vRS Mk. II 1.4 litre twincharger oil consumption issues

[Fitzwilliam]

STP Synthetic Oil Treatment arrived a little earlier, obviously a completely different formulation to the standard STP, totally different colour and much thinner consistency, in fact hardly any thicker than C3 oil. Sucked out a little oil through the dipstick hole so I’d got enough space to add it. Be interesting to see the effect on oil consumption. Immediately after adding I took the car out for a short run of 8-10 miles of mixed driving and it returned its best trip fuel consumption so far at 49.9 mpg, that’s with an outside temperature of 10 degrees centigrade, at the end of the trip the oil temperature was showing 84 degrees so probably would have even been a bit better after a few more miles, I’m happy with that.

[Fitzwilliam]

Took my car into the garage who have now sorted the intake pipe that had come adrift, engine response on part throttle is now noticeably better and the supercharger whine on full throttle has also been muted quite a bit, be interesting to see if there’s any improvement to fuel and oil consumption.

[Sittingbull]

On 11/03/2019 at 14:53, Fitzwilliam said:

STP Synthetic Oil Treatment arrived a little earlier, obviously a completely different formulation to the standard STP, totally different colour and much thinner consistency, in fact hardly any thicker than C3 oil. Sucked out a little oil through the dipstick hole so I’d got enough space to add it. Be interesting to see the effect on oil consumption. Immediately after adding I took the car out for a short run of 8-10 miles of mixed driving and it returned its best trip fuel consumption so far at 49.9 mpg, that’s with an outside temperature of 10 degrees centigrade, at the end of the trip the oil temperature was showing 84 degrees so probably would have even been a bit better after a few more miles, I’m happy with that.

 

Fuel consumption in ours varies but not by an awful lot, if I were doing a long round trip on mainly motorways I would expect to see somewhere in the high 40s, anywhere from 47mpg up and I know this is consistent with other owners, and if it were mixed driving around town with some back roads etc the norm for us is around 37mpg or so. If I am being a hooligan I expect it to be in low 20s or teens. Yours sounds as if it will be no different as you become used to it.

 

We've never added any oil treatments. At one point we were too busy adding oil to worry about adding anything else. Once our engine was replaced the oil consumption became a thing of the past, thankfully. Nigh on 50,000 miles covered in new engine and it's only very recently I've had to add anything between services, and even that wasn't a lot and could have been down to me misreading the blasted dipstick at one point.

 

With your pipework as it's supposed to be, it will be worth keeping an eye on the oil consumption for a month or so to see if there is a noticeable difference in a positive sense. If it is still using oil it very much becomes your decision and risk as to how you proceed. We were fortunate to be under warranty so the cost to us was all stress but not cash. If you have warranty, try not to let it expire before raising an issue around oil consumption if indeed it persists.

 

One other fix for this that has been recommended by renowned engine tuners involves the use of VW Scirocco injectors replacing the original parts. I cannot vouch for this but I know owners who could.

 

As Offski mentioned, there is a number of these cars that are "doing a circuit" with owners buying then finding problems, punting back rather than having fixed only for the dealer to put straight back out on forecourt. I couldn't give a number for this, but have seen it quite a few times now where new owners pop up asking the same question time after time, receive the same advice time after time, then get shot of the car anyway, so the cycle continues.

 

I always say there are more good ones out there than bad and I believe that to be true. But it would be a kid on to ignore the numbers who have had problems and are still having problems with loss of compression caused partly by long term excessive oil consumption not being resolved.

 

If you're doing low miles per annum, and are clearly an experienced driver and owner, then you will know without my saying that being pro-maintenance with any car is always the right approach, and so too it is with these cars. Keep good plugs in, keep good oil in at the correct levels, keep good filters and use the best fuel. Keep an eye out for jobs needing doing such as water pump change as that also houses the supercharger clutch, and with the good maintenance you increase your chances of positive ownership.

