Hi All

I've been trying to read up on all the oil consumption posts here but there are so many it making my head spin. so here's my issue:

bought the car May 2025 from a respected dealer,part of a large group of dealers they don't deal directory in Skoda's but do have a SEAT dealership. no service history was provided at the time(despite asking twice) but i contacted a Skoda Dealer who provided it for me. 3 services up to around 17000 miles.

Car had been serviced before i got it as i was able to get a printout of that in August.

all was well when i picked up the car at 88900 miles. took it to the South of England 2 weeks after i got it and all seemed good. it was a bit harder on dies al that my older Vectra but i put it down to more powerful and smaller tank. drove over 1200miles in a 5 day period with no major problems.

13 July Oil Light came on. i put a 1 litre in of 5w30 LL oil as recommended. it read as full on dipstick.

2-3 weeks later (cant remember the date) oil light came back on.

contacted the dealer as got it book in for a check. -have been dealing with their SEAT dealership

on 25th August they found a crankshaft seal leak. o, i thought whats causing the leak.

11 Sept can have the seal repaired/replaced- parking sensor fixed as well(faulty from test drive and was noted by Salesman)all under warranty and i paid extra to get timing belt/water pump changed as was now at nearly 93000 miles.

i do a commute of 256 miles each day minimum plus running around after kids so can do quite a few miles in the week ie 400+

again all seemed the be well. 3 weeks later the oil light came back, on a Saturday night

phone dealer straight away, car went back down to them on the Tuesday, could not find a leak anywhere to explain it.

was supposed to go the local Skoda Dealership the following Monday 20th for a oil consumption test

wasn't booked properly by service agent (he had booked it to go but could offer me a courtesy car (i had tor rent one the previous week)

was re-booked for the following Monday 27th . my mechanic review the pre-delivery service information and noted it looked like possibly the wrong oil was used, it was 5w30 ll oil but only met Peugeot/Citroen spec.

so i was able to get a free oil change from the dealer instead, i think the hope was correct spec oil would resolve

It didn't, we dipped the car on 01/11- oil was changed Monday 27th- dipstick read half full. i had only driven around 140 miles. i called them again and have been playing phone tag all week. i had been supposed to go back the South Coast of England last week but cancelled due the oil consumption issue. Since it was dipped on the Saturday, it only did 50 miles until i dipped again on Wednesday when it was just above minimum added 700ml of oil to get it back to full.. car wasn't driven much last week only dive 220 miles all week but have had to add more oil there again today (500ml) reading near full again.

Dealer have advised it needs to go to Skoda for Oil Consumption test- i feel I'm living the oil consumption tests. i also advised i was considering handing car back due to the issue or would like them the check the piston/rings to see if that was were to il was going. -basing this of what ive read here and also the amount of Active DPF regens in seeing every 15-30 miles which is taking about the same mileage to clear. i had 3 on the Saturday 25th November. thanks to this forum ive been using VAG DPF to check

i even asked for a new engine as a possible fix.

i'm awaiting a call from the Sales director this week

the warranty runs out on 29/11 as well although they have advised verbally that they will raise a new claim now so its active and cover even if the warranty runs out. surely the should have raised on 14th when i brought it back to them

I've had 7 weeks of issue free motoring since i bought this car. 8000mile driven and i cant say Ive enjoyed them all.

I'm worried that i'm gonna be left with this car/issue, ive added about 6 litres of oil in total since July which is a lot.

basically have been dealing with oil consumption since August and still not resolved or cannot be resolved by the Dealer - what are my options?

cheers

Mark

Hello Mark,

Sorry to hear you are having problems. TDI engines can be oil burners; there is lots of debate on why this happens, but in essence, I personally think it comes down to servicing in the early years and how progressive the original owners were. General rule of TDI engines - 10,000 mile oil and filter services are a minimum requirement.

As to why your car is burning so much oil; you are allowed up to a maximum of 0.5litres per 600 miles/1000 kms - which would be deemed excessive. Things that can cause problems - failed EGR valves or stuck piston rings and/or scored piston sleeves. All this would require to have the head off the engine and for a borescope inspection as a minimum.

I would personally go for a new engine if possible; even a half-block with new cylinder block and piston rings and new EGR valve would be a starting place.

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

Edited 10 November, 202510 Nov by varaderoguy
edit for unit correction

Unfortunately I cannot see a replacement engine being an economic solution.

The frequent DPF regens, especially given your stated runs, should be investigated - these can certainly be the cause of disappointing fuel consumption - and I wonder if it could also be part of the oil consumption issue.

Is there still a window for rejection - or has that now closed, even though this issue was reported fairly early-on in your ownership?

10 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

Unfortunately I cannot see a replacement engine being an economic solution.

The frequent DPF regens, especially given your stated runs, should be investigated - these can certainly be the cause of disappointing fuel consumption - and I wonder if it could also be part of the oil consumption issue.

Is there still a window for rejection - or has that now closed, even though this issue was reported fairly early-on in your ownership?

Hi, the return window should still be open as per conversations I've hand with them. Still waiting on them calling me today.

1 hour ago, varaderoguy said:

Hello Mark,

Sorry to hear you are having problems. TDI engines can be oil burners; there is lots of debate on why this happens, but in essence, I personally think it comes down to servicing in the early years and how progressive the original owners were. General rule of TDI engines - 10,000 mile oil and filter services are a minimum requirement.

