15 Golf SEL 67,000 miles and eating oil

oilhammer · Nov 26, 2019

Sorry, fat fingers, LOL....

IndigoBlueWagon · Nov 26, 2019

This thread caused me to think of Car & Driver's long term test of the Ford Mustang Shelby GT:

And then there's the oil-consumption issue: Over 40,000 miles, we added 21.5 quarts of 5W-50. That's in addition to scheduled oil changes. It's the most we've ever added during a long-term test by a long shot. Ford released a supplement to the owner's manual stating that the engine might consume a quart every 500 miles under severe use. "Severe use" pretty accurately sums up our treatment of just about any car, but particularly one with an 8250-rpm redline. And we were lucky; internet forums are rife with horror stories of Shelbys consuming far more.

And that's in addition to getting about 250 miles per 16 gallon gasoline fill.

740GLE · Nov 27, 2019

Price to pay for a flat plane crank that loves to rev. I'd take it over those supercharged options any day of the week even if I had my own personal oil refinery.

That's also a thick thick oil

IndigoBlueWagon · Nov 27, 2019

I added a half liter to my B4 last night. Son is visiting and will drive it while he's here. That car loses about a liter in 4,000 miles. Some of it comes out of the valve cover, but it's getting a new gasket next week. Not bad for an engine approaching 300K miles.

marcusku · Nov 27, 2019

While all engines do consume some oil, a quart every 2,500 miles is more than you'd expect in a TDI. I would be discouraged too. At this point though I'd agree with everyone else your best bet is just to add oil and monitor the consumption as it's going to be tough to find where it's going without spending a lot of money. If consumption stays the same it's probably "just the way it is" otherwise if it increases over time it might be worth investigating where it's going. I'm surprised how much variance there is between different EA288 engines. If I'm not mistaken the drivetrain still comes from Germany so I don't think one could blame the Mexico plant.

oilhammer · Nov 27, 2019

The Monroney tag will say usually where the engines come from. Most VAG 4 cyl TDIs came from either a German plant or a Polish plant, with parts from all over.

IndigoBlueWagon · Nov 27, 2019

I thought the EA288 engines were some of the first assembled in the new Mexico facility.

oilhammer · Nov 27, 2019

Might be, they've been assembling gas engines in Mexico for decades. I always figured the lower volume of diesel engines in North and South American markets meant it was not worth making them over there or here. Although the 02J manuals get built in Argentina... even for German assembled vehicles.

turbobrick240 · Nov 27, 2019

I don't know who did the oil changes for the OP, but it seems that there is the possibility that it wasn't properly filled. The '15's take something like an extra quart compared to previous tdi's.

IndigoBlueWagon · Nov 27, 2019

It's also possible that the oil wasn't changed more than once or twice in the first 60K. A lot of these cars were sold not long before the recall was announced, and many owners just stopped maintaining them. However, even if it went 30K on one fill you wouldn't think damage would be significant.

jerrymander · Nov 27, 2019

My 2015 has 45,000 and eats a quart every 5,000 miles right now. ****ing stupid VW

Matt927 · Nov 28, 2019

I think I recall my window sticker on the '15 Golf TDI stating the engine was Mexico production. My CJAA in the JSW was German production with the car being built in Mexico.

Both Mk7 GTIs I have owned were Mexico production engines.

Honestly can't tell a difference with the Wolfsburg and Peubla cars in terms of build quality...

Ovrhill · Nov 28, 2019

Sticker on my 2015 Golf TDI 6M says engine and transmission "Point of Origin" is Germany.

I assume that means they were assembled in Germany and shipped to Puebla for the build. Not sure though.

calimustang · Nov 28, 2019

For 2009-14 JSW, built in Mexico. Drivetrain was built in Germany as CJAA engine. Not sure about 2015, I believe the same applies.