 

 

[Fitzwilliam]

4 hours ago, Sittingbull said:

 

Fuel consumption in ours varies but not by an awful lot, if I were doing a long round trip on mainly motorways I would expect to see somewhere in the high 40s, anywhere from 47mpg up and I know this is consistent with other owners, and if it were mixed driving around town with some back roads etc the norm for us is around 37mpg or so. If I am being a hooligan I expect it to be in low 20s or teens. Yours sounds as if it will be no different as you become used to it.

 

We've never added any oil treatments. At one point we were too busy adding oil to worry about adding anything else. Once our engine was replaced the oil consumption became a thing of the past, thankfully. Nigh on 50,000 miles covered in new engine and it's only very recently I've had to add anything between services, and even that wasn't a lot and could have been down to me misreading the blasted dipstick at one point.

 

With your pipework as it's supposed to be, it will be worth keeping an eye on the oil consumption for a month or so to see if there is a noticeable difference in a positive sense. If it is still using oil it very much becomes your decision and risk as to how you proceed. We were fortunate to be under warranty so the cost to us was all stress but not cash. If you have warranty, try not to let it expire before raising an issue around oil consumption if indeed it persists.

 

One other fix for this that has been recommended by renowned engine tuners involves the use of VW Scirocco injectors replacing the original parts. I cannot vouch for this but I know owners who could.

 

As Offski mentioned, there is a number of these cars that are "doing a circuit" with owners buying then finding problems, punting back rather than having fixed only for the dealer to put straight back out on forecourt. I couldn't give a number for this, but have seen it quite a few times now where new owners pop up asking the same question time after time, receive the same advice time after time, then get shot of the car anyway, so the cycle continues.

 

I always say there are more good ones out there than bad and I believe that to be true. But it would be a kid on to ignore the numbers who have had problems and are still having problems with loss of compression caused partly by long term excessive oil consumption not being resolved.

 

If you're doing low miles per annum, and are clearly an experienced driver and owner, then you will know without my saying that being pro-maintenance with any car is always the right approach, and so too it is with these cars. Keep good plugs in, keep good oil in at the correct levels, keep good filters and use the best fuel. Keep an eye out for jobs needing doing such as water pump change as that also houses the supercharger clutch, and with the good maintenance you increase your chances of positive ownership.

 

 

Thanks for the information and advice. Although I’m not sure I think my car has only had 2 previous owners, unfortunately new reg documents no longer tell you how many previous keepers the car has had, the fact that the cars maintenance was only done at 2 different dealers makes me think it only had 2 owners before me, both were meticulous with servicing with short intervals and consumables replaced more frequently than recommended. Now the intake pipe is properly fitted the performance of the car is stunning, I doubt very much that it’s down on power, in fact on a damp road accelerating full bore in S the traction control light didn’t stop flickering until it changed into 4th gear, my old 1.9tdi vrs would only do that in 1st and 2nd. Come what may, barring winning the lottery it will be staying with me for the duration, the car is in absolutely mint condition inside and out so it’s not had any abuse as far as I can tell, with regard to the oil consumption I’m going to wait until I’ve done 500miles before I check it again, which will be at least a couple of weeks, then I can get an accurate assessment of how much it’s using and if the oil additive has had a positive effect. I will be getting it serviced on an annual rather than mileage basis so it will get an oil and filter change every 5-6000 miles, all the other consumables (air filter, fuel filter, spark plugs and gearbox oil) were replaces 2500 miles ago so should be fine for at least a couple of years at my mileage, only thing the previous owners didn’t do was to change the brake fluid, I had that done a few days after I got it which cured a rather spongy brake pedal.

Although there doesn’t appear to be a restriction to airflow I’m going to replace the cabin filter as there’s no indication it’s ever been changed.

When funds become available I’ll be getting one or two other jobs done, retrofitting Cruise Control, replacing the discs and pads all round and possibly fitting a rear anti roll bar.

I have to say the car has exceeded my expectations in pretty well every respect although I found my old VRS’s seats more comfortable, although I had to replace the seat foam and cover at 80000 miles, probably why the seats on my new car are a lot firmer.

