Hi all,

Not my car - a friend’s asked about his colleague’s Audi A1 with this engine. Said it sounded like a bag of spanners and needed a litre of oil to get to the min mark.

He can’t see any evidence of weeping or leaks, no signs of burning. 7k miles on the clock.

Is this a bit of an oil-user and it just hasn’t been checked? Or possibly some work done and not topped up?

And does it sound a bit tappety? If not I’m wondering if it’s possible the belt’s slipped…?

Who had it or where was it before it got that 1 litre of oil. It could be various things up. Previous drivers. Maybe about 1/3rd short of oil is never good for an engins.

Edited 23 February23 Feb by Evolution13

I mean it’s only got 7k on the clock and still within warranty so less than 3 years old.

Appreciate it could hypothetically have 15 owners but on the basis that it hasn’t, is this not overly indicative of this engine?

Only thing to do is fill to a good level then monitor over the next few months.

Anything else is guesswork.

Ask your friend when was the last time the oil level was checked.

change oil. 3 years in engine it is long period.

When was it last serviced, has it ever been serviced?

If it has only done 7k but is 3 year old then I would reckon even with longlife oil it should have been changed at 2 years max. If it was perhaps they didnt fill it correctly.

I agree with Pete , top up to max an monitor it carefully. If it took a litre to reach min mark its been running with 3/4 of the correct volume of oil or less. If it hasnt been changed since new then I would get an oil an filter change done ASAP and take it from there. Not sure if the warranty will still be valid if it hasnt been serviced especially an oil change.

Alasdair

This is a 3-cylinder motor and, consequently, a mite 'lumpy' at tick-over - but it should otherwise be quite quiet and definitely not sound "like a bag of spanners". And the oil consumption SHOULD be low.

My 2023 Fabia Owner's Manual says "...the engine may consume up to 0.5l/1000km. Consumption may be higher over the first 5000km". 0.5l/1000km equates to 1.0 litre per 1240 miles - that's a lot of oil and a modern car that's covered 7000 miles in 3 years should be fully run-in and not be using anywhere near that amount.

If the cam-belt had 'jumped', I would have thought this would have been very noticeable where the motor's behaviour and the car's performance were concerned.

As this is a 3rd-hand enquiry ("Not my car - a friend’s asked about his colleague’s Audi A1 with this engine") the sensible thing would be to advise the Audi's owner to have the car inspected by an Audi dealership while it is (apparently) still under warranty and before a major failure occurs.

Edited 25 February25 Feb by DerekU

Service History would be interesting to be told. Who owned it or it was registered to would be interesting. Some actual information. I assume it was not a car Motability owned and sold. So when was this low mileage car serviced last? PS. Is the Warranty valid by the Servicing that was done? Has the car not had a Low oil or Low Oil pressure warning light or message showing?

Edited 25 February25 Feb by Evolution13

I suspect this A1 has been sadly neglected - 1 litre of oil to bring level to minimum mark!

SWMBO's Fabia with almost exact same engine (CHZC) at uses practically zero oil between annual services, currently at 25K miles.

Lee, low mileage on a car isn't always a good thing for some aspects of the car, the engine possibly being one, cars are designed to be driven but lots of short trips wouldn't help the car generally and certainly not the engine.

7k-miles in three years isn't that uncommon for smaller cars but it does mean, new or old, that the engine oil at least probably was in need of an annual change which you would have thought and hoped took place on a new Audi.

If there's not a fault in the engine then it would need a silly error or fair bit of abuse and neglect to get the engine oil level 1 litre below 'min' was it a hire/rental/courtesy/pool car, though I'd have thought those usually get much higher mileage in one year let alone three.

Edited 26 February26 Feb by nta16