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Oil Consumption

C4-STORM

Well-known member
Joined
29 Aug 2017
Messages
637
Opinions please.

Pretty certain I have heard 1 litre per 1k miles oil consumption from the boxer engine.

Topped mine up after around 500 miles with .. you guessed it, 0.5 litre of oil as dash level indicator had started to drop so all seems to be working fine.

Back to reading full with no smoke and nice start-up.

What are you guys doing/experiencing with regards to oil levels. I suppose this can vary depending upon the engine - mines done 87,800 miles.

Thanks :wink:
 
I've had my 2002 C2 (just on 57k miles now) since April this year, done 3,900 miles of mostly spirited driving and so far not had to top it up at all.

The startup check shows it down either 1 or 2 bars depending on what sort of slope I'm parked on but the actual dipstick on level(ish) ground in a local supermarket car park showed it still barely off the full mark so I'm going to wait until it drops a bit more before topping up to the very top.
 
I have heard that keeping engine fully topped up helps reduce tappet wear upon cold start but I am sure that there maybe a difference of opinion on that :?
 
I do about 5k per year, mostly long runs.

Serviced annually, with no need to add oil between services.

Yr 2000 C4 3.4 90k miles.
 
So maybe I have been misinformed.. :?:

(Don't think there is anything wrong with my car :dont know:)

Are the 3.6's any different??
 
Mine IS a 3.6 :grin:

You may be thinking of the (fairly standard) manufacturer's tolerance of "oil consumption may be up to 1 litre per 1,000 miles"...

Most of my cars over the last 45 years have hardly needed any top ups during the year, I used to do 30k miles a year but now it's only about 10-12k.

I think I've added half a litre in my GT86 in the last 8k but that has been given a fair bit of thrashing (once warm...) and has the 'factory fitted' cam cover oil leak which may contribute slightly to the oil loss :floor:
 
Oil expands as it gets hotter so you will get slightly different readings depending on just how hot the oil is .

Some cars use very little whilst others do use some but in both cases i dont remember seeing a problem develop on the cars useing more oil so i dont necessarily use consumption as a definate guide to there being a fault.

As with all things its " customer to monitor " 500 miles is a little low to get a good indication .

You may well have a very slight leak so head underneath and have a good look just to rule that out.

Rule of thumb .. if there is a problem then it will smoke , if theres a bigger problem it will smoke from one bank.

EDIT ..

Fully topped up oil or half way down the gauge will have no impact on tappets IMHO .
 
Demort said:
Oil expands as it gets hotter so you will get slightly different readings depending on just how hot the oil is .

Some cars use very little whilst others do use some but in both cases i dont remember seeing a problem develop on the cars useing more oil so i dont necessarily use consumption as a definate guide to there being a fault.

As with all things its " customer to monitor " 500 miles is a little low to get a good indication .

You may well have a very slight leak so head underneath and have a good look just to rule that out.

Rule of thumb .. if there is a problem then it will smoke , if theres a bigger problem it will smoke from one bank.

EDIT ..

Fully topped up oil or half way down the gauge will have no impact on tappets IMHO .

Cheers for the advice.

I havent needed to top up any cars in the past but just thought it was a trait of the flat 6 boxer engine. Also hence the oil accessory pack.

Agreed 500 miles is not enough to get a handle on this of course so will keep an eye on it but my dash gauge did drop by 2 or 3 bars from reading max in that time as well. I will check the dipstick next time.

Peterg1955 - TBH I've not come across a 'standard' manufacturers 1l per 1k mile advisory - never heard of that :? Certainly not on modern engines as far as I am aware
 
Okay - thanks :thumbs:
 
C4-STORM - if you look at the fine print in either the owners manual or the manufacturer's website there will nearly always be something to the effect that oil consumption can vary but 'up to 1 litre/1000 kms' is regarded as within tolerance.

it's certainly still true of modern VAG range cars but as 0.5 litre/1000kms...:

Watchdog article on Audi engines in 2015
As we have stated previously, a low percentage of 2.0 TFSI engines fitted to certain models have been exceeding the factory oil consumption tolerance of 0.5 litres per 1,000 kilometres (approx. 620 miles).
 
I am in retail and oil consumption is not referred to here anywhere that I can find (other than usual maintenance checks etc.)

I am not disagreeing as I realise that some manufacturers have covered themselves in this regard

:thumb:

In summary - not a specific trait of the Porsche engine then
 
My Boxster engine (on 130k miles) doesn't use any oil between me servicing it (every 5k miles).

My turbo on the other hand was easily using 1L every 1-1500 miles. I put this down to it being a turbo but during the disassembly phase of its engine rebuild which is currently ongoing it was found that there is significant wear on the valve guides.

Therefore I would guess a lot of oil is going past there. Needless to say the guides are being replaced.. along with almost every other component.... :pc:
 
ragpicker said:
My Boxster engine (on 130k miles) doesn't use any oil between me servicing it (every 5k miles).

My turbo on the other hand was easily using 1L every 1-1500 miles. I put this down to it being a turbo but during the disassembly phase of its engine rebuild which is currently ongoing it was found that there is significant wear on the valve guides.

Therefore I would guess a lot of oil is going past there. Needless to say the guides are being replaced.. along with almost every other component.... :pc:

Makes sense :thumb:

Just checked with the guys here and the only advice IN PRINT from our (Asian) manufacturer is to check the engine oil level every 500km (350 miles) or before starting a long trip - STANDARD

Having said the above, they all knew about the VAG oil consumption debate/manufacturer responses

EDIT - technical quotes the same 1l per 1k miles not km as an industry accepted tolerance

Defo something I will be keeping a visual on anyhow..
 

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