Re: oil consumption 95 90q V6

[Hans Schmid <soyboy@ibm.net>]

Andrew:

I bought a 95 A6 in November for my wife to drive. It is a comfortable, well built car, drives
well, looks great etc.  It is "Audi Certified".

As I like to take care of my cars and due to the fact that we drive them for many years, as
soon as I got it I put in Mobil 1 10W-30 anticipating winter here in Maryland.  The car began
to use oil at the alarming rate about 1 quart every 600 miles.  Instead of going to the dealer
where I new I would get a load of BS I called some of the D.C. area shops that work on Audis
and talked to them.  The general feeling was that I should be using a heavier weight oil.
They recommended the 10W 50 if I was going with Mobil 1 or a 20W 50 if I was using Dino.  So I
switched to the 10W 50.  The oil consumption has dropped to what looks like a quart every 1000
to 1100 miles (my wife uses the car and only drives about 1K per month).

I did  recently speak to a service rep at an Audi dealer. He said that Audi would consider
this to be within the acceptable range for normal use.  If the car was in severe use, whatever
that is (I guess around town stuff) then a quart every 750 would be OK WOW!!!  And we pay good
money for this!!!!

One thing worth noting is that I while I was searching oil consumption the other day on the
internet,  I came up with a TSB on the Quaker State site.  Basically it said that changing
from dino to synth or even changing weights can cause increased oil consumption.  But that it
should head back towards normal within an oil change or two.  I guess it will take me a few
months to find out if this is true.

I sure would be curious as to why the engine uses this much oil.  Audi does state in the
owners manual that oil consumption in normal, but it does not say how much!  A quart every
2.5K or so would be much more acceptable to me (why I don't know).

I am used to my Volvo 745T wagon using 1 pint every 4K.  I guess this oil consumption problem,
that not just myself, but a number of other people suffer from,  is just some of that fine
German Engineering that we all pay so much for.  Just like those $400 level one inspections
and the $15 dollar oil filters.  I will live with it as it is tough to fight city hall.  Who
determines what acceptable oil consumption is?  It seems that a car company can be rather
arbitrary about it.

>From looking at the list of TSBs on Alldata there seems to be one out by Audi about oil
consumption in A6s'.  I have thought about trying to get my hands on one.  Perhaps someone in
the group knows where I can.

I would also be curious to see if anybody ever reached a resolution about this problem in late
model Audis with a dealer or Audi.

Good Luck.  Driving it through the window could be fun.




"Andrew M. Steere" wrote:

> My father recently purchased a 1995 90q V6 to drive back and forth to work
> in (Keene, NH to Springfield, MA).  Kind of slow, but a nice highway car
> and very comfortable, especially at half the price of an A4.
>
> The car has about 60k on it, and has been eating oil at a frightening rate.
>  He went through two quarts in 1000 miles, took it back to the dealer where
> he bought it (not an Audi dealer, but they like to pretend) and they
> supposedly cleaned up/checked up/replaced a few items in the crankcase
> ventilation system. Oil consumption is a little less, but still frightening
> at one quart to every 800-1000 miles.  And this is cruising the interstate
> at 70-80, not rally driving!
>
> This can't be normal!  Any thoughts?  The dealer is trying to shrug it off
> now.  My father is having fantasies of driving through the showroom
> windows...
>
> --Andrew Steere
> Dover, NH (by way of Swanzey, NH)
> 90 Audi 80q ...with fuel delivery problems...
> several XR4Ti's ...seems that keeping several of these around is cheaper
> than one Audi...  =)
>
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