I checked the oil again today, and it was at the bottom allowable level, so put another 1/4 litre in. This car is approaching 20,000 miles, and its still using a fair bit of oil. Is this something that I should mention to the dealer as a problem?

Also, I cant understand how this car can vary so much. When I put in some more oil (but I suspect this has nothing to do with it) I drove it afterwards, and it was so much smoother than it has been the last few weeks, really, really smooth, and it felt slightly quicker as well. I cant understand how this car varies so much from day to day :confused:

Skoda limits IIRC are 1 litre of oil per 600 miles.

Yeah, as Lummox says, they have acceptable oil usage and although it's more than I'd like any car to get through, it doesn't leave you much in a position to debate it.

New oil will be thicker and cleaner, so will make the engine run smoother.

Rob.

Mine burnt oil from day one, an alarming amount for the first few thousand miles and steadily right up to 11000 miles. I used Fuchs fully synthetic PD oil at the first service and it hasn't used a drop since. I suspect the VW oil is probably semi synthetic, like Millers, and is not as good under extreme load as the Fuchs stuff. That's the only explanation I can come up with, but things have been a lot quieter and smoother since using fully synthetic

I suspect the VW oil is probably semi synthetic, like Millers, and is not as good under extreme load as the Fuchs stuff. That's the only explanation I can come up with, but things have been a lot quieter and smoother since using fully synthetic

According to oilman (who is a distributor for Fuchs oil in the UK), the factory fill oil is supplied by Fuchs.

According to oilman (who is a distributor for Fuchs oil in the UK), the factory fill oil is supplied by Fuchs.

Fair comment Dennis, what I forgot to mention was that I had changed my oil at 3000 miles and used the Quantum brand VAG stuff. I don't think it's up to much, but it is what most dealers I've been to are using.

Yeah, as Lummox says, they have acceptable oil usage and although it's more than I'd like any car to get through, it doesn't leave you much in a position to debate it.

Skoda quote an acceptable oil usage in the handbook (p. 187):

It is normal for the engine to consume oil. The oil consumption may be as much as 0.5 l/1 000 km depending on your style of driving and the conditions under which you operate the vehicle. The oil consumption may be slightly higher during the first 5 000 kilometres.

However that doesn't explain why at 5,679 miles I've finally decided to return the oil level to approx where it was when I got the car - and putting in 270ml means an oil consumption of only about 1litre/21,000miles!!!