It looks like temperature has quite a big effect on fuel consumption, a few days ago I did 2 separate journeys separated by about 2 hours, outside temperature about 13 degrees, the 2 journeys were pretty well identical, the 1st being a cold start after overnight parking returned 36mpg, the second which was probably with some residual heat still in the engine when restarted was 43mpg, the engine getting up to normal operating temperature in about half the time as the first journey, should we get some nice warm temperatures this summer I think I will be likely to see 40+mpg most of the time, not a deal thirstier than the Rapid 1.2tsi 105 sport 6speed manual that I owed a couple years ago.

Edited 17 March, 2019 by Fitzwilliam

[Ootohere]

Bottom of the front of the V5.

3. Special notes,

No. of Former keepers.

 

I received a V5 just this week.  Only shows Registered Keepers, not 'In Trade' so how many times dealers had a car or people never Registered as a keeper.

Edited 17 March, 2019 by Skoffski

[Fitzwilliam]

31 minutes ago, Skoffski said:

Bottom of the front of the V5.

3. Special notes,

No. of Former keepers.

 

I received a V5 just this week.  Only shows Registered Keepers, not 'In Trade' so how many times dealers had a car or people never Registered as a keeper.

Thanks for that, never thought to look at the front, it’s had 4 previous keepers.

[Ootohere]

I just sold a car i have had from new since 2003.

The new owner will get a V5 showing 5 former Registered Keepers as i gave it to family and registered in their names and got it back twice and registered in mine.

[SeaGoat]

On 17/03/2019 at 07:35, Sittingbull said:

 

Fuel consumption in ours varies but not by an awful lot, if I were doing a long round trip on mainly motorways I would expect to see somewhere in the high 40s, anywhere from 47mpg up and I know this is consistent with other owners, and if it were mixed driving around town with some back roads etc the norm for us is around 37mpg or so. If I am being a hooligan I expect it to be in low 20s or teens. Yours sounds as if it will be no different as you become used to it.

[SNIP]

 

I can't comment on the oil consumption question because I (fortunately) don't suffer from it.

 

However, I would have to say that you are incredibly lucky with a MPG figure in the high 40s on mostly motorway driving.  For complicated personal reasons I have just completed a trip over a few days from Bristol to London to Carlisle and back to Bristol, mostly on Motorways and have managed an average overall of a shade over 44 MPG (with a depressing number of 50 MPH average speed limits.  I tend to stick to the speed limit on the rare occasions when I don't get caught up in crawling traffic.  Over a number of years and over 50k miles I aveage almost exactly 40 MPG.

[Fitzwilliam]

26 minutes ago, SeaGoat said:

 

I can't comment on the oil consumption question because I (fortunately) don't suffer from it.

 

However, I would have to say that you are incredibly lucky with a MPG figure in the high 40s on mostly motorway driving.  For complicated personal reasons I have just completed a trip over a few days from Bristol to London to Carlisle and back to Bristol, mostly on Motorways and have managed an average overall of a shade over 44 MPG (with a depressing number of 50 MPH average speed limits.  I tend to stick to the speed limit on the rare occasions when I don't get caught up in crawling traffic.  Over a number of years and over 50k miles I aveage almost exactly 40 MPG.

From my own limited amount of motorway driving since I’ve had my car that seems to be about right to me, I very much doubt that the Gov figure of 53mpg for the Extra Urban cycle is achievable. Tbh with a relatively high 7th gear ratio it is somewhat disappointing, a couple of years ago I owned a Skoda Rapid 1.2tsi 105 Sport 6 speed manual, although at the motorway speed limit the engine revs were only 200-300rpm less than the VRS it returned in the mid to high 50s mpg, makes me wonder if on a cruising throttle that there’s very little boost available from the VRS turbocharger to improve efficiency, as the supercharger is an “on demand” unit it obviously doesn’t cut in at lower revs on a cruise throttle, the Rapids turbo being smaller obviously spools up at much lower revs to give assistance and improve fuel efficiency.

Edited 22 March, 2019 by Fitzwilliam

[Ootohere]

They are figures from EU testing in a temperature controlled building on a rolling road.

 

But no matter 53 mpg is achievable driving a car on a road at UK NSL's.  With people and stuff in it as well, full tank of fuel, drivers and passengers of whatever weight.

