Hi braintrust - hoping I can rely on your sound advice as usual. 

 

My 2015 Octavia VRS TDI; owned since new; has 45,000 miles and has been serviced as per the schedule. What's bugging me is that even at this mileage I'm having to top up the oil - so much so that I must have topped up at least twice between each service - and until today took 3 top ups since the last service. 3 litres of oil have been used for top ups since new.

 

Is this normal for a car of this mileage? I do a lot of long distance driving but very little stop/start. Mostly motorway. I'm thinking about booking it in for a warranty check as well as a service.

 

Thanks for your help.

Edited 16 March, 20188 yr by foregonereality

Do you check the level at Operating Temperature when you get home after a service having checked it cold when collecting it from the service so you know the correct quantity is in?

 

So just over 1 litre for a year or 15,000-20,000 miles between services.

Some use that and some use none, or the occasional top up. 

Maybe do not leave it 4 months or so after a service before checking if the oil has dropped. 

 

Skoda / VW would point out the May use 0.5 litres in 1,000 km (621 miles.) May use more in the first 5,000 km.

Which is nonsense really, they say that for every engine, petrol / diesel, 4kw up, 3,4,6,8,12 cylinder.

Edited 16 March, 20188 yr by AwaoffSki

My company car 2015 vRS uses a fair amount of oil, it’s just about to pass the 100k mile mark and gets driven long motorway miles a fair amount. I do notice a small white puff of smoke on heavy kick down say after coming out if roadworks / 50 limits on the motorway 

 

car is on fixed servicing so gets pretty regular services (3-4 a year) and I sometimes have to top up a few times between services. The check oil/low oil indicator seems to appear after/near the end of pretty long trips - I just wonder if something (turbo?) gets particularly warm after a long run and let’s some oil through to be burnt! 

Edited 16 March, 20188 yr by Exeterj

14 hours ago, Exeterj said:

My company car 2015 vRS uses a fair amount of oil, it’s just about to pass the 100k mile mark and gets driven long motorway miles a fair amount. I do notice a small white puff of smoke on heavy kick down say after coming out if roadworks / 50 limits on the motorway 

 

car is on fixed servicing so gets pretty regular services (3-4 a year) and I sometimes have to top up a few times between services. The check oil/low oil indicator seems to appear after/near the end of pretty long trips - I just wonder if something (turbo?) gets particularly warm after a long run and let’s some oil through to be burnt! 

Only done 7,500miles in my VRS245 but just had to put 0.5litre of oil in so seems to be using same quantity as yours. Will have to keep an eye on it because on longlife servicing, so first oil change due in another 10,000miles.

Just searched this as mine seems to be using more than ever before; I am now topping up a regular 500ml every month (as I have to carry out certain monthly checks as its a company car).

 

I would say roughly I cover in the order of 1600-1800 miles a month, some maybe more. The car is now just under 65k and until last year, I don't think I ever topped it up between servicing (every 10k).

 

By the sound of it, this amount isn't uncommon, just lucky I hadn't had to do it before last year?

They do tend to use a bit of oil. 

Can't say in the time I've had my car I've noticed a worrying amount if oil usage, however it would appear to be a trend of vag group cars.

 

My mate's golf is a 1.6tdi and I know he had it back in the garage after a few months as it was using oil like it was going out of fashion. He just got told 'it's expected'. He does a 20 mile commute each day, so not excessive mileage.

 

Never had trouble with any tranny van I've had and I was usually driving over 2000 miles a month in my last role. Do a powder check at the beginning of the month and oil was never a problem.

Obviously not all engines, drivers, usage / journeys, weather etc are the same,

or there would just be all the same engines in every vehicle type and just VW group building cars if VW Group had their way.

 

Plenty around the world never add oil unless there is a warning light or message or between others servicing the vehicle.

 

 

 

Edited 1 June, 20188 yr by Offski

1 hour ago, Offski said:

Obviously not all engines, drivers, usage / journeys, weather etc are the same,

or there would just be all the same engines in every vehicle type and just VW group building cars if VW Group had their way.

 

My VRS used 0.5 litres of oil in 23,000 miles.

 

My current Focus ST petrol hasn't touched a drop in 11,000 miles.

 

My wife's Fiesta 1.6 diesel hasn't touched a drop in 13,000 miles.

 

As Offski says, different cars behave differently.

& Transits very much so,

Ford and JLR have turned out some terrible Transit engines in vans or JLR in Prestige or just expensive 4x4's no longer in production. 

4 minutes ago, Offski said:

& Transits very much so,

Ford and JLR have turned out some terrible Transit engines in vans or JLR in Prestige or just expensive 4x4's no longer in production. 

 

On the flipside, five nights a week in my youth I used to thrash a company Ford Iveco between Cheltenham and Plymouth (almost all motorway), hauling trade magazines back and forth.

 

158 miles each way a night, 1600 miles a week........within two years the poor van had covered close on 170,000 miles.

 

Never missed a beat, never touched a drop of oil despite lugging almost 1,500kgs of weight up and down the M5 in the small hours.

 

Mind you, back in those days the recommended service regime was 6,000 miles so the thing got serviced every 20 days

 

20 days?!?! You must have been best mates with all the service department.