1.4 vRS oil usage woes - emission check?

[Big Sheep]

I've had my vRS since last August and have covered 6,500 miles. I'm very happy with the car apart from the oil consumption (earlier issue with poor headlight dipped beam performance now sorted out). I've so far used 5 litres of expensive Castrol Edge 5W30 to top up. I should also note that when I collected the car from the dealer the oil had been over filled (well above the max mark on the dip stick).

I knew nothing of oil consumption issues with this engine during my first month of ownership and was surprised when I first got a low oil level alarm. I now regularly check and top up. I did go carefully for the first 1500 miles, not exceeding 4500rpm and avoided motorway cruising in an effort to 'run in' correctly. These days I'm happy to take it to the red line in bursts once engine oil is up to running temperature. The car gets plenty of spirited A-road driving and I get between 33 and 35 mpg on average. Advice now seems to be that gentle running in is a bad idea. I'm hoping that my oil consumption will improve but currently it is a big concern.

[jonny boy]

I think the positives outweigh the negatives massively on the 1.4TSi. Now my oil usage has settled down, I sometimes can't believe just how good this engine is. It's just shy of a 1.4 !!!!

[Ootohere]

For those that have wondered about the Audi A1,

there are so few out their other than the ones that are advertised & re-advertised for sale.

? Since the 180 bhp Audi A1 was available so much later than the Fabia vRS, Polo GTi & Seats, does anyone know if there is any major change in the engine and are any owners having oil consumption problems?

I cant bring myself to go on an Audi forum!

george

[DIZZY3]

Just had a look on the A1 Forum.--------Same problems.

[philhoward]

Only issues on the Scirocco forums seem to relate to a major lack of compression due to pistons burning out - spark plugs seem to be the cause there.

[sharkrider]

problems are reported, and forums highlight it... people come to forums to sort problems...lets remember there are many more of us with no problems...

mine is of the engine code with apparently weak piston rings (apparently lol..) I bounced it off the red line from 14 miles.... 29k now and I havent topped the oil up at all since the 20k service, it runs pefectly and without fault......

my spark plugs are the originals (unusitable and unable to do their job? not in my experiance, and those who know me, know i "drive" the car ) and have not been touched, and I dont get misfires...

I dont get overheating even when hairing up hartside pass in the hot summer last year ect ect........

I started a thread about it, and about 30 % of people have these reported problems... 70 % have fault free happy motoring....

I will conceed, 30% with problems is too much for a major mnufacturer, but alot of them are very good, like mine!

I get 47-53 mpg on my daily commute (no lie) .....

I think its a cracking engine, and deserving of the awards its won!

my only problem with the car is the brakes, they are not up to the job on a "spirited" drive...

After 3 services (and about to go to the 4th) I dont have any faults to report to my dealer.....

[RikSlaty]

problems are reported, and forums highlight it... people come to forums to sort problems...lets remember there are many more of us with no problems...

mine is of the engine code with apparently weak piston rings (apparently lol..) I bounced it off the red line from 14 miles.... 29k now and I havent topped the oil up at all since the 20k service, it runs pefectly and without fault......

my spark plugs are the originals (unusitable and unable to do their job? not in my experiance, and those who know me, know i "drive" the car ) and have not been touched, and I dont get misfires...

I dont get overheating even when hairing up hartside pass in the hot summer last year ect ect........

I started a thread about it, and about 30 % of people have these reported problems... 70 % have fault free happy motoring....

I will conceed, 30% with problems is too much for a major mnufacturer, but alot of them are very good, like mine!

I get 47-53 mpg on my daily commute (no lie) .....

I think its a cracking engine, and deserving of the awards its won!

my only problem with the car is the brakes, they are not up to the job on a "spirited" drive...

After 3 services (and about to go to the 4th) I dont have any faults to report to my dealer.....

Totally agree with this post 22k on mine and is has never missed a beat pushed hard when its warm used a little oil but nothing excessive and mine is an early car also.

[Big Sheep]

I think we are all in agreement, a cracking engine and a great car for the money (particularly if purchased VAT free). However, if excessive oil consumption affects 30% of owners (from a rough survey) then that is unacceptable. It may have an eventual impact on owners who don't have the problem if residual values start dropping once the problem is broadcast to a wider public via reliability reports, Honest John columns, other forums, etc.

Sharkriders mpg figures on his daily commute are fantastic. The most I ever see on the Maxidot on my 35 minute commute is 40 mpg (overall average significantly less). The majority of the run is traffic free and between 30 and 70 mph (keeping to limits!). I use Tesco Momentum 99 fuel. I hope that I can expect better with a few more 1000 miles on the car.

[franklingti]

I've had my vRS since last August and have covered 6,500 miles. I'm very happy with the car apart from the oil consumption (earlier issue with poor headlight dipped beam performance now sorted out). I've so far used 5 litres of expensive Castrol Edge 5W30 to top up. I should also note that when I collected the car from the dealer the oil had been over filled (well above the max mark on the dip stick).

I knew nothing of oil consumption issues with this engine during my first month of ownership and was surprised when I first got a low oil level alarm. I now regularly check and top up. I did go carefully for the first 1500 miles, not exceeding 4500rpm and avoided motorway cruising in an effort to 'run in' correctly. These days I'm happy to take it to the red line in bursts once engine oil is up to running temperature. The car gets plenty of spirited A-road driving and I get between 33 and 35 mpg on average. Advice now seems to be that gentle running in is a bad idea. I'm hoping that my oil consumption will improve but currently it is a big concern.