So very unlike a 'Urban Cycle rolling road test'.   A Test they should be able to replicate..

 

A CAVE Engine's Engine Management is not the same as that with a CTHE, and not all CAVE or CTHE are the same maps.

As the DQ200's management is not the same with CAVE, or CAVE update '34F7',  or then DQ200's in a CTHE, or with '34H5'.

 

At 3,500 rpm on Turbo only, then lower if the load / accelerator demands the super charger comes in.

No supercharger above 3,500 rpm.

If you look at Dyno runs with a CAVE or a CTHE you will see the difference at around 5,200 rpm.

 

...............

You might notice with your CAVE / CTHE Twincharger that in 'S' there is 6 speed and not '7'.

(with it in 'S' using cruise control if it shows 'S7' it is not in 'S7' but in 'D7'.)

But there are CAVE / DQ200's that will shift to 7th when in 'S' at around 127 mph. Others might not.

 

 

 

Edited 22 March, 2019 by Skoffski

[Sittingbull]

On 22/03/2019 at 12:59, SeaGoat said:

 

I can't comment on the oil consumption question because I (fortunately) don't suffer from it.

 

However, I would have to say that you are incredibly lucky with a MPG figure in the high 40s on mostly motorway driving.  For complicated personal reasons I have just completed a trip over a few days from Bristol to London to Carlisle and back to Bristol, mostly on Motorways and have managed an average overall of a shade over 44 MPG (with a depressing number of 50 MPH average speed limits.  I tend to stick to the speed limit on the rare occasions when I don't get caught up in crawling traffic.  Over a number of years and over 50k miles I aveage almost exactly 40 MPG.

 

Over the 4 and a half years of ownership our all driving mpg averages 37.8mpg. That is almost entirely around town or rural driving between small villages where my wife's work takes her. We're pleased with that. We didn't really look for high mpg as a factor when buying the car, we knew coming from an Ibiza 1.4tdi that we wouldn't achieve the same figures.

 

Over that period of ownership, any time we have done a round trip motorway (for us it would be home to Carlisle and back, around 160 miles all in) we ordinarily see 47mpg and that's sitting steady between 65 and 70mph as our traffic police are notorious from where we live beside the M74 and Lockerbie, so we know we need to be steady. We have seen over 50mpg after the car had been freshly serviced and by sticking to 55 to 60mph but that was just overly boring.

 

I know from discussions with other owners at meets etc that mid to high 40s is fairly common amongst us. Overall, despite some major mechanical work having been required, our wee car has been a very good car for us and more than met our expectations.

[Fitzwilliam]

Having now got a few more miles on my car by my best estimate it has probably used 600-625 mls of oil in 725 miles so probably a little under 1 litre/1000 miles.

I don’t honestly think the oil additive did much so I won’t be trying it again. As has been suggested before I will be changing to using 5w/40 grade once my stock of C3 5w/30 is used up, I’d be interested to know just how much reduction in consumption the change is likely to make. It has also been suggested that lots of short journeys ups the oil consumption, unfortunately that really is my normal usage, I rarely do more than 6-8 miles at a time, in the summer I will likely get out for longer runs, plan to take my daughter to Leavesden Studios to see the making of Harry Potter in the school holidays which is a round trip of about 300 miles, will be interesting to see if it uses less oil on a trip like that.

The warmer weather we’ve had lately has improved my MPG somewhat, even on shortish runs it’s hitting 40mpg consistently, I think getting used to when to use manual over D is helping, selecting the appropriate gear to climb a particular incline and using the torque rather than being in D and the gearbox changing down unnecessarily and using higher revs. One thing I have noticed is when you come to a stop in manual the engine ticks over about 300rpm higher than it does in D does anyone know why it does that ?

[Ootohere]

The figure in all the Owners Manuals from VW Group and the figure Main Dealer or Customer services might say is within tolerances, which it is not, 

just 'may use 0.5 litres / 1,000 km.   So 0.5 litres 621 miles, (1 litre in 1,242 miles.)

