Hi - bit of a curly one. Just bought a used 2011 1.8tsi with 120km. Everything checked out: good service history, clear title, no accidents, all recalls completed. Took it for a good test drive, engine and gearbox were both smooth as. Roadworthy was perfect. 

 

Had a friend drive it home for me today with me following, noticed some black smoke/soot coming from exhaust with heavy-ish acceleration. Not extremely thick, but noticeable. I didn’t notice this on the pre-purchase inspection for whatever reason. 

 

Booked in with Skoda tomorrow for a more thorough check-up before I exercise my statutory buyer rights.

 

Couple of points to note:

- Dealer had mentioned car wasn’t driven for a while

- Seems to be too much oil in the engine (it’s above the ‘A’ mark on the dipstick)

- After taking off oil cap, I could smell smokey fumes and observed some subtle smoke.

 

Any advice welcome.

Edited 14 August, 20187 yr by TGP

Hi TGP,

 

Have a look at this thread 1.8 tsi oil issues and my response on post 7.

 

Whilst it may not be the same & not wanting to alarm you in anyway, this is the first thing I noticed on my 2010 1.8tsi that I had.  My wife took me to collect mine and on the way home wanted a drive so we swapped.  As she accelerated out of a layby I noticed something coming out the exhaust.  Like you I though it may have been sedate driving or that it had been stood .... but it wasnt.  In a nutshell the car consumed a lot of oil, 1 litre per 350 ish miles.

 

Firstly too much oil can be a bad thing...  Was it serviced prior to you buying? - I know mine was and I even range the garage whoc confirmed the correct oil grade and date it was done.  Youll probably notice when you check the oil that the level appears slanted, this is normal but remember to always read the top or bottom of the slant.

 

I would recommend:

 

Have a look at the back of your car, are there oily specks on it?

Remove the plastic engine cover, are there oil stains down the front of the block from repeated bad top ups?

Find a level spot, check oil, make a note and check every few days (mileage dependent) on that same spot.

Inform the retailer that you have seen the smoke coming out the back of the car.

 

 

Edited 14 August, 20187 yr by ScoutCJB

Eek. Thanks for the tips ScoutTGB. I did notice a small amount oil on top of the engine block after taking the cover off. Looks like it’s from topping up as you suggested. 

 

No oily specs on the back of the car or exhaust. It does seem to have a bit of a build up of soot though. 

 

Will wait and see what mechanic says I suppose. What a shame!

What did the mechanic say?

 

I’m concerned with the 2011 1.8 tsi I bought last week, I have oil spots on the tailgate and I suspect heavy oil consumption.

 

really sad as the car car drives brilliantly 

I wouldn’t get too upset until the issue issue is diagnosed. 

 

Seems as though the problem in my Octavia’s case was an inferior oil burning too richly with the petrol. Mechanic said it was too thin and put a thicker synthetic mix in. Seems to have reduced the smoke dramatically. 

 

He also said that the 1.8t was fairly reliable from his experience - particularly if regularly serviced.

 

Let me know how it goes. 

The oil used on the variable service schedule seems very thin what oil has he put in instead?

Yeah, it might be as simple as that. It was valvoline durablend. I was advised engines with higher km (mine’s at 127k) should take a thicker synthetic mix. 

On 15/08/2018 at 00:52, ScoutCJB said:

Hi TGP,

 

Have a look at this thread 1.8 tsi oil issues and my response on post 7.

 

 

Mechanic did a full diagnostic check, found no faults with engine/turbo. All sensors working well. Engine in great condition. Fuel consumption as per normal. 

 

As mentioned above, he came to the conclusion it was an inferior, thinner oil causing it to burn rich. 

After doing an engine flush and draining old oil/adding new Valvonine Durablend, it's definitely improving. No dark clouds under acceleration now. I think there's a little bit of residual oil still hanging around burning off, but it's tonnes better. 
 

Be sure thicker oil will help just temporary, when you seen black smoke, engine was using loads of the oil. Have you checked spark plugs? Surely black, oily and sooted, might happen the ground electrode melted ...
Many topics here, 1.8TSI family engine EA888 made between 5/2009 and 5/2011 up to engine number CDA 221246 are the worst ones ... Same engine built in OctaviaII, SuperbII, Yeti and other brands of Audi, VW and Seat under different engine codes ...

 

Edited 22 August, 20187 yr by rayx

Well, seems as though the smoke issue is still sticking around. It’s mutated slightly though - but it appears to be the oil burning. Has gone from a black sooty smoke to a greyer smoke since the oil change and engine flush. No loss in engine function/performance, and too early to notice if oil levels dropping.

 

It’s more apparent now not under heavy acceleration as it was with the black smoke, but after compression braking down hills and then once I accelerate normally (releasing the gases built up in the vacuum perhaps?).

 

Rang the mechanic who did it to get his thoughts - he just said ‘Looks like you’ve bought an oil burner!’ Reading between the lines, I think he’s just blaming it on the age of the car. 

 

Booked in at a dealer now to see if the specialists can determine the root cause of the problem. 

Edited 23 August, 20187 yr by TGP

Root cause is well known, it is not the age of the car, it is clogged tiny oil control rings with tiny oil drainage holes ...

The issue is top two piston rings work OK, therefore engine have normal or in some cases even higher compression, but third bottom rings do not its work and too much oil stay on the cylinders´ walls ...

Nothing but the new pistons and ring will cure this problem ...

Damn. That sounds disturbingly plausible/expensive.

