I am happy without ACT, it adds a lot of complexity for a very small fuel saving benefit.

My 4 year old 1.4 TSI (140HP) octavia's oil consuption is around 0.3 L/1000KM. Mileage is 110k km. I consider it as normal oil consuption for this car.

(Just to compare: my 20 year old 1.6 Mitsubishi Colt with 300k km mileage needed this amount only every 4000km. So it seems that the octavia burns 4 times more oil. However, it uses 30% less fuel and it performs 100HP/1000ccm whereas the old colt performed only 55HP/1000ccm.)

The 'calibrated' face of the dipstick in mine is facing backwards , i.e. away from the front. This makes it difficult to read. However i have started to look at the plain rear and not twiddle it round  -which smears oil over several inches of the device.

Using this method, the oil has not dropped significantly over the past three long runs (~2000miles total). I topped it up to the max several times after purchasing the car at 15000 miles and now it's on 20000 miles. So the jury is out as to oil consumption

I have the 150hp version.

Is that an 'engine oil at operating temperature check, & parked on the flat'  

and how does it compare to a 'Stone cold engine oil, parked on the flat' check?

On ‎06‎/‎05‎/‎2014 at 08:24, GTR27 said:

Damn! I frikken HATE belts with a passion.....chains are vastly more reliable

 

The only timing related problem I ever had was on a car with a chain. It wrecked the engine. I'm one data point only, but I'm perfectly comfortable with a belt. Now a belt for life, that's different, but the 1.4TSi has exactly that - there is no change interval but it gets inspected after something like 150k miles!

If the new owner of mine knows anything of my treatment, they'll have it inspected prior to that