0.3 litres in 1,000 km was too much and Skoda / VW replaced engines using that much when under warranty.

 

You have an excessive oil user sadly.

 

PS.

With a 7 speed DQ200 the gears really are working to get the torque where best used and economy saving.

Dropping gears and getting a shift on on a slope really is not a fuel drinker, and if the car / ecu does not like your manual shift it ignores you anyway..

 

Sit in 'D' stationary and look at the RPM.

Then move to 'S' and look. 

Then shift to Manual 1 and look at the RPM.

    In 'D' it is 7 speed, in 'S' 6 speed, and when manual shifting the same as in 'S'.

 

If you have Cruise Control, try driving in S with Cruise Control on and then move the shifter to 'D', you will see that even though the car showed S6 it was not in 'S'.

Edited 31 March, 2019 by Skoffski

[Fitzwilliam]

3 hours ago, Skoffski said:

The figure in all the Owners Manuals from VW Group and the figure Main Dealer or Customer services might say is within tolerances, which it is not, 

just 'may use 0.5 litres / 1,000 km.   So 0.5 litres 621 miles, (1 litre in 1,242 miles.)

0.3 litres in 1,000 km was too much and Skoda / VW replaced engines using that much when under warranty.

 

You have an excessive oil user sadly.

 

PS.

With a 7 speed DQ200 the gears really are working to get the torque where best used and economy saving.

Dropping gears and getting a shift on on a slope really is not a fuel drinker, and if the car / ecu does not like your manual shift it ignores you anyway..

 

Sit in 'D' stationary and look at the RPM.

Then move to 'S' and look. 

Then shift to Manual 1 and look at the RPM.

    In 'D' it is 7 speed, in 'S' 6 speed, and when manual shifting the same as in 'S'.

 

If you have Cruise Control, try driving in S with Cruise Control on and then move the shifter to 'D', you will see that even though the car showed S6 it was not in 'S'.

Yes it looks like I’m unlucky with the oil consumption but I don’t suppose it’s unexpected, just have to be content with the fact that the car’s perfect in every other respect, the oil consumption doesn’t appear to effect performance or fuel consumption which seems to be par for the course, as I stated if my usage involved longer runs it could well not appear as bad as it is, hopefully check that out in the summer. Tbh I’ve only used S once just get any idea of the available maximum acceleration, I thought it was on the verge of being frighteningly quick, much more than I’d ever be likely to make use of, my old 1.9tdiVRS was really as fast as I could have wanted, the Twincharger is considerably faster still. When the Mk2 Fabia came out I expected the VRS variant to be fitted with the 2.0 litre TDI engine with 170PS like in the Octavia VRS, not really sure why they didn’t take that route, I doubt the performance would have been appreciably less but economy would have been a lot better.

The available acceleration in D is more than sufficient for most driving situations I’d be likely to meet. Revs in D at a standstill is around 800rpm in manual mode it’s 1100rpm, don’t have Cruise Control yet, it’s on my wanted list along with a rear anti roll bar and Brembo Discs all round, when funds become available. On long runs I think Cruise Control is worth 5%+ on the fuel economy, my 1.9tdiVRS, Rapid 1.2tsi Sport and Citigo all had it as standard fitting, certainly helps combat right leg ache on long trips.

Edited 31 March, 2019 by Fitzwilliam

[Ootohere]

From the years and miles i have driven twinchargers the cruise control gives worse fuel economy.

That is from me leaving home and one direction / road with 25 miles on 60 mph speed roads, or the other way and north 50 miles on a 70 mph dual carriageway.

I only used CC a few times with different cars to see how they were and i could get better fuel consumption with lifting off the accelerator, 

the CC does not do that.

Been driving that same routes for over 30 years in lots of cars. CC with a diesel is a different mater or some petrols.

(no issues with the right leg, i only have a left used on the standard accelerators)

 

Just watch that 1 spark plug is not fouling / coking up. Topping up oil can go on for years as long as no misfires or burning a spark plug tip.

 

PS

'S' Is good for decelerating, especially in winter, or crawling along in slow traffic, 10,13, 20 mph, 

stops it going up 2nd to 3rd sort of thing.

