Hi,
First post here, hope it's the right place.
I've got a '99 VW Golf 1.8T, bought second hand (privately) over 4 years ago when it had 60k miles on the clock. I've since had it serviced by my main VW dealer since.
It went in for a service about 6 weeks ago and had a major (120k mile) service, including a new sump. I was told by VW this is often required as the thread on the sump itself becomes worn beyond repair. All the usual stuff was done too, ie. oil caange, oil & air filter etc.
Since the service I've covered around 3k miles, of which around 2k have been motorway miles. In the last week I've had the oil light come on when I go round roundabouts, sharp corners. etc so I checked the dipstick. There's not enough oil to even show on it. My car's never needed any more than 2 litres of oil between 10k services before.
I took my car back to VW as I wanted them to check out a noise that's only started since they replaced the front anti roll bar bushes, and mentioned I wasn't too happy about there being no oil in the car too.
The head service guy at VW said it was acceptable for a VW to use 1 litre of oil for every 660 miles. This equates to 15 litres of oil between 10k services, which seems a huge amount and defintely nowhere near the 2 litres max I've put in myself over the past 3 or 4 years.
Does anyone know if VW really do see 1 litre of oil usage per 660 miles as acceptable, and how does this match with other cars? Am I just being fobbed off? Would a new sump explain the massive increase in oil usage over the past 6 weeks?
I'm not happy with other work that was carried out during the service, and the response I've had so far does nothing to make me feel any better about the service VW provide.
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If it never needed more than 2 litres of oil between 10k services before, then the garage have obviously done something that has increased the oil consumption since the sump change.
Have they used the correct grade oil?
Most manufacturers state in their handbook that an engine can use up to 1 litre of oil per 1000 miles. I *think* this is also true of VAG as well.
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Two things sound suspicious here:
1. The 'worn thread' on the sump. Its only been tightened 12 times at the most. Presumably the same VW garage has
tightened it for the last 6 services.
2. The sudden apparent increase in oil consumption from 2 litres per 10,000 to 2 litres (non showing on the dipstick)
in 3000 miles. It sounds as though they didn't put enough oil in.
You might do well to express your concerns in writing to the garage.
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Thanks for the replies.
Car was returned to VW and I explained the issue about the oil and another problem which started after the last service.
The head mechanic didn't want to accept any responsibility on behalf of VW, neither did he seem particularly happy about taking the car back to fix the two issues free of charge, despite my last service costing just under £1,000.
Anyway, picked up my car at the end of the day and had a full engine of oil, and found the engine mounts hadn't been tightened after the previous service. I was told the engine mounts were slackened as part of the cambelt change.....? I had no apologies for my inconvenience and still no acceptance of wrong-doing on their part.
All in all, I was less than impressed and have put together a letter I'll be sending off to VW HQ - will keep this post updated when / if I get a response.
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