S4 Oil Consumption?

[Recks81]

Bought a CPO '18 S4 from Audi about 3 mos ago. Got a warning last night that I was a quart low on oil but could keep driving. I took it up to my dealer this morning who added a quart of oil and said it was "totally normal" for these cars to go through oil. Is that true? I've never had a car just burn a quart of oil in 3,000 miles of driving. And it is not leaking out as far as I can tell - no spots on the driveway or anything. Weird.

[STLWIDOWMAKER]

I’m in the same boat, I burn through about a qt every 5,000 or so miles. Was told the same thing not to worry about it from the dealer.

My B8 A4 use to burn through about twice as much oil and I remember taking it in and getting basically a full top end rebuild for free because of some sort of recall. Would be interested to see if the exact same issue is prevalent in this car.


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[YoYo]

Same here on my S4 and B9 A4.

[xmen78]

Wow. I thought only B8s have this issue. My B8.5 was fine, fingers crossed for my B9...

[CELison]

Pretty normal, especially if you run 0W20 and really especially if you run 0W20 from Castrol.

[RoverJoe]

Normal with the design of these newer engines, the hotter temps they run and the PCV systems, coupled with the very thin oils, results in some of it being cooked through the engine during normal use. It's totally normal to have to add a quart after a few thousand miles, if you were doing it every 1000 miles or less, I'd start to be concerned but even that would be "within spec" according to most manufacturers, it's gotta be greater than like a quart in 800 miles at MB to be considered abnormal, if I remember right. Not sure what the Audi spec is.

[Esmin23]

Give Motul 508/509 spec a try. I’ve been using it since I changed the break in oil. I have 40k miles on the car and haven’t burned a drop of oil.

[RickNY]

So, in the owners manual -- Audi states this: "The engine oil consumption may be up to 0.5 quart/600 miles (0.5 liter/1,000 km), depending on driving style and operating conditions. Consumption may be higher during the first 3,000 miles (5,000 km)."

With that said, I never had to add oil to my 2018 S4 after 27K miles -- only the regularly scheduled changes. On my 2021 S4, I also have not had to add additional oil after 3500 miles. On my 2018, the first 2 changes were the Castrol-branded Edge Professional 0W-20 508.00/509.00, and the last change just before I returned the car was the VW-branded Mobil 0W-20 508.00/509.00. I suspect my 2021 was factory filled with the Mobil version.

As they say -- YMMV

[Zuzuwu]

Monitor it and make sure it doesn’t get worse over time. I’d bet it was just a bit under-filled at its last oil change, the tech is pumping oil out of a gun that hasn’t been calibrated since 2007, car got filled half a quart shy of full. Bet you don’t actually have an issue


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[TheLizards]

Pretty normal, especially if you run 0W20 and really especially if you run 0W20 from Castrol.

FYI, the factory oil they’ll sell you at the dealer and use to fill if you have it changed there now is by Mobil. They stopped using Castrol as the supplier a while back now.


VW & Audi spec for oil consumption seems crazy to me, but my MK7 GTI did the same. It ate least 1L every 5k miles when I’d do my changes. That motor ended up failing at 37xxx miles. I noticed a small cam cover leak (which I knew would be covered under warranty), but also noticed some lost some compression when I did a test and then it later failed cylinder 3 leak down test at the dealer.

Just keep an eye on your motor.

[BucDan]

Browsing here as a B8.5 owner looking into the B9 platform. I never burned a drop in my B8.5, knock on wood. But oil burning IS NOT normal at all for ANY car. It's all due to poor design. The dealer and Audi saying that oil burning is acceptable is a poor excuse, really. FWIW, I've been running on 0W-40 Pennzoil Platinum Euro without issues.

FYI, the factory oil they’ll sell you at the dealer and use to fill if you have it changed there now is by Mobil. They stopped using Castrol as the supplier a while back now.


VW & Audi spec for oil consumption seems crazy to me, but my MK7 GTI did the same. It ate least 1L every 5k miles when I’d do my changes. That motor ended up failing at 37xxx miles. I noticed a small cam cover leak (which I knew would be covered under warranty), but also noticed some lost some compression when I did a test and then it later failed cylinder 3 leak down test at the dealer.

Just keep an eye on your motor.

Jesus, that's terrible. How the heck can they be pushing out products that fail like that so quickly?

[sepheroth86]

Normal with the design of these newer engines, the hotter temps they run and the PCV systems, coupled with the very thin oils, results in some of it being cooked through the engine during normal use. It's totally normal to have to add a quart after a few thousand miles, if you were doing it every 1000 miles or less, I'd start to be concerned but even that would be "within spec" according to most manufacturers, it's gotta be greater than like a quart in 800 miles at MB to be considered abnormal, if I remember right. Not sure what the Audi spec is.

I can just imagine the board meeting..

"We have to reduce emissions and fuel consumption"

"Lets make our engines take less fuel by running them hot"

"Sir, A byproduct of that will be increased oil consumption"

"That's not EPA regulated, not our problem"

lol

[gpm24780]

My 18 B9 S4 didn’t have this issue... I had 45K mikes in it when I swapped out... my 19 B9 S5 has done this once in its 15K miles so far... both wife’s 17 Q7 and 19 Q7 require added oil at or before the half mark of the oil change... just my experience thus far.

[WtA4WtQ5]

So far my 2020 SQ5 has not consumed any oil on the MMI gauge. Now at almost 7K miles. Changed oil and filter at 4600 miles the first time. Believe the OEM fill is now Mobil (even though the oil cap says Castrol). Amsoil came out with their 808/809 0W-20 oil a week before my car arrived and that is what I am running. From experience I did make sure I "exercised" my car after the oil was fully warmed up before there was 500 miles on it. I did the same with my 2011 Q5 2.0T and that one used just about no oil (1/4 Qt. @ 5K miles) when sold at 93K miles. Engine never apart, all original.