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IndigoBlueWagon · Nov 28, 2019

From mine:

calimustang · Nov 28, 2019

IndigoBlueWagon said:
From mine:

I rest my case, thank you.

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740GLE · Dec 9, 2019

Well now my interest in this is a bit more.

Low oil warning came on the Passat yesterday after a 130 mile highway run upon restart, popped the hood checked the stick, yup oil was just at the low level right at the bulb part, cracked open the 1L of castrol I've dragged around for the past +100K in previous TDIs (as I've never had to add make up oil) added half a liter and will keep an eye on it.

This is with 9,000 on the oil change, so by no means am I concerned, but will track the usage more than waiting for the low oil warning to display, or 10K which ever came first.

Nuje · Jan 11, 2020

Nuje said:
I just changed my oil at 14500km, and the oil level was maybe 0.5L down from where I'd filled it last change.

You know, after over half a century on this planet, you'd think one would learn NOT to go spouting off about how their car doesn't have [whatever] issue.

Checked the oil about before we left on a road trip (probably be ~6000km by the time all done), and it was fine: about mid-way down the hashed area of the dipstick...which is about where I've been filling on oil changes.

Then, after about 5 hours on the freeway today, suddenly I get the CHECK OIL LEVEL NOW! warning. And sure enough...it's low, but not critically so - right at the bottom of the hashed area.

Nonetheless, I wanted to top things up before going too much further, but good luck finding VW 507.00 spec oil in the middle of the I-5 in the Central Valley.

Finally found a litre of Pennzoil Euro that had the MB 229.51 spec, which mentioned DPF protection, so figured adding half a litre of that to the mix would suffice for now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

JM Popaleetus · Jan 12, 2020

So. It seems like the CRUA's like to start burning a quart or so every 10k once they hit 60k miles?

Because sure enough, yup, the half-quart I put in at 66k was low again by 70k.

Topped it off, and will be thoroughly inspecting everything when I change the oil this week - looking for leaks.

thundershorts · Jan 12, 2020

If using same oil from new, never overheated, I would doubt increased oil consumption would be due to any engine wear, much more likely its passing through the turbo at 60k miles

IndigoBlueWagon · Jan 12, 2020

There are way, way to few data points here to indicate a trend. We have many, many customers that have EA288 engines in their cars (we sell over 150 oil change kits for these cars monthly) and I've yet to have a customer mention oil consumption. And we're selling enough timing belt kits for this engine to indicate quite a few of them have traveled over 100K miles.

In Nuje's situation, I wonder if an extended regen on a road trip raised oil temps enough to push some through the turbo. I'm betting the car won't maintain that consumption level once he gets back home, And BTW, the 229.51 oil is fine for that car.

I might be totally off base on this, but I really don't think we can say these cars have an oil consumption problem...yet.

soot1 · Jan 12, 2020

If the oil is seeping past the turbo seals, wouldn't it end up in the intercooler inlet or outlet hoses? My 2010 Jetta with the CJAA engine, since day 1, did leak very small amount of oil past the turbo seals, about 20-30 mL in 10,000 miles. The leakage was so small that it was impossible to see any drop of oil level on the dipstick between the 10k oil changes. If you lose 1 quart of oil in 2 or 3,000 miles, it should be possible to determine whether you have leaky turbo seals by removing the inlet and outlet hoses to the intercooler and see how much oil is hiding there.

nathanso · Jan 12, 2020

What kind of oil is being used by those noting unexpected oil consumption? Is it the manufacturer-approved 504.00/507.00 spec oil? I've experienced zero consumption from my 2015 TDI (now at 63K miles) and I'm careful to use only 504.00/507.00 spec oils.

IndigoBlueWagon · Jan 12, 2020

soot1 said:
If the oil is seeping past the turbo seals, wouldn't it end up in the intercooler inlet or outlet hoses? My 2010 Jetta with the CJAA engine, since day 1, did leak very small amount of oil past the turbo seals, about 20-30 mL in 10,000 miles.

