CKRA Oil consumption

[RacingArcher]

I purchased a 2013 Passat TDI a few months ago from a private seller with 158,000mi. The car is in amazing condition and seems to run fine, just took it on a 1200mi trip and my fuel economy was 38mi/gal, which isnt great but not bad. My issue is, it goes through oil like nothing else, 1qt/500mi or tank of fuel. At this rate I almost don't see a need to do an oil change. When I purchased the vehicle I changed the oil and filter using Mobil 1 esp 0w-30. While changing the oil I found a leak at the crank pulley so I replaced both the cam and crank front seals and now not a drop has leaked since. I have inspected the intercooler hose for oil and found nothing substantial other than a film. I think this thing is burning the oil almost as fast as I can put it in but with the DPF you would never know it because it never makes it to the exhaust tip. I am thinking that carbon build up on the oil rings may be causing this issue and was wondering if anyone has dug deeper into this motor for this reason and what did they find. My car is out of dieselgate warranty, probably the reason the previous owner sold the vehicle. I have done extensive reading and have found numerous owners with oil consumption but have yet to find a solution to the issue. I plan to do a compression check and leakdown test but I am not in any hurry because the car runs so good. Can carbon buildup be removed using spray chemicals in the intake like is recommended for direct injected gasoline engines, I did this on my 2013 F150 ecoboost and it seemed to work great, not sure if it would be safe on a high compression diesel though with DPF.

 

[oilhammer]

The vacuum pump exhausts into the engine. If there are any vacuum leaks in the system, it will cause an increase in oil consumption. Also, the breather regulator (part of the valve cover) may be bad.

The CKRA has had a lot of issues with turbochargers, they extended the warranty on them, but they usually fail suddenly and with no warning.

Compression check won't tell you anything useful. If it starts easy, runs good and strong, then the compression will be fine.

The CKRA also has an issue with the dipstick guide tube breaking, which can cause a false reading on the stick, leading you to think it is using more oil than it actually is, because you are overfilling it (extra oil will burn off faster through the ventilation system).

 

[eugene89us]

Your CKRA has a little more "experience" than mine - mine is at 120,000mi currently. Never had any oil consumption until I discovered ever-increasing leak of the valve cover than pooled in injector well. There was some leaking around the perimeter, but was very minor and most was sticking to the sides of the engine with minor contamination of exhaust manifold itself. Basically nothing that would show up on the bottom cover or leak on the ground. You have done pretty extensive work-up of the engine, I think most leaks have been found and removed (as oilhammer mentioned are usually valve cover, camshaft seals, and the oil galley that tend to leak as the engine ages). I was surprised to find so many 2015 models reporting sigificant oil consumption "within VW spec" that almost sounds ridiculous. Even my N47 diesel engine says that some consumption is acceptable, within spec.

Your consumption of 1 liter over 500 miles is too much. Now, I had a stupid idea with my BMW diesel to install an oil catch can, which ended up clogging and causing turbo seals to leak due to high crankcase pressures. Once I removed the dumb idea, the engine went back to zero oil consumption. These turbo seals are not "true seals" per-se, they help to keep oil away from themselves by flinging them, but if you overload then with oil backup, they will leak, either into intake or exhaust. Despite DPF, I saw some white smoke in my exhaust when I would start the car. This is what triggered me to connect OBD and monitor EGTs. Since turbo was discharging oil through exhaust side, it was burning in the DPF, causing EGTs to rise to regen temps and even higher. Interestingly, ECU never threw an MIL, though it did throw an info code about EGTs being higher than calculated. My EGTs (3 of them) run between 280 and 350C when non in regen, and goes up to 600C when regen. When I had the seal leak, it was running at 500 to 700C and regen status was at 0 (not active). Glad I noticed, it burned through a quart of oil when I diagnosed the issues, refilled the lost quart, removed the concoction, and got my car back to normal. No oil consumption ever since.