Edited 23 August, 20187 yr by TGP

Yes, it is ... At main dealer it means too new conrods as new available pistons at VAG are modified to have 23mm pins, you have 21mm ones ... The issue is up to 2015/2016 23mm pin available pistons with DF suffix had same problems after about 150-200kkm as still used bad design of oil control rings, still just drilled holes... Proper oil control ring must be slotted or be 3-parts waffle / miniflex design

 

The cheapper way is to use pistons with suffix BK from BZB code engine same EA888 family, those have proper size and design of oil control rings and have 21mm pins Still expensive though ...

 

 

How much oil is it going though now? 

 

You sound like you know a bit about the issue Rayx. Do you think it would be best going to a dealer or finding a good independent specialist to look at it?

 

Must admit, feeling a little hopeless.

8 minutes ago, Nuclear_Jules said:

How much oil is it going though now? 

 

Too early to tell. Only purchased a week ago.

Well, I am in the same situation with CDAA, do all what can to keep oil consumption up to normal limit ... When it reaches the limit, the only way is to dive into the engine and replace the pistons+rings, soon enough to avoid major damage to engine.

 

In your situation, I rather return it to seller. Yes, you can let it fix, but as already mentioned, at independent it is not cheap and at the main it is realy expensive job. And what is realy sad, it is not a simple job, so it can happen you pay hefty price and the problem can be still there, when the job is not done properly, not an unusual thing these days ... I think you cannot count on any contribution from Skoda VAG ...

 

My personal believe is all is because of NOx, yes, the same thing what stay behind of the Dieselgate ...

VW SSP 296 for FSI engines. I believe it explains clearly why almost all direct injection petrol engines must have dirty inlet valves,  indirect injection would only hide the effect of internal exhaust recirculation ...

SSP_296.pdf

 

It is all caused by the nature of any engine running lean with λ > 1 ... NOx stay behind it all, to fight it, engine manufacturers use EGR technics, either external or internal, instead of NOx storage catalyst. So EGR is the main source for carbon build-up on inlet valves and its surroundings, PCV is just accompanying that.
 

Variable valve timing leads to:
- very effective inner exhaust gas recirculation, whereby combustion temperature and nitrogen oxides are reduced, and
- also improved torque development.

On FSI (=TFSI=TSI etc) engines, a high amount of exhaust gas recirculation is necessary to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions.

In order that the amount of exhaust gas can be pushed up to its limit, it has to be calculated precisely.

 

We know what the effect of EGR is on diesels, heavily loaded engine oil with PM particles and dirty EGR valve with intake channel and intake valves. Same negative results here on petrols. For CDAA and its siblings with bad design of piston oil control ring is this deadly combination ...

Rayx have you had your engine rebuilt? Seems a big problem on CDAA. 

 

Do the 2.0 in the vrs share the same piston design and have the same problems?

Not yet, hope I will avoid it, though oil consumption is higher than on any previous engine I had but still not 0,5litre per 621miles/1000km.

Yes, this is big problem of whole EA888 family engines between 2009-2011, same issues persist till 2015/2016 when new oil control rings design was introduced. Yes, 2.0 TSI affected too, but do not have such precise data as for 1.8 TSI. The whole second stage EA888 affected ...

 

If we were in USA, we would have new engines and longer guarantee ...

http://www.autohaus.com/audi-recall.php

https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/closed-settlements/57394-audi-oil-consumption-class-action-lawsuit-settlement/

https://www.classactionrebates.com/settlements/audi_oil/

http://www.linkznow.com/www-oilconsumptionsettlement-com-audi-and-volkswagen-excessive-oil-class-action-lawsuit/

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/634634-2-0T-TFSI-Oil-Consumption-Class-Action-Lawsuit

 

settlement-agreement.pdf

Edited 23 August, 20187 yr by rayx

On holiday at the moment so I’m going to monitor oil consumption on out journey home and hope it’s ok. 

 

If if I need to take it back to the seller I will be looking for a replacement is the 1.4 tsi a better design?

Yes, fill up to the maximum on the dip stick (do not overfill above the top elbow, between Min. and Max. markings/elbows on the dipstick is about 1 litre) and watch out when you come home. It will give you good view of oil consumption, though Skoda / VAG use weight method or just through diagnostics in guided function when they use oil height sensor on the sump.

 

Can not say anything about 1.4 TSI, but know some have similar issue too, mostly the twinchargers ... Definitely not that wide spreaded issue as with the EA888 ...

Did they fit twin charges in the Octavia?

12 minutes ago, Nuclear_Jules said:

Did they fit twin charges in the Octavia?

Nope, just the Golf

Rayx, any technical thoughts on why the smoke colour suddenly changed from my exhaust? As mentioned earlier in the thread, the issue started as blowing black smoke/soot under acceleration, now its grey/blue (oil) but only when accelerating after compression braking. We’re talking the space of a week here. Mechanic did an oil change and flush which was the catalyst. Also, with most of the oil consumption problems I’ve been reading through, barely and mention smoke. Wonder why?

Edited 23 August, 20187 yr by TGP

Ask your indy what oil viscosity he took from Valvoline Durablend

https://www.valvoline.com/en-australia/search-results?query=durablend

a flush could dissolve some deposits and those are burned now.

 

Then you need to know, what is the real oil consumption of your engine, engine eating 0,5 litre on 1000km will surely not smoke that much as oil thirsty engine using significantly more, over 1, 2 or even more on the same distance ...

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/450916-18-tsi-oil-issues/?do=findComment&comment=5099604

 

Do not search for any instant fix, it does not exist. The condition of spark plugs say a lot about the whole engine, indy should check them as first place to look at