Edited 31 March, 2019 by Skoffski

[Fitzwilliam]

11 minutes ago, Skoffski said:

From the years and miles i have driven twinchargers the cruise control gives worse fuel economy.

That is from me leaving home and one with 25 miles on 60 mph speed roads, or the other way and north 50 miles on a 70 mph dual carriageway.

I only used CC a few times with different cars to see how they were and i could get better fuel consumption with lifting off the accelerator, 

the CC does not do that.

Been driving that same routes for over 30 years in lots of cars. CC with a diesel is a different mater or some petrols.

 

Just watch that 1 spark plug is not fouling / coking up. Topping up oil can go on for years as long as no misfires or burning a spark plug tip.

When I’ve done a few more miles I’ll take the spark plugs out and inspect them, they were replaced only 2500 miles ago so I don’t expect them to give problems for some time, obviously if I was to detect a misfire I’d change them pronto, so far the engine has performed faultlessly since I bought the car. The way I use CC on long runs for best economy I disengage it whenever I hit a downgrade and then re engage when the road flattens or when the car starts to lose speed.

Edited 31 March, 2019 by Fitzwilliam

[SeaGoat]

I happened to mention to a garage owner this afternoon that the Mk.II Skoda Fabia vRS seems to have a reputation as an oil burner.

His response was "Yes, it's a VW, they all burn oil; Audis have a notice on the windscreen advising the owner to check the oil level weekly."

Since I know nobody who owns an Audi I have no idea whether this is true or not and I didn't think that a Mother's Day get together was the right time to get into a long discussion.

However, it was interesting that this was his immediate response.

[Fitzwilliam]

15 hours ago, SeaGoat said:

I happened to mention to a garage owner this afternoon that the Mk.II Skoda Fabia vRS seems to have a reputation as an oil burner.

His response was "Yes, it's a VW, they all burn oil; Audis have a notice on the windscreen advising the owner to check the oil level weekly."

Since I know nobody who owns an Audi I have no idea whether this is true or not and I didn't think that a Mother's Day get together was the right time to get into a long discussion.

However, it was interesting that this was his immediate response.

I doubt that that’s true for all VW engines, I had 2 Seat Arosa 1.4tdi’s the second one was parted with at 140000 miles on the clock and to my recollection it never used enough oil between services to need topping up, likewise my 1.9tdiVRS, Rapid 1.2tsi Sport and my Citigo were all non oil users as well. My partner has just swapped her 65 plate Seat Ibiza 1.4 at 38000 miles and that never needed the oil topping up either.

[Ootohere]

@SeaGoat

True of engines that VW group messed up and have had to admit to in other world regions.

That can be Euro 4 Petrols with Timing chain issues and excessive oil use, and 1.4, 1.8, 2.0 Euro 5 TSI's.

Not how it supposed to be, just a general c0-ck up with engine design and components that showed the spin about VW reliability only referred to being able to expect VW to be in denial.

Edited 7 April, 2019 by Skoffski

[Fitzwilliam]

Finally got round to booking my VRS in for a Cruise Control retrofit next Thursday, I’m taking it to Awesome Gti in Manchester, be quite interesting to see what other stuff they do while I’m there.

Also I saw a comment on a thread on the Seat user forum which advised not topping up the oil on a twincharger higher than the top of the hatched area on the dipstick, they reckon  doing that increases the oil consumption, thoughts ?

Edited 17 May, 2019 by Fitzwilliam

[SeaGoat]

On 17/05/2019 at 16:30, Fitzwilliam said:

 ~ ~ ~ I saw a comment on a thread on the Seat user forum which advised not topping up the oil on a twincharger higher than the top of the hatched area on the dipstick, they reckon doing that increases the oil consumption, thoughts ?

 

I have certainly read that one should never put in more than 3.6 litres of oil (presumably up to the top of the hatched area?) but I have also seen comments that it is safe to put in 3.9 Litres - WHAT?

