On Thu, 10 May 2007 21:52:06 -0400, Dave LaCourse
<dplacourse (AT) pirateaol (DOT) com> wrote:

Well,

First, thanks for all the replies and info from everyone.

I again talked with my dealer and raised the bar a little by saying I
was in the process of contacting the regional Audi office to voice my
complaints and I'll keep banging on their ears until I got some form
of satisfaction.

There is no way I am adding oil to a new car between oil changes.
That's a fact.

This time I was told I could use other oil as long as it did meet the
VW 502 spec someone else had mentioned but most likely would not
improve the consumtion issue. That, I believe.

I also was told it would improve as the rings seated and "broke in".

What crap. I stopped building and racing Super/Comp and Super/Gas cars
about 10 years ago with some having 13..5:1 compression 900 HP and no
long break-in periods on those type of motors to seat oil and
compression rings. After some seasons with 100+ full out passes, they
still didn't use any discernable oil unless a catastrophic failure
occurred.


Enough said,


Roscoe aka MrShade






Knowledge is like money, the less you talk about it
the more people assume you have.

I don't know how many miles on the clock; if you have less than 5K, then I
suspect it will improve in the next 3K miles. If it doesn't, I would try
5-30 or 5-40 Mobil. I really think most of the loss happens when the engine
is still cold and the oil is near the 0 side of viscosity. Hang in there,
this may end up O.K.


"Roscoe P Pendoscoe" <mrshade (AT) I_wont_see_it (DOT) net> wrote

On Sat, 12 May 2007, Roscoe P Pendoscoe wrote:

FWIW, I have a 2002 A4 with the 3.0 V6. Now at 95,000 miles; oil changed
every 5,000 miles. I have never had to add oil between changes, not even
when it was new. Prior to that, I had a 1995 Passat with the VR6 engine. I
had 135,000 miles on that when I sold it, and never once had to add oil to
that either.

Steve

On Sat, 12 May 2007 10:38:25 -0400, Steve Thompson <smt (AT) vgersoft (DOT) com>
wrote:

I also have a 2002 A4 with the 3.0 V6. My experience is a long way
from yours: I carry a bottle of oil around with me, and expect to see
the warning light two or three times between services. (The dipstick
is so difficult to read as to be useless.) And, as I've already
mentioned, my brother-in-law's experience is worse. Clearly, there's
no consistency here. For no obvious reason, some of these cars use a
lot of oil, whilst others don't.

Peter.

On Sat, 12 May 2007 06:44:37 -0500, Roscoe P Pendoscoe
<mrshade (AT) I_wont_see_it (DOT) net> wrote:

It's not unreasonable to have to add some oil to a new engine as
things loosen up and bed in though.

Quite. There will be no honing pattern left on the cylinder walls.
Indeed, they'll probably be glazed now so I don't see how the rings
can dramatically improve (if that's where the oil is coming from).


There's a school of thought that says that the best way to run in
piston rings is to drive the engine hard for the first 20 miles of its
life. This loads up the rings, pushes them properly out into contact
with the honing pattern on the cylinder walls and wears both into a
nice tightly matched pair before the honing pattern is worn off and
the cylinder walls become glazed. The theory is supposedly proven on
the racetrack where chronic bad oil consumption is rare and gentle
running in is rarer!

Other than a specific fault, engines that burn large amounts of oil
tend to have been built with poor tolerances - this is not unheard of
with European engines. The usual ways for an end user to damage an
engine are the simple traditional ones of overheating them, running
low on oil or not changing the oil or using completely the wrong fuel.

However, it's not uncommon to find that a new engine that uses huge
amounts of oil is also run low (to the point of slight damage) by an
unsuspecting user. From that point on, oil consumption is often high.

--
Z

Hi Roscoe

When I bought my new A4 2.0 TDI with PD-engine, the dealer said I'll
have to add +/- 3/4 l off oil when the odo meter reach about 10 000 km
and again about 20 000 km. And indeed. On 9 800 km and 18 000 km I saw
the green oilcan pictogram popping up on my display.

After a refresh of oil (About 28 000 km) the dealer said oliconsumption
will now lower and *maybe* I have to add 3/4 l oil after 15 000 km
drive.
Indeed, again dealer has right! After +/- 16 000 km I had to add +/- 1/2
l of oil. (Did not waited until oilcan popped up. Just checking oil
level and have added a bit.)
Now, the engine has had his second oilchange and dealer said
oilconsumption should be normal now i.g. maybe you have to add 3/4 l oil
after 20 000 km.

I'm using 0W30 longlive oil.

Hi Peter

I've talked about that whith the dealer when I've bought my new A4.
I also read many issues about oilconsumption.
He said it's *most of the time* due to a bad brake in periode or due to
some people who has changes DIY *much to early* the oil or drive their
car to "soft" when braking it in. I.g. they have never used the real
power. ;-)