been to a dealership with his issue and got told some lie about the oil getting mixed into the fuel and that his main oil seal was letting too much oil into the fuel(?!!?!?! Didn't think we were driving 2 strokes, I'd take this issue up with the EPA personally due the deadly emmisions that come out of 4 stroke engines burning too much oil!) so either they don't know about it yet, or they're secretly trying to find a fix, like the squeaky supercharger clutches, oh wait, they did find a fix. Discontinue the engine, silly me!

[Hooti3]

My turn to put my experience in...

First oil warning light on at 4800km.

Now up to 6200km, and up to the 3rd warning, put in almost 1.5L in since the first warning light.

Car definately hasn't been babied, it's an ex-demo with 2500km on it when we first got it.

My experience is much the same.

I basically straight out of the dealership was giving my car some.

Still have had 2 warning lights come on for oil.

Used over 3L of oil in 8,000K's.

Something is not right.