This is probably just oil accumulating from the crankcase ventilation.

And these turbos don't have seals, per se. The oil is prevented from moving into the turbo because of equal pressure on both hot and cold sides. If the pressure becomes unequal they'll push oil. And sometimes they burn it, not move it into the intercooler system or exhaust.

Nuje · Jan 13, 2020

IndigoBlueWagon said:
In Nuje's situation, I wonder if an extended regen on a road trip raised oil temps enough to push some through the turbo. I'm betting the car won't maintain that consumption level once he gets back home, And BTW, the 229.51 oil is fine for that car.

Two things:
1. Thanks for confirming that the 229.51 oil is a reasonable choice for the car.

2. There was a drive I took where we were about 20minutes on the freeway in heavy (but fast-moving) traffic, where my I would’ve expected my fuel consumption to be ~5.2-5.5L/100km, but it was over like 7.7L/100km - figured that it was doing a regen. I’ve noticed high consumption like that before, but never **that** high. So your theory has some merit.

And to add further credence, drove 1000km today (mostly 75-80mph) and the oil level on the dipstick did not appear to budge even a little. Fuel consumption at 5.6L/100km for the day.
(Conversions: 5.5L/100km = 42mpg(US); 7.7L/100km = 30mpg; 1000km = 620 miles)

Nuje · Jan 13, 2020

nathanso said:
What kind of oil is being used by those noting unexpected oil consumption? Is it the manufacturer-approved 504.00/507.00 spec oil? I've experienced zero consumption from my 2015 TDI (now at 63K miles) and I'm careful to use only 504.00/507.00 spec oils.

Yeah, see - that’s the mistake I made. Talking about how I don’t use oil.

To your comment, though, for the CRUA engine, in our 2015 TDIs, as far as I’m aware, you should NOT be using 504.00 oil. VW specs 507.00 only.

IndigoBlueWagon · Jan 13, 2020

504.00 and 507.00 are usually together. 504 is the gasoline engine spec, 507 diesel, for oil with the same characteristics. I've yet to see one without the other.

740GLE · Jan 14, 2020

nm

IndigoBlueWagon said:
There are way, way to few data points here to indicate a trend. We have many, many customers that have EA288 engines in their cars (we sell over 150 oil change kits for these cars monthly) and I've yet to have a customer mention oil consumption. .

I'll start the trend for you (all be it a Passat not a MQB). Picked up a 40K service kit and had to top up 1/2qt at 48K (got the low oil warning, and could have taken a full qrt but seeing i was so close to OCI i just tossed in enough to shut the light off), been using Total 5W50 (JK 5W30) since dealer change at 10K.

Winter economy has tanked much more than previous years but that may be due to new larger winter tires 215-65-16 and this is the first winter with phase 2a fix, getting around 40MPG (def nothing to be concerned, but hope it comes back up when spring arrives).

From now on I will be tracking oil level much more than every 10K OCI

turbobrick240 · Jan 14, 2020

740GLE said:
I'll start the trend for you (all be it a Passat not a MQB). Picked up a 40K service kit and had to top up 1/2qt at 48K (got the low oil warning, and could have taken a full qrt but seeing i was so close to OCI i just tossed in enough to shut the light off), been using Total 5W50 since dealer change at 10K.

Winter economy has tanked much more than previous years but that may be due to new larger winter tires 215-65-16 and this is the first winter with phase 2a fix, getting around 40MPG (def nothing to be concerned, but hope it comes back up when spring arrives).

From now on I will be tracking oil level much more than every 10K OCI

Get rid of that 5w50 and pour in some 507 spec if you want better fuel efficiency. Kidding, I assume that's a typo.

740GLE · Jan 14, 2020

Pffft 5W50 it nectar of the gods for TDI, what chou talking about

although that'd prob explain my horrible MPGs.

15 Golf SEL 67,000 miles and eating oil

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