Engine going through oil fast!!!

[Elboy 0]

Hi all,

 

Right my problem is my engine seems to be going through oil at a serious rate of knots.

I read somewhere that the 1816v engine (think mines a KR) is supposed to burn oil off a bit?? is this right? But mine seems to get through about a bottle a month!!

 

That seems like way too much. Whats everyone think?

 

On the other hand the car runs sweet as a nut, drives like new and has no leaks whatsoever. I'm confused. Any ideas??

 

Cheers.

[dr_mat 0]

How many miles do you do a month? It's litres of oil / 1000 miles that's the important factor. If you're doing 12,000 miles a month 1 litre a month is really tiny!!

[Elboy 0]

I do about 1000 miles a month so about average.

 

How many litres per 1000 miles should it go through?

[davidwort 0]

I do about 1000 miles a month so about average.

 

How many litres per 1000 miles should it go through?

 

I think the handbook states 1L/1000miles (or possibly 1000Km)

 

Realistically this is a bit much, but 16v's do burn a bit of oil generally. On a 100,000 miles 16v cylinder head, valve guide wear is the usual culprit and just changing the valve stem seals is unlikely to be a long term fix.

If the car is running well, I'd just leave it until the consumption becomes excessive, by that I'd say more than 1L/500 miles. Driving style has something to do with it, if you constantly red line a valver it will burn a lot more oil.

 

David.

[Elboy 0]

well sometimes i get a bit of a lead foot but i rarely redline it.

Seriously i dont boot it everywhere so i dont think it should use this much.

But i do feel its nothing serious but I use 10w 40 semi synthetic oil and one of my mates suggested putting in a slightly thicker oil to slow down its consumption.

I didn't think this was a great idea, what does anyone think?

[h100vw 0]

I had a 2 litre MK1 which gobbled up synta gold. A fella at Arnie Levics in Somerset pointed out that these engines were invented long before synthetic oils were common place and are not made to the same kind of tolerances as say Jap stuff.

 

On his suggestion I switched to the old blue synta and practically eliminated oil consumption altogether.

 

Recently I heard a tale about the 2 litre mk4 'GTI', VW sacked the 20V 125hp gutless wonder in favour of the old mk3 8V motor. A mate of a mate has one and the oil consumption is horrendous, like 1.5 litres per 1000. My mate knows a guy in the local VW service dept. He told him that as they left the factory with synthetic oil in, those figures were to be expected up to around 50K :roll:

 

Basically they just don't get run in as the oil is too slippery. Another mate of mine had a TT from new and was always topping it up.

 

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Interesting link about running in, for those who can be bothered to read it.

 

As all my cars, being old high mileage ones :roll: , use oil, I just use reasonable quality but cheap oil and change it often. 4 gallons of 10/40 from Costco is 17 quid. I just change it every 3000 miles even in my Syncro.

 

Being from Yorkshire has nowt to do with it. :mrgreen:

 

Gavin

[Henny 0]

that's how I've been treating J-DUB since the rebuild Gav.... does wonders for her too... having since stripped the engine again and looked at the wear and bedding in of the rings, I can say that it was wonderfully bedded in, but not worn and had used less than 1/4 litre of oil in 2000miles of being thrashed senseless! 8)

[Elboy 0]

So Gav is that non synthetic 10 40 you're putting in then??

Do they do no synthetic 10 40?

What viscosity was/is the old blue synta oil??

[dr_mat 0]

15/40 isn't it? or 15/50. Can't recall.

[h100vw 0]

The 10/40 I use is non synthetic. I am not sure what the old synta blue was/is, could have been 15/40??

Gavin

[Geo 0]

A good quality 15/40 should be fine for the 1.8 16V and the engine shouldn't use as much of it either. It's what I used in any vw's I've ever had and I've never had problems.

[stevemac 0]

I am not sure what the old synta blue was/is, could have been 15/40??

So far as I'm aware, the Synta Blue oil is 15w40. :wink: