Hi,

Can anyone out there advise me whether I need to worry about my oil consumption with my Octy 1.9 tdi (not VRS)?

I am on 20,000mi service interval oil, and am 14,000 miles since the last service (last done at purchase from Skoda dealer at 16,000 miles). The clock now shows 30,000 miles.

Up to about 24,000 miles I had not noticed any oil consumption, but then noted the oil level down to the bottom "elbow" of the dipstick (I think that I had just not really checked the level since purchase... which was typically slightly overfilled at the time). Topping up with half a litre of long-service oil from a Skoda dealer (to the exact mid-range of the dipstick) then gave me about 1,500 miles before having to top up with 200-250 mls to again hit the same dipstick point (indicating that I am currently attaining 6,000 miles per litre at worst).

It must be noted that MOST of my mileage involves lugging a 1300 kg caravan load behind me, and that I have a dsg auto gearbox (which seems to prefer the selection of a lower gear than the engine appears actually capable of... I therefore select manual and pop it in 6th whenever on flat motorways etc).

It does seem that I have arrived at 6000 miles per litre only as the oil has got older, now 14,000 miles (it seemed a lot lower consumption when the oil was new). I have never seen smoke from the exhaust even when revving hard, and the engine sounds exactly as sweet as other Octy TDI's I have come across. I also seem to have an oil tight engine (no drips on the garage floor).

VAG's recommendation that 1,000 km (625 miles) per litre is acceptable frankly amazes me (although do accept that it might well be a ruse to deflect warranty issues). My dealer tells me that 6,000 miles per litre sounds very good (and I did not purchase it from my local dealer), but posts elsewhere here suggest that mine represents amongst the worst oil consumption going.

So...

1) Is this consumption acceptable & does it suggest anything about engine life expectancy?

2) Does (as I suspect) towing my caravan for most of my mileage greatly worsen oil consumption?

3) Can I expect (as it appears) oil consumption to worsen as the current engine oil gets older & dirtier?

Many thanks in advance to any who can advise (a bit worried:ashamed:).

I have a 30k mile 1.9TDi with oil consumption around 1 litre every 10k miles.

I would say yours is pretty normal and absolutely OK

Hunt around the threads on here you will find that some are using much more than that!

I've done a little over 6000 miles from new in my 1.9 TDI manual. I put in about half a litre at 5000 miles, which I think is pretty good as it's running in.

Don't worry about yours, it sounds fine to me.

I have to put in around half a litre between services (serviced every 6 months = 8500 miles), and it'll be near the bottom of the hatched area by the time it goes in. So I reckon about 1.5l every 10000 miles - it's been that way ever since I got it 4 years ago...

I think in my 110 I used to put in quarter to half a litre between 30k mile services.

On the 2.0 it's more like half a litre to a litre every 18k miles.

Not much really when you consider older engines used half to a litre every 5-6k miles.

I now have an extra oil change between services at about 9k miles using the long life oil. That way i stay on the variable service but add extra oil services. The car seems much much happier on this.

I think I put in about half a litre every 10k miles in my 1.9 PD105.