Skoda Octavia VRS 2.0TDI (CUPA EA288) high oil consumption

[Alvis]

I'm looking for help to find whether there is a simple solution or serious repair must be done, to fix high oil consumption (~500g / 1000km) for my Skoda Octavia VRS 2.0TDI 2014. I recently bought this car with millage 145K km, and after taking it to first road trip (6000km) found that its oil consumption is beyond high :-( I have also noticed that car is regenerating DPF more often than I think it should, so I'm assuming that turbine is leaking oil within exhaust and the DPF is filling up and it's struggling to keep it clean.

Is this a common issue for these engines, like some illness with turbo charger or mine is special?  Does anyone has any experience with this, I would appreciate any help, to narrow possible causes and keep this fix only within real issues, instead of letting car repairs to experiment on my bill.

[Genoa1893]

On my latest CUNA engine, I've experimented no unusual oil consumption @ about 3500Km.

 

Rather, if memory serves me well, my previous MkII VRS was a bit thirsty on her first kilometers, so I expect to have to top up.

 

Do you see any sign of oil (thick, light blue smoke) out of your exhaust?

 

HTH,

Edited 18 September, 2018 by Genoa1893

[Alvis]

27 minutes ago, Genoa1893 said:

On my latest CUNA engine, I've experimented no unusual oil consumption @ about 3500Km.

 

Rather, if memory serves me well, my previous MkII VRS was a bit thirsty on her first kilometers, so I expect to have to top up.

 

Do you see any sign of oil (thick, light blue smoke) out of your exhaust?

 

HTH,

 

No I have not noticed any smoke, but I believe that seeing smoke from the car equipped with DPF means that filter is gone, or I'm mistaken how these things work?

 

Also I think I must explain my first post, by millage 145K km I meant 145000km, not brand new car 

[Genoa1893]

I don't think that "soot" and burned oil are processed in the same way, perhaps I should read something more about it

 

I got your car has 145000 Km, but I wanted to say that your consumption (500gr/1000Km) seems really on the high side, if even a brand new motor is less thirsty.

[TDIum]

Sounds like a real problem burning oil but why? 

Correct diagnosis is very important - else you could spend lot of time/money trying to fix. 

[Alvis]

Small update on topic.. Yesterday while looking for any oil leaks I've noticed some oil vapor around crankcase ventilation where it goes back into air intake before turbine. To satisfy my curiosity I disconnected the pipe from air intake and closed it with my finger and felt that it takes just 2 - 3 second for noticeable pressure to build up in crankcase, while engine was running on idle. Also my finger immediately got covered black with oil vapor. So it seems that the oil is blown through crankcase ventilation into turbine and burned together with fuel.

Does this means that the piston rings have been worn out in just 150000km? What are they made of in nowadays, plastic bottles? Of corse these long service intervals 30000km between oil changes also does no good for engines, but it does the trick for manufacturers that car engine life cycle is reduced and the need for new car is created 

[Rooted]

Best be clear how much oil you are using.

 

is it 0.5 litres in 1,000 km (621 miles)   or more than that?

because a litre of engine oil is not 1,000 grams it is 856 grams so 0.5 litres is 428 grams  

 

How and where you drive will or can affect oil consumption, and regens.

?

So do you do short trips with lots of cold starts, or sitting with the engine idling as well as this longer trip?

 

Maybe get an oil and filter change done and new VW507 00 oil in unless you are certain a recent oil change was carried out.

 

 

Just because Skoda / VW print this for every engine Petrol or Diesel, 44kw upwards, and 3,4,5,6,8,12 cylinders does not mean that 0.5 litres oil use is acceptable when just driving a car, no high load or heavily loaded in Europe in normal weather.

It is not 'Within tolerances; just what they put in Owners manuals.

Edited 25 September, 2018 by Offski

[Alvis]

Yes, you're right 1L oil is not 1000g  So to make matters clear oil consumption is around 0.5 L / 1000 km.

 

My driving pattern is 1:3 urban vs extra urban, on weekdays I do short runs around city, 100 km in total, but for the weekends I mostly do extra urban runs ~100 km/h for >100 km at a time. But I assume that engine revs might be just too low for DPF regeneration, because 6speed DSG runs on 6th gear setting engine to run bellow 2000 rpm, but that doesn't explain high oil consumption even more, I think that my driving pattern should be favorable for low oil consumption due to low engine rpms.

 

And yes, it was proper VW 507.00 oil used on last maintenance and all refillings during my road trip to France where also done with oil matching VW 507.00 standards.

[Rooted]

My 2016 November SEAT Alhambra 2.0TDI SCR 150ps DSG used 3 litres of oil in 19,000 miles.

It was like clotted cream. 

But then i was getting 630 -730 miles for 63 litres of Diesel and some Ad-Blue, and the car is leased so i was not caring.

 

Oil changed now, new oil in,  using no oil and fuel consumption no longer as good.  630 miles for 63 litres and not getting much better as before.

I would rather be putting in oil that i can get SEAT to pay for than Diesel i pay for.

 

?

How is your fuel economy?

 

PS.