As to why your car is burning so much oil; you are allowed up to a maximum of 0.5litres per 600 miles/1000 kms - which would be deemed excessive. Things that can cause problems - failed EGR valves or stuck piston rings and/or scored piston sleeves. All this would require to have the head off the engine and for a borescope inspection as a minimum.

I would personally go for a new engine if possible; even a half-block with new cylinder block and piston rings and new EGR valve would be a starting place.

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

Yeah I'm burning more than that from rough estimates. I have mentioned a borescope check but they haven't agreed yet. Tbh it's getting to the point that I don't want to drive or keep the car

14 minutes ago, septiccow said:

Hi, the return window should still be open as per conversations I've hand with them. Still waiting on them calling me today.

Yeah I'm burning more than that from rough estimates. I have mentioned a borescope check but they haven't agreed yet. Tbh it's getting to the point that I don't want to drive or keep the car

Honestly, I would reject the car if it's causing that many problems for you and you've lost trust with it. There will no doubt be a depreciation value associated with the mileage you have done, but if they aren't willing/able to support you then reject the vehicle, move on to a different car.

Just a quick update, the showroom managers are reviewing the complaint I raised, they want to repair the vehicle if possible or replace it. They asked me to view the selection of vehicles that they have. It's a shame none are a VRS only smaller engined petrol Octavia's. Don't think they will suit my needs, nor will the auto Seat Leon 2.0 TSI estate they have. I feel 40/60 miles, 5 days a week will be too much for petrol cars. Will update after the phone me in the morning.

Try a few of the smaller engines, the 1.4TSI will give you around the same power as a 2.0TDI and the low-down torque is still pretty impressive - and you should get a true 45+ MPG with those sort of runs.

Edited 12 November, 202512 Nov by Warrior193
added information

Just a quick update. The managers never got back to me. The seat dealership have taken the car today to look at it again after I found oil stains/soot and liquid around back of the engine near the dpf. Still regening every 20 miles or when soot measured hits 22g. A 13 mile drive this morning had go up from .5.65 measured to 19.15. mixed driving/speeds. That was after a extra 40 mile drive last night to finish a regen cycle.

I've asked them to check the pcv pipe, back of engine dpf sensors and do a boroscope on the pistons.

Haven't had the oil light on but oil was full on 17/11. Haven't dipped since as I wanted to see if light came on while they had it.

The showroom manager want to swap the car but don't have another VRS but maybe a A3 TDI quattro. But they want seat to attempt a fix

Thanks

Mark

I’d get rid of it. This era of the engine is known for high consumption with sticking piston rings etc. check get mapped/ Peter hawthorn on Facebook

40 minutes ago, T07 said:

This era of the engine is known for high consumption with sticking piston rings etc.

What is the experience of other CUNA engined Octavia 3 VRS 2.0TDI owners?

I don't remember reading a lot of threads here on the subject of high oil consumption?

Try looking at Cuna engine in gtd’s.

I’ve a cupa engine and it drinks oil so have done some digging. The issue is just as bad if not worse for golf owners judging by what I’ve seen

There may be a oil consumption issue with the cuna engines.

However it's not as easy as just hand the car back to the dealer. As I would be left with out a vehicle to commute and run after my kids. The dealer also has nothing that interests me.

They have started the oil consumption test as required by Skoda so awaiting answers on that

They have also confirmed the warranty job is open and so any work is covered even past the 29th.

Thanks

Mark

Hi

Quick update from the dealers, they carried out the Skoda recommended Oil Consumption test

It's within spec somehow

From the dealer..

So at the start of the test, the oil weighed 4084g and at the end of the test came in at a weight of 3869g which is a discrepancy of 252g. Running through the calculation the oil consumption would work out to 0.24L  per 1,000km which is within the SKODA specifications for consumption.

 

Our technician did note there were some signs of oil sweat at the engine but no cause for concern, no indication of an oil leak.

In complete honesty, we couldn’t find an issue with the DPF but basing on the data you have collected and going off your reports that’s its forcing a regen nearly every day, we believe it could benefit from a forced regen, potentially a DPF clean but we would ideally like to see how it performs after a forced regen. What I can do is raise a claim for the worse case scenario which would be replacing the DPF.

We believe we can do a forced regen for you however our own technician drives a skoda and he had tried to do one on his own car and ran in to some problems but were not sure if it’s the computer or his car was the issue but we will give it a try and ill let you know.

That was on Friday.. they still have the car and I haven't heard anything since

Not sure what to think. But still have option I believe to hand it back.

Thanks

Mark

Forced regen's are not easy to perform. The tech should know that there are certain parameters that need to be forefilled including engine temperature (and if my memory serves me correctly) includes a number of failed regen's. If you are below a certain number of regen events, then no regen is allowed (it starts, then stops) and if the car constantly fails regen's, then it will also not do a forced regen - requiring a DPF to be removed and manually cleaned.

Guessing I have to wait and see. At least they have me a courtesy car.

I'm not sure the car was failing regens as the VAG DPF app showed the values dropping and then time since last regen, regen duration resetting to zero. But I could be wrong.