Hi All

 

I own a 2003 Skoda Fabia Estate 1.4 Automatic, I've had it for about four months and bought it with 45500 miles on the clock, when it had a full service and oil and filter change.  Today, with 48500 miles on the clock the oil light came on whilst I was driving but fortunately I was just passing a garage so pulled in and checked the oil, it was very low.  It took approximately 2 litres of oil.

 

This is my fist Skoda and I had not expected the car to use that much oil in only 3000 miles.  It doesn't appear to be burning any oil, no blue smoke etc.  My previous cars (BMWs) didn't use any oil between services.

 

Is this excessive?

Are you sure that the engine had the correct amount of oil when you got it back from being serviced?

 

When you say oil light do you mean oil level warning or low oil pressure?

 

SN

"Are you sure that the engine had the correct amount of oil when you got it back from being serviced?"

 

Yes I checked the level to make sure it was OK when I got the car, as a matter of course.

 

"When you say oil light do you mean oil level warning or low oil pressure?"

 

The 'Oil Can' symbol came on Red with three bleeps, so I guess this indicated Low Pressure.  The manual says if it shows Yellow this means Low Oil Level, but it didn't come on as yellow.

 

After topping up the oil to the correct level, the light didn't come on again.

If your losing that amount of oil over such a very short period, my guess something is loose very loose, and allowing oil to leech away..

Look for areas with oil patch leakage, I know it's difficult under the engine, with the under- engine floor cover in place..

My thought was that there must be a leak, but there is no oil on my drive where I normally park it and when the oil lamp came on and I stopped, I had a good look underneath - nothing.  In fact it was in the garage a couple of weeks ago for an unrelated 'Rattle" problem on the back end and we had a good look around the underneath when it was up on the ramp - no signs of oil then either, so I reckon it's drinking it somehow...

At this time of year I would suspect the breather box is full of yoghurt which increases oil consumption badly on these engines.

 

I also notice your mileage is very low, so I suspect a lot of short trips and bad fuel, you need to run this engine on super plus unleaded and nothing else, you also need to spank it more often and make sure it gets longer runs.

When this engine came out in polo 6n 98/99 my i did loads of these as a technician for heavy oil use.

as said breather box used to block and they used to fill air filter with oil.

offical is anymore than 1l per 500 miles is exessive.

"At this time of year I would suspect the breather box is full of yoghurt which increases oil consumption badly on these engines."

 

"i did loads of these as a technician for heavy oil use. as said breather box used to block and they used to fill air filter with oil"

 

Is the breather easily removed for inspection and cleaning?  BTW, where is it?

 

"I also notice your mileage is very low, so I suspect a lot of short trips and bad fuel, you need to run this engine on super plus unleaded and nothing else.."

 

Down to the previous owner I'm afraid, it does get used 'Properly' now and I will certainly switch to Super Unleaded in future.

Edited 28 December, 201312 yr by DWS

http://vin-online.ru/etka.php?vag=SK&rgn=CZ&mod=FAB&year=2002&kat=225&gr=10340

 

parts 34 and 35 should help

 

http://vin-online.ru/etka.php?vag=SK&rgn=CZ&mod=FAB&year=2002&kat=225&gr=10307

 

and part 19 in this one

Edited 28 December, 201312 yr by spud31

Thanks for that Spud31, very useful.

I'd tend to agree with respect to the oil separator, I found that it looked quite temping to try to take apart - but in reality it would probably break, so I bought a new one. I'd expect that it is more than just cleaning these separators need when causing this sort of issue, it could be the motor that fails or seizes and does not regulate the air getting drawn through under high vacuum conditions. Either way, wife's BBY engine in a Polo 9N went from roughly a litre every 1500 miles down to a litre every 4000 miles. If your engine is a BBY type, it should be quite happy with ordinary fuel, I'm only using higher octane Shell to try to clean out the engine and avoid pinking - which was probably due to the extra oil being drawn through the engine, since reducing the level of oil being drawn through the engine, I've not quite got round to stopping using the higher octane Shell as it does improve this engine's drivability - though normally it shouldn't.

 

You will find this vertical cylindrical assembly hiding low down at the "back" of the engine - after you have taken the air cleaner off, it is held on with three bolts and you will probably need to have a look then lying on the engine, work by feel. The new oil separator will come complete with two new seals - which tend to cause oil leaks in the latest version 85PS engine it seems!! Also, this separator will cost £85+ .

With a bit of luck it's the breather system as mentioned above. Definitely the first thing to check.

 

However the 1.4 16v, especially the earlier AUA/AUB engines, are known for piston ring issues which can lead to excess oil consumption.

The following threads may be of interest to you (not for the faint hearted):

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/141607-1-4-16v-fabia-burning-oil/

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/98796-oil-consumption-for-a-14-16v/

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/90979-problems-with-piston-rings-on-16v-14-fabia/

It's not a universal problem though, so don't panic. Mine (BBZ engine, admittedly) sips so little oil I've never ever had to top it up between services (currently on 65k).

Edited 29 December, 201312 yr by cjc46

DWS, have you worked out which engine type is fitted to your car - it will be on the Skoda car paperwork pack if that was handed on to you, or it should be on the label in the spare wheel well - it should be either A** or BBY - it is the missing " ** " that you need to find. Hopefully it will be a "B" series engine, though Skoda seem to have been a bit slow at flushing the last of the "A" series out.