Now sipping AdBlue.  good to see that VW never ended 'cheating' in the software totally.

But since i do not pay for AdBlue, i do prefer the better MPG than using less Consumables that a Lease / Service Plan can pay for.

Edited 25 September, 2018 by Offski

[Alvis]

I think 6 L / 100 km on average, maybe less, but my driving habits are on economy side not aggressive ones

[Rooted]

Maybe taking it and give it some welly then, an Italian Tune up is maybe all your engine needs.

 

Fill the Fuel tank. and then check the oil as you should.

Engine at Normal Operating Temperature, so at least 6 miles driving is needed,better 10 miles, because checking cold or after ticking over 5 minutes has not the oil at over 50*oC or even near 90 *oC.

Then see your oil use over that tank full of diesel or 2 tank fulls, if it uses 1 litre of Oil then get that checked out.

 

Got to love the USA, they have different Gallons so also Quarts, but they can read a Owners Manual, 

VW UK never bother on their video mention checking 'hot' normal temp engines, and not just 'Warm', or cold other than the 1.2 44 kw engine.

 

 

 

Edited 25 September, 2018 by Offski

[carrock]

my VRS has consistently slurped a litre of oil every 10,000 miles. The previous CR150 never used any. I think there was an issue with the piston rings being slightly out of tolerance on the CR184 engine for a certain point in time. My VRS has never felt particularly quick so I guess compressions are toward the lower end of tolerance also.

[Saints92]

My petrol vrs goes from max to min every 3000-4000 miles, no oil leaks or evidence of it burning through the system. 

[StealthRS245]

47 minutes ago, Saints92 said:

My petrol vrs goes from max to min every 3000-4000 miles, no oil leaks or evidence of it burning through the system. 

I've noticed much the same with my RS245. My father's diesel mkiii RS is absolutely atrocious, but that's done 230,000 km

[Alvis]

Last weekend finally received my Vgate iCar2 and gave it a test to see what VAG DPF has to say regarding DPF health of my car. Of corse my concerns regarding Oil Ash Residue were confirmed. The app says that there is 53.3 (67%) of Oil ash accumulated in DPF.

But I've noticed one more strange thing, sudden spikes of Soot mass, while driving evenly on motorway Soot mass indicator suddenly jumps from 20% to >60% and car automatically starts regeneration cycle, which also ends quite quickly comparing to cycle which starts when Soot Mass has reached >50% on slow accumulation.

Does anyone had this experience with VAG DPF app recording sudden spikes on Soot Mass? What do you think is it real or just some sensor used for car to calculate Soot Mass is giving false readings?

[Alvis]

Also I wanted to add update on millage I've done since last Oil refill due to the warning lite came on. So since warning lite of oil level to another warning lite I've done 1432km with approximate 0.8L of oil. Seems a bit harsh doesn't it?

[Alvis]

Finally found what was causing high oil consumption for my VRS, please see attached picture, this how piston one looked for car with millage 160K. And one more thing, don't do long service intervals, if you don't want you rod-bearings to look like mine :)

[classic]

That looks bad. Given that these engines are known to easily do 3 or 400k miles, how sure are you that it has genuinely done 160000km, and what service history has it got ?

[Alvis]

Service history seemed plausible enough, when I checked it with Skoda dealer, besides hard to imagine that 3yr old car would done 3 or 400K even km. I just think I draw a lucky lot. Now due to the long lasting oil consumption DPF unit has gone mad and does regen cycles every 30 - 50 km, only options are to remove it or to replace it. Must be honest, at the moment I'm considering option one, as I know that car exhaust levels still should be within legal range.

[pdtrewern]

Hi,

 

Interesting to see the outcombe.. so how are things now?  What did you do to rectify the problem, just change pistons?

 

Thanks.

[Dillaz_k]

My low oil light comes on from max to min 700miles. It has gotten worse over time. No visible leaks.

Mileage is 99k 2014 vrs tdi what is the most likely issue here? Any one else experience something similar?

 

Thanks

 

[CristianCCI]

I'm experiencing the same problem. My 2014 2.0 TDI VRS, 218000km on the dash, is day by day consuming more and more oil (city driving not so much, I can live with that but highway....1/2 L in 1000-1500km). I checked the intake for oil traces, nothing....I replaced the cams cover, thinking it may be a problem with blow by, that didn't change anything (the new cover it's different, revised version). The car's DPF it's regenerates very often, sometimes 2-3 times in 50km of driving chill trough town. I don't want to blame it on the engine internals for this problem, as the engine is performing very good, power level is as it should be, fuel consumption is very good, no strange engine noises or uneven run....

I will do some more digging, hopefully will not be the pistons.... 

 

[alextz]

Vagdpf shows jumps in soot because that is looking at calculated mass but you start your regens based on measured soot. That shows that the DPF is clogging faster. Regens every 50km is really bad. Can you monitor soot mass measured ?

[Dillaz_k]

Is this a pcv/ccv valve? Can see oil around it and all over top of engine near fuel injectors. Have had high oil consumption for a while.

[Breezy_Pete]

Looks a lot like one to me.