That is so weird! I brought my car last August too. I've covered 6400 miles in mine an topped up the same amount of oil as you have with the castrol edge 5w-30 with roughly the same mpg. It shouldn't be using 5 litres of oil in less then 10 months surely!?

[sharkrider]

big sheep, I wasn't getting decent fuel economy figures until I had about 10k on the car, then its increased up to about 15k... from then on, 45mpg+ on a normal run (speed limits, going with the flow ect) is easy..... at my normal place of work (main A-road drive for 19 miles , no town ect) 50mpg+ each time... so expect it to get better with miles... I also used 1 litre of oil 0-10k, 250 mil 10-20,k nothing 20-30 k.... so I will say the engine is settled now

today however, I have been enjoyiong the sun, and hairing around like a loon with my mahoosively sticky maxxis tyres, and came home with 32 mpg

EDIT: just for a previous post asking about different oil types, my oild (since the first service at my local dealer) has been syntuim 5000xs, a BMW approved oil for their deisels, in 5-30 flavour

[ab vrs]

I've found mpg improves greatly, my daily commute saw 32 mpg when new, now with 7k it does 40 mpg on the same trip. In total propably put 3 l of oil in total, the last 1500 only a splash to keep the level up.

Someone mentioned earlier the oil issue on 30% of cars. Bet its much lower, is expect there are many owners who have no problems but aren't forum members. A lot of people only turn to a forum when they have a problem

[Big Sheep]

Point taken about the number of problem cars.

Although from my point of view I use the forum out of interest and not necessarily because of problems. I'm enthusiastic about cars and enjoy something with performance and that is not run of the mill (and that is within budget). That is why I bought the vRS. I suspect a high proportion of vRS owners visit related forums. We may have a reasonable, if unscientific sample on the oil issue!

[bw10030]

Well, I'm having all sorts of trouble with mine, a '60' registered VRS, now with 20,000 miles on the clock.

 

First noticed an oil issue when the 'low oil' light came on. Added a litre (dipstick was dry!) then topped when I got home. That was 2000 miles and 3 months ago. Since then, I have added 3.2 lires of oil, so I'm using a litre every 600 miles or so. Right then, off we go to the dealer - guess what, they all do that sir!!! I could not believe their approach - despite having clear evidence over 2 -3 months, and 2000 miles, they just do not want to know. They said they 'could' do a test (which apparently I would have to pay for), but involves adding no oil for 1000 miles and seeing what it's used - well based on my reckoning, the engine will have seized before the test is over, and then I expect the 'warranty doesn't apply sir because you ran the engine without enough oil in it' speech! Less than impressed or happy.

 

So to cut a long story short, despite absolutely loving the performance, I'm getting shut, as the warranty (for what it's worth!) runs out year end, and I'm not confident the dealer will do anything before then. What a shame. However there is without a doubt a major issue with these engines (just too powerful for their size?) which is leading to these premature failures.

 

I've got to say, reading the stories on here even if Skoda fitted a new engine the problem would more likely than not come back. My guess is there's a fundamental design fault which VAG are buying their head in the sand over.

 

Oh, and by the way, having had the brush off from the dealer, my next car isn't anything from VAG!

[xman]

And that is why, in my opinion, there will be no Fabia Mk3 VRS.

[Ootohere]

xman,

What has the engines in the MK2 vRS Euro 5 emission,

got to do with any engine they might have been put in a MK3, if they were going to build ones, which would have had to be a Euro 6 emission engine.? That could never have been the engines in the Mk 2's.

We know that the 1.4TSI Twinchargers were never going to continue as they were/are,

but they did put new ones into 2013 model Seats just 8 months ago.

 

BW10030,

have you spoken to Skoda UK customer services about having the Warranty work carried out on your car.

 

Who do you speak to at the Dealership, a Service Reception Person or a Workshop Manager or Master Tech?

 

george

[bw10030]

Hi sk4gw:

 

Not spoken to Customer Services yet - might be a good plan - but at the end of the day it's the dealer experience which counts. I should not have to be working round them? Do you really think Customer Services would be any more sympathetic?

 

At the dealers spoke to service reception (first) then went in again, insisted on speaking to the 'technician', which was when I got the ' they al do that sir' speech.

 

In the handbook, it implies a maximum consumption of 1 litre per 1200 miles, why will the dealers not listen when it gets twice as bad as that?

 

So I'm off to pastures new. As I drive a Superb as well, I will give serious thought to what to replace that with when the time comes round. So all in all, they may lose a keen (or previously keen) customer, not just from Skoda, but VAG as well.

[Ootohere]

You really must speak to Skoda UK because they will be paying for the Warranty Work to be done.

Are you intending just trying to trade in or get it sold as is?

As it is, you should be getting Free OIl until the car is fixed, the problem effects enough engines and they actually know from the VIN which ones that may be.

 

If you know that it uses more than 0.5 litres of oil in 621 miles its going to cost you nothing.

That figure is not what anyone should be expected to put into the engine anyway, and not the figure Skoda work on.

 

I would arrange with them for your car to go to another Dealership not the one you have already spoken to.

Get Skoda UK to have the Courtesy car arranged and your vehicle up-lifted, they know of the problem and i have no doubt that almost all Skoda Dealerships do as well.

 

george

[redtop170]

My fabia vrs has done 4500 miles in 4 months and four track days and used only 700ml of oil and i have thrashed it from new drive it like you stole it and you should have no problems