Wow, firstly thanks for taking the time for such a detailed reply.
Glad to help. Giving such detailed and helpful replies is what marks this forum as the best UK site for the Mk5 Golf.
Am I sure I topped the oil up to the max? Not exactly no, both times the light came on when I was in a hurry and as I was aware that it takes a while for all the oil to fall back into the sump I didn't want to inadvertantly overfill.
OK, fairy nuff. But it would be really helpful if you could get it spot on.
Maybe find time over a weekend, when you arn't busy with work and the likes. Take it for a run to get your morning paper, fags or what ever, but make sure the coolant (and ideally oil) is up to normal operating temperatures. Then as soon as you get back home, pop the bonnet, whip out the dipstick, and wipe it clean, but do NOT immediately insert it again - instead, wait for five minutes before re-inserting dipstick and checking level (top up your screenwash, empty your ashtrays, or whatever in those five minutes). Removing the dipstick, and keeping it out for five minutes allows the oil in the actual dipstick tube to properly equalise. Doing this on a hot engine means the oil will quickly find the correct level - whereas pulling a dipstick on a cold engine can actually "pull" some oil up the dipstick tube, and immediately re-inserting it can sometimes give a false reading. Furthermore, on cold engines, the oil in the dipstick tube, along with any oil you pour into the top of the engine through the oil filler, will flow much more slowly, and if you "hurry" then you can get false readings. As a guage of how low the oil is, car manufacturers have "standardised" dipsticks, so that from minimum to maximum on the dipstick, should be 1 litre of oil.
I reckon the first time I must have put in about 200-300mls (synta gold btw).
Eeeek. Synta Gold really isn't the best oil for the modern GTI engine. Whilst it is 502.00 rated, and is fully synthetic, it is quite an old skool formulation. It may be fine for turbos, but certainly hasn't been developed for direct petrol engines (FSI), and has no HTHS ratings, which any of the VW "LongLife" brews have. Furthermore Synta Gold is NOT suitable if you are on LongLife servicing regime.
Best case scenario the sensor is fecked, worst case I used 200-300 mls in 50 miles! Problem is I was in a hurry both times but I'm sure the first time the dipstick was around the min and the second time around the half so this ties in with the fecked sensor theory.
I reckon that the sensor is the guilty culprit. They are known to be unreliable - not common, but they do go. I had one replaced on my last S4.
I'm going to monitor this carefully over the next couple of weeks and see what happens.
Good. Keep us informed.
What kind of driving would be most conducive to higher oil consumption? My journey to work takes about 15 minutes of town driving then about 5 mins of dual carriageway, on the way home I'm hitting the dual carriageway with a cold engine. I suspect its not the best kind of journey for engine health?
High oil consumption can be caused by many things:
- leaks
- incorrect "running in"
- over filling
- consistently running near the minimum
- thrashing from cold
- high engine loads, such as towing or having fun in mountainous hairpins or track days
- wrong specification of oil
- blocked or incorrect operation of Positive Crankase Ventilation systems
- broken heat exchanger (but then you would find oil in your coolant)
There are probably some that I have missed. However, your particular journey on the way home is a potential problem. Try to keep the engine revs below 3,000rpm, and less than half throttle - until the engine (coolant and oil) reaches normal operating temps. High revs or high engine loads when cold is a real oil burner, and a killer for engines in general.
