1.8T oil usage

[FLK]

My Leon Cupra R (BAM engine code) has been getting through 1 litre of oil between service intervals (10,000 miles / 1 year). I'm only doing short journeys in the week to work and back (15-20 mins either way) and the engine is always allowed to warm and cool properly. I've been topping up with Mobil 1 5w-30 fully synthetic but I'm guessing the dealer must have used a 10w-40 grade oil at the last change. The car isn't leaking on the driveway even when left for several days or from the filler cap. The oil also looks fine on the dip-stick and filler cap.

Is it worth having the oil changed early due to the mainly short trips I do (apart from weekend drives) and is this something to be concerned about? I'm asking this because I have heard of an Audi 1.8T consuming oil at a similar rate and the owner was told it was down to differences in engine tolerances, however from what I've read elsewhere most other LCR owners hardly seem to use any oil between service intervals.

Thanks for any advice.

[qooqiiu]

I wouldn't be AT ALL concerned with that oil usage rate. I believe Audi's 'acceptable' usage is a crazy 1 litre ever 2k

You are right when you say that there's a disparity in usage from one engine to another.

I would say my engine uses a similar amount, and thats on a mapped engine.

[Vic20]

My A4 1.8T S-Line used to drink oil like it was going out of fashion despite regular servicing. A 200 mile round trip would use about 1 litre of the black stuff until I filled it with the official VW 504 grade (5w-30 fully synthetic) I got from an Audi dealer. Have no idea what was in there before but it's always been serviced at Audi dealers so I'm guessing it's the same stuff (or the older VW 503 spec oil).

A couple of thousand miles later and I've still not had to top it up since it was filled with VW 504. Would definitely do a frequent oil change if you do mainly short stop-start journeys as it increases wear on the engine and filter.

[cuprabob]

I had a LCR and did 80k miles and never once needed to top up the oil between services.

[T89 Callan]

According to an Audi Main dealer mechanic the 5V valve train does use some oil to keep properly lubricated, he told me this after I enquired about the oil usage on my S4 which shares the 5V per cylinder layout.

[Dr G]

Yet strangely my A4 180 doesn't use a drop - beginning to think my dipstick is lying...

[Colonial]

My AMK uses maybe 250mm between ol changes (6,200miles) so hardly over the top.

[nonuts]

That's nothing, if you look in the handbook it says I believe 1L per 1000km is acceptable for most 1.8T engines. Mine got worse before the engine went bang, but generally the 1.8T especially in the higher power versions does use oil and should be checked regularly. Mine only seems to use oil in a big way if having the arse thrashed off it at high revs.