 

I have never seen or read anything to explain why overfilling might be harmful - however - personally I would never fill to above the top of the hatched area.  There appear to be endless "tales" about the VW Twincharger engine - there probably are on other vehicles as well - I can't say that I have conducted any sort of a study of "popular wisdom from the armchair"

Edited 19 May, 2019 by SeaGoat

[edbostan]

Are these engines failing even if driven like Miss Daisy backwards and forwards to Sunday church? Being a vRS is it tempting to put pedal to the metal? My mate has an Octavia 1.8T which has been driven briskly over 100k and he has had no issues with oil consumption or turbo over the last 10 years. Do these engines differ?

[Fitzwilliam]

1 hour ago, SeaGoat said:

 

I have certainly read that one should never put in more than 3.6 litres of oil (presumably up to the top of the hatched area?) but I have also seen comments that it is safe to put in 3.9 Litres - WHAT?

 

I have never seen or read anything to explain why overfilling might be harmful - however - personally I would never fill to above the top of the hatched area.  There appear to be endless "tales" about the VW Twincharger engine - there probably are on other vehicles as well - I can't say that I have conducted any sort of a study of "popular wisdom from the armchair"

Personally I was always told that having the oil level too high was damaging to the catalytic converter, I don’t honestly know what level on the dipstick equates to exactly 3.6 litres, the information in the handbook is slightly vague on this point, stating you may add oil in the hatched area and not to add oil if above the hatched area, why  couldn’t they just have a minimum and maximum mark like most manufacturers do. Since I’ve had my VRS I’ve tried to keep the level midway up the section above the hatched area. I know my car is a fairly heavy oil user but it’s manageable particularly as I don’t do a lot of miles, once my stock of 5w30 E3 is used up I’ll try 5w40 which has been suggested by others.

I’m personally not a hard driver (being 66 years old) and the VRS is a car that doesn’t need to be caned, it’s attraction for me is that it has 2 characters, driven gently it’s so quiet and refined, although the wide low profiles certainly let you know how good or bad the road surface is, it’s certainly more rewarding to drive gently than say a Mk 1 or Mk 2 Civic Type R which just wants to fly all the time, I’d personally like the throttle to be a bit more sensitive, I find it a bit heavy and I get an aching right foot at motorway speeds, hence my having Cruise Control fitted in the coming week.

[Ootohere]

I put in 3.9 or even 4 liters of 5w 40 FS / VW502 oil.

As many Dealership Techs also did.

This has the Oil when checked 'at normal operating temp' at the top of the cross hatch area.

When cold on the flat above the cross hatch area.

 

Maybe if VW Group had officially change the Oil Capacity and also not had such a crap dip stick there would have been less Twinccharger failures from 2009.

The 1.2 TSI capacity changed.

Some techs wrongly put 4.2 liters in Twincharger engines, that is too much oil.  3.9 is actually correct IMO. & IME.

 

Bottom Official Oil Consumption test and the tech has the wrong weight for oil....

 

Edited 23 May, 2019 by Skoffski

[Fitzwilliam]

Went across to Awesome Gti in Manchester yesterday to have the cruise control fitted. Before setting off I checked the oil level and it was exactly at the top of the hatching on the dipstick, when I got back after around 130 miles the level had probably dropped about 1mm. One thing which was very noticeable was the oil temperature ran quite a bit hotter than when I have the level nearer to the top of the dipstick, I’ve generally registered 86-89 degrees after a good warm up, yesterday most of the time it read 95-96 degrees and that was with fairly light cruising at 50-55 being limited by following lorries over Woodhead Pass. With higher oil temperatures with less oil in I assume that would probably increase oil consumption so I’m going to stick with the oil level nearer to the maximum mark. Awesome Gti seem a pretty decent firm to deal with although some of the stuff they sell seems pretty pricey. Didn’t think fitting the CC would be a long job but it took the technician almost three and a half hours to complete which meant that I hit rush hour traffic on the way back, first time I’ve managed to top 50mpg, trip computer registered 51mpg when I got there, the traffic on the return leg knocked the days average down to 47, still not bad though.

Edited 24 May, 2019 by Fitzwilliam