 

By the way, the oil separator is a black plastic assembly and has a control connector on it and an "air out" pipe connected to it, the "air + oil in" and "oil out" are taken care off by how it bolts to the side of the engine (big "air + oil in" stub with O-ring seal near the top and a small "oil out" flange with a face seal lower down") - well that is what is fitted to the BBY engine.

Edited 29 December, 201312 yr by rum4mo

With a bit of luck it's the breather system as mentioned above. Definitely the first thing to check.

 

However the 1.4 16v, especially the earlier AUA/AUB engines, are known for piston ring issues which can lead to excess oil consumption.

The following threads may be of interest to you (not for the faint hearted):

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/141607-1-4-16v-fabia-burning-oil/

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/98796-oil-consumption-for-a-14-16v/

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/90979-problems-with-piston-rings-on-16v-14-fabia/

It's not a universal problem though, so don't panic. Mine (BBZ engine, admittedly) sips so little oil I've never ever had to top it up between services (currently on 65k).

 

Yes in truth not a very Christmassy subject!!

 

I found that the emissions were getting worse year on year - as measured at MOT time, so I ended up in panic taking serious action and replacing the oil separator just in case I ended up with many other things getting reported as needing replacing in the emissions reduction/control areas. At its MOT in late September, the emissions had dropped back quite a bit, so maybe reducing its oil drinking had something to do with that! I just did not want to end up with the car being binned at 90+K and 11 years for emissions.

 

My good old, but sadly sold on, B5 Passat 2.8V6, did like to sup a bit of oil from new especially when running at sustained high speeds, but year on year, up to and including its MOT at 13 years old, its measured emissions and emissions control parameters did not change at all, maybe up very slightly one year but back down next year, now that was an Audi engine! (APR engine code)

Edited 29 December, 201312 yr by rum4mo

All these engines sip oil as they age, this is for two reasons, the first is that the engine is Euro 4 compliant and because of this the head runs very hot due to the lean burn nature of combustion, this hot running prematurely ages the valve stem oil seals and they become hard and no longer seal effectively. The second reason is due to valve guide wear, this is hastened by the rocker follower design which exerts a small side thrust on the valve stem as it opens the valve.

 

Oil consumption when the engine is newer is caused by piston blowby, this is exacerbated by the breather design which leads to increased crankcase pressure forcing oil mist past the rings and into the ring grooves on the piston, this oil gradually builds up and bakes into the grooves and can eventually cause the rings to stick in their grooves making oil consumption much worse.

 

All of these problems are design related and can be rectified by modification or remedial action.

A note in the owners manual:

 

"Oil consumtion can be as much as 1 Litre/1000 Km."

 

That seem quite a bit to me?

 

The sticker on the inside of the Fuel Filler Cap indicates 95 RON.

 

The Manual says 1.4 engines should use 98 RON.

 

Bit of a contradiction there...?

Edited 29 December, 201312 yr by DWS

I agree that it's a high level of oil consumption by 1990s standards, but that's a fairly typical consumption guideline for recent engines. I believe the current BMW guideline is 1L/1000km (1.5L (!) for M-Power engines).

 

As for petrol, the manufacturers recommendations are:

 

95 RON for 1.4 16v 75bhp (AUA and BBY)

 

98 RON for 1.4 16v 100bhp (AUB and BBZ)

I agree that it's a high level of oil consumption by 1990s standards, but that's a fairly typical consumption guideline for recent engines. I believe the current BMW guideline is 1L/1000km (1.5L (!) for M-Power engines).

 

As for petrol, the manufacturers recommendations are:

 

95 RON for 1.4 16v 75bhp (AUA and BBY)

 

98 RON for 1.4 16v 100bhp (AUB and BBZ)

 

I agree with the above, plus as it is an automatic it should have the lower powered engine, 95 or even lower should be okay with the way the engine timing will have been programmed.

 

With the exception of a 1968 Ford that had a leaking sump, I had never ever needed to add oil in between services, that is until I entered the higher quality VAG sort of car, but, my current car, a B8 S4 is, typically, known to drink oil - but I've not needed to add any - yet!

thought it was in the manual.

TBH we always found castrol oil caused them to drink it too, i know mazda is using valvoline to stop the diesels having DPF issues. 

Just an addition to my post:

 

Speaking to a technician at my local Skoda dealer today, he told me that 1 Ltr/1000Km is about normal for this car/engine (1.4 BBY 55Kw/75BHP).

 

This also what the owners manual says, I quote "It is normal that the engine consumes a certain quantity of oil.  The oil consumption may be as much as 1 Ltr/1000 Km."

 

 

So according to the Skoda technician and the owners manual, 2 Litres in 3,000 miles (4828 Km) is below average - according to Skoda!

 

I also asked the technician about what fuel I should be using, he said Unleaded 95 RON with this engine (1.4 BBY 55Kw/75BHP).  Super Unleaded should only be used in the 74Kw/100BHP engines.

 

Since the initial incident, I am now monitering the oil level against my mileage, it will be interesting to see the outcome.  I am averaging about 1000 miles a month.