So maybe likely culprit is some sort of oil leak from turbo seals, possibly on exhaust side? Check the EGTs and make sure they are within spec. If you are leaking oil into exhaust, it will burn and raise EGTs. If you're leaking oil into intake, I am sure the car would otherwise throw a code, since diesels are so heavily fuel dependent. There will be some calculated vs measured error for fuel. Same as if you had a boost leak and had unmetered air, car is able to precisely calculate and throw an error for deviation. If everything else is bone dry, there has to be some internal consumption.

 

[RacingArcher]

Thanks for the replys guys, I don't think I have a turbo problem, The turbo was replaced under a recall warranty of some kind at 152,000 according to the previous owner and he gave me all the service records that show the new turbo, EGR, DPF and some other stuff. The old turbo failed and took a bunch of stuff with it. That doesn't mean that the new turbo isn't failing though, I will keep an eye on it.

The vacuum leak is interesting though, never thought that would make a difference. How would I go about checking? If it were a small block, I would just use starting fluid to find leaks, I am old fashioned, but not sure if that would be safe with a diesel.

I haven't found any additional oil leaks and monitoring the EGT's sounds helpful also, what did you connect to the OBD to get the readings?

I think the dip stick tube is OK, when I changed the oil and filter it took just under 5qts to get to the fill mark which seemed good to me.

 

[Tom in PT]

To get EGT readings, I use an ELM327 wifi adapter in the OBD11 port and a car scanner app on my phone, of which there are several available from the app store. EngineLink was a good one I use on my truck, you can configure all kinds of displays for various engine parameters such as EGTs, oil temps, coolant temp, engine load, throttle percentage, etc etc., as well a see and clear diagnostic codes. FWIW my '13 has never burned any oil at all, I have other issues with the car at 52,500 miles though.

 

[robco]

Have you been able to solve this issue. I have a 2013 tdi. I have replaced the valve cover and the turbo. Car runs great no smoke, no oil on exhaust tips. No check engine light. Using 2 quarts every 400 miles. I noticed there was a question about it starting hard. Mine sometimes turns over slow and takes several cranks to start. It is push button start. When it’s warm usually starts right up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[turbobrick240]

Have you been able to solve this issue. I have a 2013 tdi. I have replaced the valve cover and the turbo. Car runs great no smoke, no oil on exhaust tips. No check engine light. Using 2 quarts every 400 miles. I noticed there was a question about it starting hard. Mine sometimes turns over slow and takes several cranks to start. It is push button start. When it’s warm usually starts right up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I hope you're using cheap oil, lol. That motor is either leaking, worn out, or your second turbo is failing.

 

[robco]

Thank you so much turbobrick240, that was very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to give us all such helpful information that will be on here for years to help others troubleshoot their vehicles.

 

[turbobrick240]

No problemo. Are you still buying motor oil by the pallet?

 

[Dalon]

Have you been able to solve this issue. I have a 2013 tdi. I have replaced the valve cover and the turbo. Car runs great no smoke, no oil on exhaust tips. No check engine light. Using 2 quarts every 400 miles. I noticed there was a question about it starting hard. Mine sometimes turns over slow and takes several cranks to start. It is push button start. When it’s warm usually starts right up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dumb question but are you positive it is not leaking anywhere? 1 quart every 200 miles seems like you would see some obvious signs if it was burning it (different color exhaust smoke, smell, etc). Oil cooler is a prominent issue on these cars...does the coolant look ok?

 

[jjblbi]

The rate of oil use sounds more like a leak than oil being burned. Have you pulled the belly pan and checked it for oil and investigated the car underneath?

Park in the same spot for a week or two and check the ground for drips. I thought I had a bad valve cover gasket when it was the cam seal. I procrastinated enough to rust proof my car with DelVac 1.

 

[robco]

Here is where I am at now. Took it to a reputable VW shop that charges Dealer prices! ( he did work at a dealer for years). He did the timing belt/ seals/ a sensor then wanted to replace the DPF for $3,000. So I brought it home and did a delete with Rawtek/tunezilla. It now starts faster, runs great but still burning oil but not as much. Smells like oil and fuel when driving it. Greyish blueish smoke at idle. Not a lot. Sometimes when you lay into it up a hill it smokes like crazy. Any ideas.